Categorized | Domestic Affairs, Education, Journalism, Living, Media, Point of View, Politics, Religion, The Loony Rightwing
Stop TELLING Me Stuff!
by exeye
Posted on 14 May 2010 | 12:35 am 
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Headline – “Dog gnaws off baby’s testicles.”. Yeah. Sorry. I’ve been doing my best Lady Macbeth imitation with the “Out, out, damn spot!” on THAT one. Good luck to you. Did I NEED to know this? Is this some epidemic for which the public has to be apprised? Is there something I can DO about this? Or, is this just a nail in my head, killing brain cells, and occupying others that should be thinking about more constructive things?
Twisters in The Great Plains, floods, fires. Do I need to know all of the gory details 24/7? A child is killed in Miami, a woman is raped in New York, a family of five dies in a house fire in Toledo, another family is killed in a car accident in Omaha. This information helps me how, exactly?
Believe me, I’m very empathetic, but that’s the problem. I feel bad for these victims, but what can I, as a resident of Los Angeles DO about it? What lesson can I take from this? Or, is it just more nails in my head? If I were rich, I suppose I could make a donation to ease my soul, or if I were religious, I could say a prayer. But, as a godless poor guy, all I can do is feel bad about it.
“If it bleeds, it leads” – the old journalistic axiom. However, in the old days (not “the good old days”, just earlier ones), you had the 6 O’clock News, the 11 O’clock news, and on Sundays, you had Meet the Press, then 60 Minutes, etc. But, in the comparatively short time span, relative to the current 24/7 news cycles, many, if not all, of these stories would not be covered due to time constraints – you’d have to read a newspaper to get those kind of gory stories with full detail, and even then, they were generally local. Now, it’s a constant cavalcade of death, dismemberments, rapes, murders, abductions, missing women and children, fires, car accidents, and on and on and on. Certainly, Amber Alerts are fantastic, but only if you’re somewhere near the abduction – if a child goes missing in Boston, how can I, in Los Angeles, help? Cautionary notes about drunk drivers, or fire safety are also useful, but many of these stories are just tragic accidents, and there’s nothing that can be gleaned from them that is of any use to anyone.
They’re just more nails in our heads. We either get beaten down by this litany of tragedy, or worse, become inured to it. In total they make us feel impotent, that our lives are out of our control, that fate and/or unseen forces have more control over our destiny than we do. Add to that issues that are too big and complex for many to grasp, and a feeling of our lives spinning out of control can occur. Some of us, while still feeling terrible about it, realize that these things have always happened, and try as best we can to not assume personal responsibility for them, with varying degrees of success, and do the best we can to understand the complexities of modern life. Many, however, seek safety, security, someone/something to blame, a return to a simpler time.
I believe that the Teabaggers, the right-wing in general, and the Evangelicals, are members of the latter group. Their ferocity in their quest for a return to simpler times, their adamant belief that the government, the Gays, abortion, etc., are the very cause of all of their problems, is a symptom of this feeling of impotence, of a lack of control over their lives. They seek to take back control by creating a “primal cause”, and then targeting it with every fear and angst-ridden fiber of their beings. They believe that by taking their fear, sadness, and feelings of impotence in their lives, and turning them into anger, and then firing that anger at any chosen target, that that will fix all of their issues. They’re wrong, of course, but if you tell them that, they just see you as another nail in their head, and you get added to the list of targets. This is why there’s no reasoning with them – they see their particular cause as a defense of their very LIFE, and they will NOT brook any disagreement.
I’m not making excuses for them, just attempting to explain a bit. I’m also not putting the entire blame on the news agencies – I feel that they’re a key factor in modern life, but not the only one. Education, as usual, is the key. People who have adapted well to modern life, have a varied, full, rich education, and have supplemented it with experiences that took them outside of their “normal life”. Others have had either a poor education, a limited one, or a targeted one. The ones who had a poor education can certainly educate themselves, and it’s incumbent upon them to do so. Some had a limited education – those raised by right-wingers, who allowed learning only what fit into the right-wing philosophy. Devoutly religious types had targeted educations – they were taught ONLY what their teachers wanted them to know and no more. All else was considered untruth or blasphemy. Our worldview is based on our education and experience, so it’s obvious that limiting either of these things leaves one with a limited worldview. And, if that limited worldview includes the mandate that no other knowledge is allowed, since all that need be known already is, then personal progress is stifled.
This is why our society is currently so fractured, and why it seems that there’s no easy fix available. It explains why right-wingers of all ilk want to destroy public education, why they wish to limit scientific inquiry, why they rail against progress. Progress is what they fear, and education and science destroy the construct that is their lives – that they “have seen the enemy, and it is us!”. Education and science would enlighten them, and not allow them to maintain this rationalization of a life cause, and so it must be destroyed or impeded. Education and science lead to progress, and progress leaves them farther and farther behind, and makes the world an even more confusing, less understandable place. They have educated themselves into being “Strangers in a strange land.”, and rather than re-educate themselves, they seek to change the land – by brute force.
Psychological/philosophical/opinion rant over. I need to pry some nails out of my head, so that I might be able to get some sleep tonight, so that I can be fresh for tomorrows nails.
