![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
America the Hoodwinked:
Good ol' ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
maxverbosity was just talking about the culture of forward-thinking/looking, versus backward looking people. You can read about it here, if you want.
My response to him was not researched or anything, but I thought it was interesting enough to share with the all of you's:
I can't get my head around whether politics just seems more infuriatingly divisive now than when I was younger--or if it's just that I'm paying closer attention now. I do know that people who think previous decades are the "good old days" or "simpler times"--but they are totally reflecting on things they experienced as children. Sure, things seem more magical and wondrous when you still think Santa is coming to bring you presents...
Anybody who thinks the 1970's or even the 1950's were simpler and less dangerous is out of their minds. Nuclear weaponry? Presidential Impeachment? Race Riots in major US cities? Space Travel? Roe v Wade? People who genuinely thought women should not make as much money as men for doing the same work? Seriously? It's all a huge clusterfuck. Just when we move away from one kind of bigotry, a new scapegoat emerges and the country divides again. On some level I have to wonder if this isn't fully orchestrated and designed to keep sheep occupied with non-issues while that elusive 3-5% of fatcats controls all of our wealth and keeps most of us damn near the poverty line.
Funny how these people who want to look back and romanticize the past never seem to remember that wireless radio was supposed to turn everyone into mindless zombies. The great art of conversation would die out, they said. Television, then cable, then VHS recorders were all supposed to, according to doom saying hysterics, make us forget to live in favor of staring into the magical box. People said Title IX was going to ruin both girls and sports, and that women on the Supreme Court would lead to an increase in crying and hasty, PMS-based decisions. Hell, people can't even admit that Obama didn't try to take their guns when he was elected, and that all this stockpiling of weaponry leaves us well prepared for zombies and not much else.
It comes down to fear, IMO. As a horror writer, I think about fear a lot and the ways that people are affected by it. Just before people are completely paralyzed by fear, they opt out of it by converting some or all of it to anger, then outright hate at whomever they've decided to blame for circumstances they don't like. Grief can be the same, actually. Couples whose children are abducted and missing tend to divorce within 5 years. People can't deal with fear, so they focus on something else, and for most people anger is a LOT more comforting than dealing with realities they can't control. People get frightened, and blame the things they know the least about--mystery can also be damn scary and ignorance opens a wide door to presumption, usually presumption based on vague stereotypes. Our cowardice and apathy certainly make us willing participants in the truth and liberty charade.
There are other contributing factors, too. An economic structure designed to result in distinct class structure, with prosperity dangled like a carrot in front of huge swaths of people with only the slimmest chance of attaining it. Broadcast news that is managed as a for-profit business that requires high ratings to be successful. This ends up being an endless parade of blood, tragedy, useless entertainment-based drivel, shadenfraude, and all the reasons why you'll die if you don't watch. I really don't think that people are more interested in Tiger Woods dick than the war in Afghanistan. It's just that news that is actually relevant must be sought out. If you only read your Yahoo home page news, you'll get mostly celebrities and "human interest" stories--usually meant to outrage more than inform. I heard a LOT more internet outrage over that balloon boy or the LOST finale than I did over Pat Tillman.
I'm not gonna cry about it or anything, but I do love America. I love that, in theory, anyone can say and think, worship and love however they want. But wait...because plenty of people actively work to take those rights away. If people worked as diligently to eradicate hunger as they do trying to stop gay people from getting married, we'd have that problem damn near solved. When people are fearful of losing what they have, or of not having what they need for their families, they sort of hoard their right to things. They villainize the poor instead of admitting that they had advantages that many poor people don't have--and that maybe they should work harder to help the less fortunate. Because gosh, if we give food to the poor, who will help us if WE are poor?!?
People then get all caught up in who "deserves" what. If you developed a drug problem because you're mentally ill but can't afford to see a doctor--you don't deserve welfare, shouldn't have children, and should work only the most menial job...according to a LOT of people if Facebook is any indication. The same people who don't want condoms handed out in schools are the first to condemn teenage mothers for not understanding that sex and love aren't the same thing and that being a parent basically means your life is over (okay, not really--but all that shit teenagers think is important is pretty much done). But I digress...
This is gonna sound kinda late 60's/early 70's, but what we need, as Americans, is to fucking trust each other. We need to believe that people are basically good and that every single one of us has something valuable to offer society and themselves. If we could learn to appreciate each other, at large--even if we can't all appreciate every individual, we might actually get somewhere as far as improving this country and the lives of its citizenry. If we continue to focus on inconsequential bullshit, that's all we'll have.
Happy Saturday, kids.
Speaking of inconsequential bullshit, today is the day I'm putting 2 stripes in my hair.
