Generational Wedge?

Spent a weekend mostly with 'zocken'... playing. My on-line game programmers called it a double 'event'. Two days of getting 50% more points on everything. Plus they held two free-range 'battles'. I didn't try the latter, my characters are still too low-level, but I did get them to advance two each, which is nice. Yay for the knight and the conjuror.... and so on.

But Sunday I did take a break to watch Saturday's broadcast of UP, with Chris Hayes. He came up with a stunning 'story of the week'. You can see it here. He describes how über-conservatives, who desperately want to dismantle social security, medicaid, and medicare are sneakily trying to disaffect the young twenty-to-thirty somethings and woo the so-called elderly 55 and up by telling the latter they needn't worry, because they are going to get their benefits, but they have to make changes hey 'to save the grandchildren'. And the young 2o-30 somethings? Well hey, they are gonna have to re-think their futures... As the unemployment rate in that age group is somewhere between 20-23%, depending on which poll you hear, the ploy is a dangerous wedge aimed at getting generations at loggerheads with and resenting one another.

And it's being done so slyly, so underhandedly, am willing to bet that the Rethugs behind it would be incensed if confronted with what they are doing, and indignantly deny all such claims. It was something 'out there', but I'd never seen it in that light before.

The ensuing discussion still has me sort of upset inside, although it was an excellent discussion. I especially like that his guests are mostly 'new' faces from the publishing world and government, and not the fatuous faces full of self-importance you see everywhere else. And most of them have a lot of interesting things to say.

Whoever has a Tivo should tape it, as he's only on at gawwd-awful early morning hours. Or tune in per internet.

And oh yeah... I think my dragon is turning black. Which pleased me.