The Mantra of 2012

"It is what it is."

Last week I heard these words so many times I wondered: What's going on here?  What does this mean?  It sounds like a chant, repeated so often and from so many mouths it resembls a mantra, but the end result isn't uplift or enlightenment.  The words are often accompanied by a small shrug of the shoulders, or a resigned sigh.  It isn't a new saying by any means, but it enters conversation these days much more frequently than before.  It's not said in the sense of "what's done is done, move on."  It sounds more like "that's the way it is and we can't do anything about it."

What happened to believing you can change things?  Why the fatalism, the defeatist attitude?  Where did rebellion go?  Idealism?  Believing in dreams of the future?  Setting an example of optimism for our  kids and friends and co-workers?  Continuing to strive for our dreams despite the difficulties and barriers thrown in our way?

It's as if accepting the status quo has become the status quo.  Why?  Is it the state of the economy?  Are people feeling so defeated they've given up?  It's like some weird contagion, some invisible mote floating through the air, sucked in then sucking up all the positive energy, exhaled in this seemingly unrebuttable statement.

Well, I argue that it is indeed arguable.  The Resistance during WWII didn't feel this way.  60's protesters, as mellow as they could be at times, didn't feel that way.  Years ago, someone said to me, "I decided to settle."  That bothered me in my youth like "it is what it is" grates now. 

I prefer John Lennon's outlook:

IMAGINE. . .