One pink, one blue. Go me!!!
maxverbosity was just talking about the culture of forward-thinking/looking, versus backward looking people. You can read about it here, if you want.My response to him was not researched or anything, but I thought it was interesting enough to share with the all of you's:
I can't get my head around whether politics just seems more infuriatingly divisive now than when I was younger--or if it's just that I'm paying closer attention now. I do know that people who think previous decades are the "good old days" or "simpler times"--but they are totally reflecting on things they experienced as children. Sure, things seem more magical and wondrous when you still think Santa is coming to bring you presents...
Anybody who thinks the 1970's or even the 1950's were simpler and less dangerous is out of their minds. Nuclear weaponry? Presidential Impeachment? Race Riots in major US cities? Space Travel? Roe v Wade? People who genuinely thought women should not make as much money as men for doing the same work? Seriously? It's all a huge clusterfuck. Just when we move away from one kind of bigotry, a new scapegoat emerges and the country divides again. On some level I have to wonder if this isn't fully orchestrated and designed to keep sheep occupied with non-issues while that elusive 3-5% of fatcats controls all of our wealth and keeps most of us damn near the poverty line.
Funny how these people who want to look back and romanticize the past never seem to remember that wireless radio was supposed to turn everyone into mindless zombies. The great art of conversation would die out, they said. Television, then cable, then VHS recorders were all supposed to, according to doom saying hysterics, make us forget to live in favor of staring into the magical box. People said Title IX was going to ruin both girls and sports, and that women on the Supreme Court would lead to an increase in crying and hasty, PMS-based decisions. Hell, people can't even admit that Obama didn't try to take their guns when he was elected, and that all this stockpiling of weaponry leaves us well prepared for zombies and not much else.
It comes down to fear, IMO. As a horror writer, I think about fear a lot and the ways that people are affected by it. Just before people are completely paralyzed by fear, they opt out of it by converting some or all of it to anger, then outright hate at whomever they've decided to blame for circumstances they don't like. Grief can be the same, actually. Couples whose children are abducted and missing tend to divorce within 5 years. People can't deal with fear, so they focus on something else, and for most people anger is a LOT more comforting than dealing with realities they can't control. People get frightened, and blame the things they know the least about--mystery can also be damn scary and ignorance opens a wide door to presumption, usually presumption based on vague stereotypes. Our cowardice and apathy certainly make us willing participants in the truth and liberty charade.
There are other contributing factors, too. An economic structure designed to result in distinct class structure, with prosperity dangled like a carrot in front of huge swaths of people with only the slimmest chance of attaining it. Broadcast news that is managed as a for-profit business that requires high ratings to be successful. This ends up being an endless parade of blood, tragedy, useless entertainment-based drivel, shadenfraude, and all the reasons why you'll die if you don't watch. I really don't think that people are more interested in Tiger Woods dick than the war in Afghanistan. It's just that news that is actually relevant must be sought out. If you only read your Yahoo home page news, you'll get mostly celebrities and "human interest" stories--usually meant to outrage more than inform. I heard a LOT more internet outrage over that balloon boy or the LOST finale than I did over Pat Tillman.
I'm not gonna cry about it or anything, but I do love America. I love that, in theory, anyone can say and think, worship and love however they want. But wait...because plenty of people actively work to take those rights away. If people worked as diligently to eradicate hunger as they do trying to stop gay people from getting married, we'd have that problem damn near solved. When people are fearful of losing what they have, or of not having what they need for their families, they sort of hoard their right to things. They villainize the poor instead of admitting that they had advantages that many poor people don't have--and that maybe they should work harder to help the less fortunate. Because gosh, if we give food to the poor, who will help us if WE are poor?!?
People then get all caught up in who "deserves" what. If you developed a drug problem because you're mentally ill but can't afford to see a doctor--you don't deserve welfare, shouldn't have children, and should work only the most menial job...according to a LOT of people if Facebook is any indication. The same people who don't want condoms handed out in schools are the first to condemn teenage mothers for not understanding that sex and love aren't the same thing and that being a parent basically means your life is over (okay, not really--but all that shit teenagers think is important is pretty much done). But I digress...
This is gonna sound kinda late 60's/early 70's, but what we need, as Americans, is to fucking trust each other. We need to believe that people are basically good and that every single one of us has something valuable to offer society and themselves. If we could learn to appreciate each other, at large--even if we can't all appreciate every individual, we might actually get somewhere as far as improving this country and the lives of its citizenry. If we continue to focus on inconsequential bullshit, that's all we'll have.
Happy Saturday, kids.
Speaking of inconsequential bullshit, today is the day I'm putting 2 stripes in my hair.
One pink, one blue. Go me!!!
no subject
no subject
I want to put it somewhere the whole country can see it. ;-]
no subject
no subject
I was kind of hoping it would make more of a splash, but no dice thusfar.
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
the content to attract