The Republican and Democratic debates on how to handle our national debt and the debt ceiling increase is being played out like re-runs of Tom & Jerry cartoons I watched as a kid; the fighting scenes are predictable and in the end both parties get hurt. What this feels like is utter frustration wrapped in uncertainty served with a side of fear. Yes, I’m finally old enough to care enough about politics and mature enough to comprehend that I won’t live forever, but my future kids will really have a different world than in which I lived in. Yup, I even sound like a parent or grandparent. What to do then? Revolt.

Now, for full disclosure, I am not partisan. Being an Asian American in California makes me neither Red nor Blue, but a shade of Purple. I may be part of the new silent revolutionaries, the Repub-libertarian-ocrats. I am fiscally conservative, socially liberal, with a growing libertarian streak. So while I am not a staunch, card carrying party supporter, Ron Paul now kinda sounds more and more rational to me. BTW, I voted for Obama.

What is the revolution then? For me, it is a silent revolution of cynicism. Conventional wisdom holds that a little dose of cynicism is probably good, but now it’s a lot. Where I once was a proud Boy Scout-type, almost naive in having hope that our government will do the right thing in the right times, that is way gone. My mind has revolted from what I see as the revolting behaviors from Washington D.C. Where I once was proud of our republic and its implied checks and balance system, I now feel it is every man and woman for themselves.

Our generation (X for me), already a little more cynical than others, now mostly acknowledges that Social Security will likely not be there for us when we retire, that we will pay more in taxes (not necessarily bad, but that’s another debate), and that fiscal uncertainty is the new normal. Social Security, what has been sacrosanct for nearly 80 years, in our minds, is gone. If we get anything when we retire, it would be a surprise, and yet, we’re so blasse about this. People, we’re talking $50 trillion of unfunded liabilities in Social Security and Medicare. The debated $4 trillion in cuts in 10 years is like cutting down in office supplies when you ought to be firing people while the company is tanking. Our purchasing power, our standard of living will be going down as a nation and with it, the esteem with which I hold our government and its policies.

I will not take to the street and protest like in Greece, Egypt, or any number of countries where the people have taken action and arms to change their fate. No, sadly I am an intellectual whose first admission is a loss of faith. That might change, however, and many will say it is our collective ability to change our fates is what makes this nation the greatest on earth. So while that is inherently true, do yourself a favor and buy gold and a gun.