Tired of Complaining

It seems as if every three-four months I get tired of complaining about the absurdity that is our federal government. I become exhausted thinking about the never-ending arrogance and/or blindness of those politicians who continue to invent truths to correspond to their vision of reality. I become  discouraged in part because I don't have a sense that others are as concerned or that anything will changed.

There is such a long list of things that we need to stand up and tell the government that we disagree about:

               - the amount of public money that the Conservative government is spending on 

                  advertising to defend their programs

               - the lack of a meaningful policy in Canada that will strengthen the economy - 

                 specifically the industrial sector

               -  the total abdication of any responsibility for climate change - especially in the oil and gas 

                   sector,

               - the total lack of a social justice focus in any of the decisions that are made

               - Using Revenue Canada to threaten the loss of charitable status for agencies that disagree 

                 with government policy (e.g. Sierra club)

 ......the list just seems to go on and on.

Every three or four months I say I am going to stop writing negative or complaining blogs. And for a few days, I do manage to stop. Then slowly but very surely I start to ruminate about a specific government policy. I can't help myself - I just need to put my comments on paper. It doesn't matter if anyone reads it (although the blog has been accessed 1,500 times in the past year or so), I just need to get it out of my head so that I can think of something else. If I don't, those thoughts lay in my brain and fester - popping into my conscious mind at inconvenient times including 3:00 in the morning. And then I start doing exactly what I said I would not do - I write blogs that are complaining or negative.

Writing about the insanity of a government that continues to live in a world where Milton Freeman's and Margaret Thatcher's economic visions still predominate, where complex political and social issues can be viewed through black and white lenses, and where, like Teddy Roosevelt, all you need is a big stick and a loud voice to convince people you are right causes me to take a jaundiced view of the world.  It is not healthy. It is not who I think I am. It is not who I want to be. I would much prefer to look of the positive side of things, to find the things in this world that one can be excited about or at least things that are interesting. I would rather write about fun stuff or people that are creating change or about things that may stimulate people to think about the possibilities of this extraordinary world that we live in.

Not for the first time - I realize that I am tired of being either an angry young man or a crotchety old one. I wonder how long it will last for this time.