The aspects of the word 'stuck' that are of interest here:
1. remain in a static condition; fail to progress
2. (of a feeling or thought) remain persistently in one's mind.
'Stuck' could very well be a symptom or the overall definition of this particular period.
For example Bush is stuck at a 24% approval rating. We are stuck in Iraq. We are stuck in a growing escalation towards war with Iran, almost like a destiny. We are stuck with the effects of global warming. We are stuck with low mileage cars, millions of them. We are stuck with aging houses built as if oil were an infinite commodity.
I think of Bush as being intellectually stuck. He is not a leader who presents a compelling vision to ordinary people like me. He keeps retreading ugly waters. There is nothing illuminating about his thought.
Sorry to bring these things up, but the question is really how do we get unstuck. Unstuck as a group, community, country, world, and unstuck as individuals.
This could be the slogan of the next presidential candidate - Let's Get Unstuck. They actually say this by using terms that connote a sense of the positive - Let's Move America Forward (because at present we are stuck).
I watched TV for decades, and got rid of the thing over a year ago. At this point, the notion of watching TV every day, all those baloney sitcoms with laugh tracks, commercials - , valueless news. Some of my own personal time has been liberated; a good portion of my time has become unstuck.
I'm a fan of all things that counter stuck-ness.
Imagination seems to play a role in this process. Even our imagination can get stuck and we need to exercise our vision, exercise our potential and examine possibilities that are not readily obvious. Work at it. Visualize. Take a chance.
I keep coming back to this quote by Edward Said, its a nice summation about getting unstuck.
"...the possibility of dreaming a different dream and seeing an alternative to all this. I learned this many years ago from a great English critic, Raymond Williams, who more than anyone else taught me the notion of always thinking the alternative. Not so much only the dream, which is rather other-worldly, but to every situation, no matter how much dominated it is, there's always an alternative. What one must train oneself is to think the alternative, and not to think the accepted and the status quo or to believe that the present is frozen."
2 comments:
Your right America seems stuck in a rut. The only Alternative I can see is getting rid of the awful people that now rule the roost. Problem here is they love the present situation. They 're the winners in many ways and they don't care about floating anyone elses boats but their own. Selfishness is the problem and the gang on top of most of the Gov't and the economy are paragons of selfishness. They see no "common good." In fact they see nothing anyone would call a "we the people." It all about them and what they want and have.
The people need to get active. It will be interesting to see how the planned protests for this weekend go. If the people get vocal enough they will get change.
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