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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   2863 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for September 22, 2023

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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Optimistically, Air Traffic Controller's Blame. We had great plans, great hopes, and great dreams; put our future on the line, and instead:

Now the road laid out before me is in flames

And the bridges that I've crossed have collapsed

And the vultures they are circling overhead

They're reminding me of choices from my past

It's not just misfortune or bad luck or our moral faults, as much as pride plays a repeated place: the song isn't a Tragedy. Our choices were bad, our plans faulty, our hard work not enough. Our 'home' wasn't our place, our lessons wasted. The rules we followed brought us to this.

And in the process:

This time you're free

I know it's hard to believe

After them days and nights awake and feeling lost, you're losing it

Well, if everything you learned before today was just a waste

Think of everyone you met along the way and all you've faced

Boy, you've won

Yeah

The shallow read for the title is "Don't Blame" yourself for your own failures, and as selfish as that seems it's a useful rejoinder to depressive tendencies, but I think that misses the deeper answer:

Don't blame

Get on your feet

Enough "poor me"

If you got time to bitch and whine

Well, there's still time to try again

That is, there's more to this country than The Politics of Grievance; picking yourself up, dusting yourself off, and trying again matters more than pointing fingers at who is at fault. You're not dead yet. It's not the best description of the current politics of this country, but then again I'm not sure the Star-Spangled Banner was a great description of the politics of 1812.

As what the country wants to be, should be, though... there's a reason that this theme's been resonant in a lot of recent works: I point to FFXIV or Chuubo's for doing it especially well, but they're far from unusual in touching it.

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