Mike Bryant your reply is awesome. I particularly like the suggestion about “marginalized creatives”, as fixing things requires creative thinking… well creative leadership. I’ve got a working hypothesis that the reason the Democratic party is in such dire shape is that they (“the system”) has stifled the creative leaders. Its like they’re motivationally bankrupt. They’re mouthing blandness, and it doesn’t sell.

I recently figured out why I don’t like reading Time Magazine. Every story in it seems to have the embedded subtext: “There may be a party going on next door, with great things happening! Oh, wait, probably not. Nah, it doesn’t seem like fun at all. Never mind, let’s stay home.” Its got this mildly depressive attitude. I presume that it fosters much of the learned helplessness on so many social and political issues.

Part of it may be due to an attempt at “balanced reporting”: for any given news item, they always interview & quote a naysayer, and the naysayer always gets the last word. The Onion likes to parody this.