No matter the era, no matter which side you are on, and no matter where you live, the government will find ways to break your heart. Obviously the entire American federal government shutting down is an extreme case, one with massive ramifications, and that, quite frankly, makes us look really stupid to the rest of the world.
Even though we voted for them, the disappointment we as a nation collectively feel at our government’s inability to reach a compromise to the point that it has to close down is justified. So as we sit here twiddling our thumbs, waiting for the House and Senate to figure things out and get the Panda Cam turned back on, here are some words of wisdom from some great authors that make us realize that it is perfectly fine to be angry.
“I myself feel that our country, for whose Constitution I fought in a just war, might as well have been invaded by Martians and body snatchers. Sometimes I wish it had been. What has happened, though, is that it has been taken over by means of the sleaziest, low-comedy, Keystone Cops-style coup d’etat imaginable. And those now in charge of the federal government are upper-crust C-students who know no history or geography, plus not-so-closeted white supremacists, aka ‘Christians,’ and plus, most frighteningly, psychopathic personalities, or ‘PPs.'” — Kurt Vonnegut
“Government was founded on the working premiss of being primarily an asylum for ineptitude and indigence.” — William Faulkner
“The government itself, which is only the mode which the people have chosen to execute their will, is equally liable to be abused and perverted before the people can act through it.” — Henry David Thoreau
“The greatest patriotism is to tell your country when it is behaving dishonorably, foolishly, viciously.” — Julian Barnes
“Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under.” — H.L. Mencken
“I find out of long experience that I admire all nations and hate all governments” — John Steinbeck
“That’s the difference between governments and individuals. Governments don’t care, individuals do.” — Mark Twain
“Government is an association of men who do violence to the rest of us.” — Leo Tolstoy