Bad Scene

There certainly are plenty of people who are pissed off about the election, which of course doesn’t make one bit of difference in itself. But there are also plenty of people who claim to have proof of election fraud, either voting machines that were tampered with or people being turned away from polling places.

I guess people, myself included, are waiting for someone to come along who has the power to change things. I guess those of us used to the American media expect a hero to crop up any time now, a la Michael Moore or Jon Stewart, who will kill the dragon for us, or out the crucial fact that causes even Cheney to cringe and give in.

Too bad that isn’t going to happen. Aside from weenies like me, who bailed out of the country, people are just going to have to get off their asses and do something. Nobody’s going to organize you, you need to organize yourself.

But there is still a place for heroes. Modern heroes in this fight are people like Moore and Stewart who are well-placed in modern media and have earned the respect of millions who want to act. But those millions need to look to people like these two as inspiration for action, clearinghouses of information and contacts for further support, not as leaders who will instruct and direct.

The problem is, there are precious few people who have been able to focus the attention of people like me, so we seize the first charismatic person who manages to say and do the right thing. I don’t have a solution for this — this is a problem humanity has been dealing with since time immemorial.

*sigh*