No need for sweet

At first I thought it was the January effect. Short days, cold weather, dismantling the holidays’ good spirit, and the detail documented in Seasonal Affective Disorder . No, I am not referring to all the sugar-loaded goodies that our morbidly obese population ingests; I am referring to attitudes to counteract all the grumpiness.  Everyone seems to gravitate to feel-good stories and uplifting speeches, and the films that resonate cheery times that we are clearly not living in. Saccharin sweet – leaves a bad taste.

How refreshing to watch the French mobilize a national emotion that is not sugar coated or excessively promoting their personal politics (and their personal politics are just as strong as ours). The victims were wonderful scoundrels – older humorists who have thumbed their noses at every manner of institution as if they were Doonesbury with censorship. And the people did not respond with rage against whatever they wanted to rage against, nor did they see a sugar-coated solution.

Here is the US we keep looking at the endless television commercials of bright, cheery, never obese images of citizens usually with a dog making everything not only better but wonderful. Non stop grumbling and complaining still dominates conversations, but you would never know if from the media. We seem to have a need to build the foundation of our information on sweetness and not satire. The economy may be booming, but let us complain about income inequality. The politics of the country are even more dysfunctional (if that is possible) but let us grumble about the weather. And at the end of the day so many people turn to marginal (at best) medication solutions.

Every once in a while, briefly, satirists or at least songwriters surface; but between. I confess I make every contribution I can in print and in comment, but I am drowning in the Tsunami of phony good spirits.  It is as if the spirituality crowd got together with the mindfulness gang.

Then when a potential (perceived) crisis erupts we overreact every time.  What about that Ebola scare? Why are we still taking shoes off at airports? Do police have to turn off the Go-pro in the lavatory?

How about restoring the dosage of sarcasm.  I understand that an entire segment of the country tunes into John Stewart, but where are the cartoonists? (Southpark is an acquired taste). I have a vision.  Our lame duck President could become ‘sarcastic commentator in chief’. And local institutional leaders could take the lead of the Jesuit in Rome and actually avoid hypocrisy instead of supporting it.

Never will it happen.  Paranoia continues to give us a Patriot Act, and Homeland Security, and at the end of the day an urge for sweetness (and unnecessary medication).. I even think Vanna White is still on broadcast television.