Momentum

Momentum. There is no getting anywhere without it. The Vikings and Broncos didn’t win because they were better teams. They won because their opponents were unable to muster up any momentum. Starting is easy. Anyone can call up a blank screen or make his way to the start of a long trail. It’s the next step that can be a bummer. You need a spark to drive the soul to some momentum.

That’s what I have been lacking. No spark to turn the one paragraph into a two page paper. No momentum to make the workplace better. The spark is escaping me and preventing me from worthwhile accomplishment. Some loss of strength is inevitably caused by the deteriorating condition of the American intellect. It may very well doom us all. A country where Sarah Palin is respected as a national figure by anyone is probably not a country for me. No amount of philosophical or practical wisdom may be able to dig us out of the pit we have fallen into it. In the absence of momentum I close with words of manufactured wisdom.

“Good evening, London. Allow me first to apologize for this interruption. I do, like many of you, appreciate the comforts of every day routine- the security of the familiar, the tranquility of repetition. I enjoy them as much as any bloke. But in the spirit of commemoration, thereby those important events of the past usually associated with someone's death or the end of some awful bloody struggle, a celebration of a nice holiday, I thought we could mark this November the 5th, a day that is sadly no longer remembered, by taking some time out of our daily lives to sit down and have a little chat. There are of course those who do not want us to speak. I suspect even now, orders are being shouted into telephones, and men with guns will soon be on their way. Why? Because while the truncheon may be used in lieu of conversation, words will always retain their power. Words offer the means to meaning, and for those who will listen, the enunciation of truth. And the truth is, there is something terribly wrong with this country, isn't there? Cruelty and injustice, intolerance and oppression. And where once you had the freedom to object, to think and speak as you saw fit, you now have censors and systems of surveillance coercing your conformity and soliciting your submission. How did this happen? Who's to blame? Well certainly there are those more responsible than others, and they will be held accountable, but again truth be told, if you're looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror. I know why you did it. I know you were afraid. Who wouldn't be? War, terror, disease. There were a myriad of problems which conspired to corrupt your reason and rob you of your common sense. Fear got the best of you, and in your panic you turned to the now high chancellor, Adam Sutler. He promised you order, he promised you peace, and all he demanded in return was your silent, obedient consent. … More than four hundred years ago a great citizen wished to embed the fifth of November forever in our memory. His hope was to remind the world that fairness, justice, and freedom are more than words, they are perspectives.” (V for Vendetta, 2006)