Entries by Brian Gaither

I was just reading through my archives. Some of this stuff was pretty good. Since I included "writing more" among my New Year's resolutions, I need to increase the frequency of the graffiti here. I'll post some of what I've published on facebook. I'll also post those self-same resolutions.

Conflating the lack of writing with a lack of time is weak. The blog is a decent medium which I ought to employ more.

It's been 12 months, or very close thereto, since I last wrote in here. Anyone whose been watching -- which is safe to guess includes everyone -- knows that this past year has been a rough one for the President.

Apparently no one told him that it's really, really, really hard to change things when people don't really want more than superficial adjustments. But, blinded by a conviction of his own good intentions and lusty for the power to make them real, Obama embarked down this path.

I am recently exploring the meme of homeostasis. The French have a lovely way of putting it which the English doesn't capture. "Le plus ça change, le plus c'est le même chose." No matter what changes we attempt, the norms prevail and find a way to triumph. Which is interesting, because the norms are defined by the vast masses in the middle. The average will always find itself and impose its mediocrity despite our best intentions.

On a micro level, that's fine in so much as you are below average. However, the truth is that to expand the range of the normal requires a shrinking of both the left and right side of a given distribution. Trouble occurs when the range of the normal is expanded and limits the side which is above average.

In this country, everyone wants to believe they can be above average. And when confronted with the impossibility of that fact they enter a state of denial. They are each of them convinced they will beat the odds.

As a society this is healthy. It shifts the normal a little more towards the positive. But in moving the normal in that direction the condition of those below average is become relatively worse. To include more of those below average within the range of the normal would require undermining those above average.

In this country those people will first exercise their political muscle. And if that fails they will leave. Under such a scenario, Obama would be able to achieve his objectives. But the end result is akin to cutting off the nation's nose.

People are jealous of what they have. Those in the middle who are convinced they are above average won't abandon their hopes for the sake of Obama's vision. When they elected him they thought he would help them. Now they know they were never the intended beneficiaries, and they have begun to quit their support.

He's not going to get it back.

Inauguration Day is among the most important aspects of our political life as Americans. It reminds us that the presidency is an office which is occupied by citizens. When the time comes, and at the discretion of the voters, they enter. In like manner the time always come when, in their discretion, the voters show them the exit.

For those dismayed by the election of Barack Obama, remember that the time will come when he too must leave the office. For those cheered by the departure of George W. Bush, remember that the time will come when a Republican once again occupies the Oval Office.

Power did not transition today. It resides perpetually with the people. Today, the world witnessed the awesome power of the Republic to renew itself. What is duly done is duly begun, but the virtue of the Republic endures. Long live the Republic!