Setting Unrealistic Expectations For Change
Today is the inauguration for President Obama. Some people that read this blog care, some people don’t, and some people just don’t give a shit either way. While I am a little bit excited about it just because I think the last eight years haven’t been all that good I am a bit apprehensive about all of this. The closer and closer we got to this day the more I realized that the expectations that have been set are utterly ridiculous. Kind of like when you meet a really hot guy or girl and begin to date them. This person is funny, smart, interesting, charming, and pretty much for all intents and purposes the ultimate partner for you.
You know you are about to sleep with each other soon, probably on the next date. As that night approaches you get a little nervous, you get excited, and you are hopeful because the last person you dated was sort of a douche. When you think about them you get a little depressed, a little sick to your stomach, and hate the fact that your friends and you fight over him whenever his name is brought up. You can’t logically discuss him or his actions anymore, it is just too venomous, and it causes a rift between you and your friends/family. You begin to fantasize about how amazing this night is going to be, that this will complete the puzzle of perfection. In your head you prepare yourself for the fireworks to explode, the train to go through the tunnel, the alarms to sound, birds chirping, or whatever hokey thing they use in movies to show awesome sex.
Then you sleep together and it didn’t go like you planned because the expectations you set were impossibly high. While the performance was way better than average it wasn’t the best, which is what you were expecting. Soon the person doesn’t look as good, is a little bit less intelligent, and you don’t laugh as often at their jokes. And while this person is significantly better than the last person you dated they aren’t the end all and be all which is what you expected. Soon you become a little restless and look for the next person even though the one you got might still be a great partner they just weren’t perfection.
I am worried that the election and the lead up has made the expectations so high that when I finally bang Obama it is going to suck. Wait maybe I confused the example and what I was trying to say?
Anyway I hope things do change in this country, that we can talk politics again without wanting to stab one another, that discourse, intellectual discussion about non-manufactured wedge issues, and compromise will matter again. I think no matter what side you are on you can agree that it would be a good thing.
Do you think unrealistic expectations can ruin a perfectly good thing?
****Note*****
Speaking of change I want to announce a new member to the pointlessbanter.net family, the Slackmistress. Since we have expanded to include more writers the one thing we sorely missed was a female voice, she has a pretty strong one. I would love to give you a long list of her qualifications (which she has) and why we wanted her to write here (beyond the fact that she is funny) but really it boiled down to two things. One was that she may have single handily ignited the Lindsay Lohan vs. Hillary Duff feud and she was voted as one of the 12 Female Hottest Bloggers for the Hot Blogger Calendar. What more can you ask for?
Please welcome the Slackmistress to pointlessbanter.net you can check out her first post, In Case of Gangbang, Please Break Glass.
Eh, I’m about as excited as I was when Bush got elected the first time. Another politician, another mantra about how their gonna change things. They’ll get in office and it’ll be the status quo. I’m too much of a cynic to expect anything, I guess. Would I love to be wrong? Absolutely. Do I think I will be? Not really.
As for unrealistic expectations, I think they can ruin a good thing. Just ask most of the women I’ve ever dated. My own fault, I suppose, for claiming to be hung like horse. I guess toy horses don’t count, though.
Depends on how you attach the toy horse to your existing penis.
i saw a porno the other day where a chick masturbated with a My Little Pony doll.
Oh yea, Barack Obama and politics and stuff.
Thanks now I know how I am spending my entire afternoon.
This gives a whole new meaning to “when Obama is President, we all get ponies” missive.
LOL XD
Glue is not lickable or a good choice and it only gave me a small difference.
High expectations suck. I remember this one guy who was really hawt on the dance floor. In bed, he was a looooooooooser! I was like, “I shaved and put deodorant on for this?”
Stop bringing that up… I am sorry.
Some day I will forgive you… *tear*
Thats why i go for no expectations at all, so when something good comes along it makes you day a very happy one, this includes woman, movies, etc.
But i think you have a point here… people may be expecting too much of him.. all i want is for him to be a bit smarter then Bush…
It is an odd combination of having a bar that is ridiculously low versus expectations that are out of this world.
So I’m pretty new around here, and I’ve already made an ass out of myself in a few comments, but this is something pretty important to me.
I invested a lot of time and energy in Obama’s campaign. The night he was elected was great, seeing Jesse Jackson crying (even though he’s generally a douche bag) really summed it up for me. Change is coming.
Now, I agree that we’ve set some ridiculously high expectations. In light of that, the best I can do is keep 2 points in mind.
1. AT LEAST IT’S NOT FUCKING GEORGE BUSH.
2. Obama has the balls and the will, along with the skill to get alot done in Washington.
If we’re comparing GW to an ex, he’s wasn’t just kind of a douchebag. He was the kind of ex that gives you herpes and doesn’t tell you until you wake up with a big sore on your dick. The fact that he was elected twice…well, you ever see those trailer trash girls on Maury Povich? “But I looooove him, it’s my fault he hits me.” Yea. Fuck you George Bush.
Obama is centrist enough to bring people together, liberal enough to create social change, conservative enough to create fiscal change, and while he might not meet all the skyrocketing expectations the country has set for him, he’ll be a great president.
I’m wary, maybe a little suspicious, but at this point, after 8 years as a young man in a country led by a moron, all I can do is trust him.
Believe me I want nothing but the best but when I hear people, especially people newer to politics, get excited and think that he is magically going to fix things within like 100 days I get really nervous.
I know what you mean. In some ways, it’s almost a little sickening because I’m afraid he’s just become another facet of pop culture. I don’t think we’ve ever had a president that was the “it” thing, you know?
It’s like all those goofy emo kids that got behind the 9/11 conspiracy. I just hope Obama’s not selling any oceanfront property in Arizona.
AM I ON THAT HOT BLOGGER LIST OR JUST THE HOT LIST?
AS FOR SETTIN UNREALISTIC EXPECTATIONS…GEEZ, WHAT CAN I SAY? WHO’S TO BLAME?