Congratulations, you have survived the apocalypse of another government shutdown, the last one of which many of us are too young to have even noticed (and the first one on record happening just after Vietnam).

Since 1995, much has changed. The job market has shrunk, wealth gaps have grown and the country has become more fearful of the future and distrustful of science and technology. Yet, instead of meeting the future with courage, one lunatic fringe seeks not just to maintain the status quo, but to move the country backwards to a time when America was safe and ruled the world (the time which never existed).

Now, as you look around and notice that the sky is not quite blood red, you may be apt to simply shrug your shoulders, becoming part of Frost’s “Mending Wall” poem, where erecting walls where none should exist is just the way we have always done it around here. You may be bothered, commendably, to gently raise your heartbeat when you read about one Texas senator’s obstructionist vanity project.

Perhaps you will make a New Year’s resolution to vote these guys out in November 2014 (but like all New Year’s resolutions, this will be forgotten by mid-February). Unfortunately, we live in an age of manufactured outrage. From Daniel Tosh’s big mouth to twerking at the VMAs, we constantly seek artificial reasons to be angry. Yet when it comes to GOP clown tactics, many people simply cannot be bothered.

When real cause for outrage passes us by, we can no longer recognize it from your “Weiner-gates.” And that is a shame, because until we turn away from the next celebrity baby and instead focus on those who run our country, the cycle of shutdown will continue now till whenever.

Brian Martinez is a graduate student in biology.