What 'Green shoots?'

Green shoots? that's it?! This is what we're getting? Can we stop with the used car salesman shtick that is so characteristic of the techno fantasists? I am sure that they have a rich and fulfilling virtual life with their Iphones and other electronic paraphernalia, but I wish they’d just practice it in the privacy of their own bedrooms. We have forgotten our capacity as a society and culture to visualize the future. Some will opt for a glorified, disneyfied techno world that seems so full of endless convenience and material fulfillment (the dark side of which is the world of Blade Runner). Others will envision a kind of happy hobbit world of endless cob homes and solar panels and garlanded children playing amongst the gardens…. What do you envision for yourself and your family and the rest of the species?

I think it’s time to worry about the ‘vision thing’ again. Yep. It’s come back to haunt us. There are conflicting and contradictory visions out there. Each and everyone of them screaming for attention and promising fulfillment. It’s too bad our President hasn’t actually ‘pictured’ the one he sees for us, except for the perpetual happy motoring in new green cars thing he has going. That’s not really a sufficiently alluring or lofty enough mission for me subscribe to, though I am sure it rings a lot of gongs out there. Barack’s a bright guy and I’m sure he’s given this some thought, SO I’d like to have him lay out a more cogent vision of what he would like to see as our national future. I’d like him to use detailed, descriptive language, and maybe even throw in a few visual aids showing us what he has in mind. It would help us to more fully understand what he is choosing to do and what he choosing not to do and why. He keeps leaving it to us to fill in the blanks, and while that’s kind of warm and fuzzy, it has the effect of merely kicking the can down the road.

If Obama’s MO continues the way it has, e.g., how he has handled the health care issue, I think we’re in trouble. He has an engaging, ebullient personality and a Hollywood smile. I think he is relying on those qualities to stand in for vision. He also has a great capacity for rhetorical flourish and inspiring oratory. His personal charisma alone may carry him through for two terms, but it sure won’t carry the rest of us for the next eight years.

“Yes, we can…” what??? Please, not more of the same!