Misanthropy vs. hope
Nov. 10th, 2005 10:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nolawitch58Once again, I am plunged into vacillating over being misanthropic or pollyanna-ish. George Carlin's new HBO special was just on. He is even more darkly brilliant than some of his previous performances where he would sidle up to the notion that this country is full of idiots. In his new special, "Life is Worth Losing", he looses the shitstorm of truth about American culture. He flat-out calls the majority of Americans idiots.
Carlin's rant takes on the stereotypical nuclear wasteland of a family and its compulsive consumption. The picture he paints of the moo, duh and ugly children roaming from shopping mall to shopping mall buying useless crap to shove in their SUV is spot on from what I've seen. The mind-numbing grazing through food courts or fast food drive-throughs merely gives them empty caloried energy to pursue horrible knick-knacks manufactured by impoverished third-world slave labor all the while crowing at what a bargain they're getting. They are either incapable of seeing the big picture in which their livelihoods will eventually fall to outsourcing and their own lives impoverished by their greed or they are willfully stupid. Speaking of greed, Carlin also spoke of this country's owners, the wealthiest wheeler dealers who run things and tell the politicians what to do. If he weren't a comedian and thus assumed to be joking, I'm sure some plutocrat would have him assassinated for laying the truth out for all to hear. The politicians are just the tip of the evil iceberg; the real powers are nastier and more brutish than we can conceive. Their psychopathy will not be slaked until the last crumb has been snatched from the tables of the poor and their hearts will grow no larger than the Grinch's, nay their hearts appear to be shrinking at an alarming rate.
The single worst way that John and Susie Q. Public feed the corporate machine is by shopping at Wal*Mart. When you confront a Wal*Mart shopper with evidence of the store's negative effect on society, they are likely to give you that deer-in-headlights stare. You know there must be a lot of truth in the film, "The High Cost of Low Prices", when efforts to derail it become so frenzied. I can't think of one thing I contribute more to society than not spending a dime of my money at that soul-sucking, slave-driving place.
Of course, not all of the ugliness is confined to American culture. This book by a preacher named Davidson Loehr discusses the current American protofascistic climate within a historic framework. Fundamentalism is so similar to fascism that there is scarcely one bit of difference in the outcome whether one or the other has power. Fascism has been around in one form or another for centuries. That it is rearing its ugly head here is no surprise. Our society has been fed a steady diet of fear, ignorance, illiteracy, conformity and sloth for many decades. The oligarchy bought the media which shovels this shit our way in great quantities daily. And too many Americans sit idly ingesting effluvium as though it were caviar. All the ugly, horrible things that some rabid religious figures dish out candy coated in twisted scripture are received by the brainwashed flocks as manna from heaven. Read all the excerpts from that man's book. The truth is out there, Mulder, and I'm boarding up the door to keep it away.
Then the recent elections repulse the ever-repulsive Repugnicans and show Democrats able to defeat the Empire. A small spark of hope kindles itself in my breast. Bush's poll numbers are dwindling like the number of prominent Repugnicans who aren't either indicted or under investigation for wrongdoing. My rational side tells me not to count any damned chickens while all the eggs are being juggled by so many Bubbas who are drunk and trying to watch NASCAR while scratching their asses. My irrational side simply giggles and squeals "Oh my Gawd!" repetitively like some cheerleader on her first meth high. My Goth inner core is wanting to strangle that bitch about now.
So you see, my friends, this is not the first time I don't know whether to fish or cut bait. There are times that blissful ignorance looks attractive, then I force myself to go shopping and see examples all around proving that it really isn't.
