Ball of Confusion

(That's what the world is today, hey, hey.)

When I was having my coffee this morning and reading the newspaper (really), this is the song that popped into my head. It came to me that our predominant cultural mental state these days can only be characterized as confusion -- as in a lack of clarity, an inability to make sense out of what's going on and ascertain what the next step should be. Everyone I talk to seems to be in this mode. You can see expressions of the confusion everywhere.

What really happened to Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan? Who did it and why? What does it mean? What can we do? What impact will her death have on us all?

You can see it in the presidential primary. No clear favorite. Voters moving restlessly from candidate to candidate with little faith that any one of them can handle what's been set in motion and what's coming up.

What is the Bush machine really up to here and abroad? Why don't the Democrats seem to have a grasp of the true emergency nature of the crises? Why won't they carry out the will of the people? Who can we trust? Who can we believe?

Bush and company have put us into such a black hole on every front that it becomes almost impossible to imagine solutions to the enormous, evolving problems he's created. Too many seem to be in total denial of what's happening, clinging to consumerism, celebrity gossip and day to day trivialities to shield them from the scary realities piling up. The rest cast about searching for strategies that might prompt real change, or seek leaders who might come from nowhere to give us some answers, show us a way, inspire us to courageous acts. None of these seem to be in sight, even on the far horizon.

Meanwhile, the ball of confusion becomes more frenzied and roiling with each passing day. Sometimes all anyone of good faith can do is bear witness and attempt to gather strength to weather the worsening storms. I can't even being to fathom the violent and fierce confusions that 2008 may bring us, can you? We're already dazed and confused from so many problems coming to a head -- in synchronicity. Who's to say what the aftershocks and consequences will be to all the tumoil boiling up today? Conspiracies within mysteries within distortions ... Is there any light at the end of this tunnel?