THE MEME
Carlin's rant takes on the stereotypical nuclear wasteland of a family and its compulsive consumption. The picture he paints of the moo, duh and ugly children roaming from shopping mall to shopping mall buying useless crap to shove in their SUV is spot on from what I've seen. The mind-numbing grazing through food courts or fast food drive-throughs merely gives them empty caloried energy to pursue horrible knick-knacks manufactured by impoverished third-world slave labor all the while crowing at what a bargain they're getting. They are either incapable of seeing the big picture in which their livelihoods will eventually fall to outsourcing and their own lives impoverished by their greed or they are willfully stupid. Speaking of greed, Carlin also spoke of this country's owners, the wealthiest wheeler dealers who run things and tell the politicians what to do. If he weren't a comedian and thus assumed to be joking, I'm sure some plutocrat would have him assassinated for laying the truth out for all to hear. The politicians are just the tip of the evil iceberg; the real powers are nastier and more brutish than we can conceive. Their psychopathy will not be slaked until the last crumb has been snatched from the tables of the poor and their hearts will grow no larger than the Grinch's, nay their hearts appear to be shrinking at an alarming rate.
The single worst way that John and Susie Q. Public feed the corporate machine is by shopping at Wal*Mart. When you confront a Wal*Mart shopper with evidence of the store's negative effect on society, they are likely to give you that deer-in-headlights stare. You know there must be a lot of truth in the film, "The High Cost of Low Prices", when efforts to derail it become so frenzied. I can't think of one thing I contribute more to society than not spending a dime of my money at that soul-sucking, slave-driving place.
Of course, not all of the ugliness is confined to American culture. This book by a preacher named Davidson Loehr discusses the current American protofascistic climate within a historic framework. Fundamentalism is so similar to fascism that there is scarcely one bit of difference in the outcome whether one or the other has power. Fascism has been around in one form or another for centuries. That it is rearing its ugly head here is no surprise. Our society has been fed a steady diet of fear, ignorance, illiteracy, conformity and sloth for many decades. The oligarchy bought the media which shovels this shit our way in great quantities daily. And too many Americans sit idly ingesting effluvium as though it were caviar. All the ugly, horrible things that some rabid religious figures dish out candy coated in twisted scripture are received by the brainwashed flocks as manna from heaven. Read all the excerpts from that man's book. The truth is out there, Mulder, and I'm boarding up the door to keep it away.
Then the recent elections repulse the ever-repulsive Repugnicans and show Democrats able to defeat the Empire. A small spark of hope kindles itself in my breast. Bush's poll numbers are dwindling like the number of prominent Repugnicans who aren't either indicted or under investigation for wrongdoing. My rational side tells me not to count any damned chickens while all the eggs are being juggled by so many Bubbas who are drunk and trying to watch NASCAR while scratching their asses. My irrational side simply giggles and squeals "Oh my Gawd!" repetitively like some cheerleader on her first meth high. My Goth inner core is wanting to strangle that bitch about now.
So you see, my friends, this is not the first time I don't know whether to fish or cut bait. There are times that blissful ignorance looks attractive, then I force myself to go shopping and see examples all around proving that it really isn't.
THE MEME
| You Should Get a PhD in Liberal Arts (like political science, literature, or philosophy) |
 You're a great thinker and a true philosopher. You'd make a talented professor or writer. |
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no subject
Date: 2005-11-11 06:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-11 06:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-11 07:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-11 03:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-11 08:38 pm (UTC)He and Bob Odenkirk used to have a great sketch comedy show on HBO called "Mr. Show".
*Gives standing ovation*
Date: 2005-11-11 09:08 am (UTC)But your text, once more, deserves as big an audience as possible! Spread it wherever, or print it on posters to hang in malls ;-)!
You are one hell of a brilliant ranter, lady!
You seen Big Box Mart yet?
Date: 2005-11-11 03:22 pm (UTC)That must be a cloud of happy smoke.
Date: 2005-11-11 03:32 pm (UTC)He obviously hasn't heard of such places as India, Malaysia, Thailand, China or $hitech outsource country de jour.
Re: You seen Big Box Mart yet?
Date: 2005-11-11 03:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-13 05:04 am (UTC)I probably need it- my problem lately is that I just don't give a shit.
I bought stuff at Wal-Mart today. My excuse was that I don't know the area well enough to get a whole list of stuff without it it taking all day and many miles.
But still...you should have seen it. A Wal-Mart with a backdrop of a stunning evergreen-covered mountain, topped with snow and surrounded with mist. It's enough to make you lose your lunch, really.
A reason for hope
Date: 2005-11-15 11:58 pm (UTC)