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31 Responses to “Stop TELLING Me Stuff!”
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I’m starting the “No More Nails” party. Rule #1. Do not accept blame/responsibility for those things over which you have no control.
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May 14th, 2010 at 2:09 pm
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I work on that constantly, with very little success. If you figure out how not to give a shit about this sort of thing, please let me know.
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May 14th, 2010 at 2:18 pm
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Me, too.
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The nail analogy is such a good one, Ex. I imagine we use the head-on-brick-wall smiley so much because that emotion arrives with alarming regularity in regards to the opposition.
I do think that liberals need to take a leaf about nostalgia, though. It is a sure sell in this country to harken back to a romanticized time or trend. We market the ‘look back’ in everything from fashion to entertainment to technology. In our house right now, for example, you’d find Earth shoes, hotpants, a bathroom lava lamp, bell bottom low rider jeans, lots of Mad Men, blue liquid eyeliner, a retro toaster, Fiestaware, gigantic sunglasses, James Dean and Elvis movies, two working turntables and rows of vinyl, Artek chairs, platform shoes and a clear bubble umbrella with matching go-go boots. And I’m eying this little goodie.
Paradoxically we tend to be suckered in by the campaign that packages ‘change’ the best; so per usual the contradictions are a dangerous swamp to navigate.
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May 14th, 2010 at 9:22 am
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When you are banned effectively from communication or civilized debate as we so often are, the head on brick wall smiley is a way to vent frustration.
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May 14th, 2010 at 9:51 am
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I disagree… we are not banned from civilized debate. Here we are, on the Range, free to say what we think, believe, or wish were true. And when we feel the urge, we write a post… It doesn’t get better than that (unless it’s around my kitchen table)
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May 14th, 2010 at 10:18 am
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Good morning, Ms Doc. A caveat, if I may be so bold. Here, well it’s nice to have a place where we feel welcome and all, but, it’s a little like preaching to the choir. (no offense meant, guys)
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May 14th, 2010 at 2:08 pm
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Kitkat –
No offense meant guys, but I put these posts up to get them out of my head and into yours. That, and while it’s nice to discuss them with rational folk, any hope for actually affecting anyone with anything I write, lies in the fact that we get so many visitors – a fair percentage of whom are probably conservative-leaning (at least), and it’s THEM that I’m “preaching to”, if I’m preaching at all.
We live in a drive-by information world, and if my, your, our, viewpoint is not expressed cogently, and placed where others who may not agree, or may not have considered an alternative viewpoint, can see it, then, they will continue to find their “news and opinion” at the same right-leaning sites.
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May 14th, 2010 at 2:16 pm
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I hope since I’ve been posting here, my sister and others in the family (did I mention that??????) have been among those you are writing toward with such good sense. It worries me because if anything happens, My niece and I are the only two (well, her husband is a moderate and very sensible) who can help them past the guilt they will surely feel.
Most of us lose our compass at some point, but we have never had, since the crazies leading up to the Uncivil War, such mass psychosis.
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May 14th, 2010 at 2:22 pm
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That’s a good point – that, by posting here, you also can clearly state your philosophy for those who know you, but may not agree with you, and do it in a way that allows for no arguments. It also may – though apparently not in some cases – let those close to you know that you’re not going to be “converted” to their way of thinking.
As I said, the internet has given crazy people the tools to find each other, organize, get funding, etc. They can be more effective as a group, and more disruptive. Technology and science have always been, like knowledged, a double-edged sword.
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May 14th, 2010 at 2:02 pm
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I bet the food is good there, too.
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May 14th, 2010 at 5:21 pm
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The corporate Mainstream Media certainly has neutralized the voice of the left. 2000 Teabagheads get together to rant inanely about the socialist horrors of providing medical aid for people who are sick and it’s all you hear about, day in and day out. 20,000 gather to protest the malfeasance and abuses of Wall Street and you don’t hear a peep from the MSM. 50,000 protest Arizona’s bigoted legislation and it gets no coverage at all.
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May 14th, 2010 at 2:03 pm
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Bear – It’s fine and normal to remember, even treasure, the past. There’s a difference between nostalgia, and attempting to LIVE in an idealized version of the past that never existed. Many of those we’re dealing with have been convinced that perfection has already been reached by our society – in the 1950’s – but then those nasty Libruls destroyed it. In the same way, they’re convinced that the government is the cause of all of their ills, so they want to run the government themselves, so they at least have control over what ills they inflict upon themselves and others.
The nail analogy is an actual one – sometimes, when I read a headline like the one I quoted, I get an actual sharp pain in my head, like someone just drove a nail in there. It’s frustration and impotence – what can I DO about it? Nothing, of course, and that’s what gets to us all.
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ex, you are so wise. And funny. And smart.
I don’t know if we can educate middle aged America or not, but lord, I wish they would grow up and face reality. It’s not that bad.
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May 14th, 2010 at 9:55 am
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They ARE facing their reality…or what they perceive as their reality. Most of these people have never had a forum before where they could find others who agree with or understand the world they inhabit. We make fun of their lack of education and/or knowledge, but we haven’t walked in their shoes or seen the walls (imagined or otherwise) that hold them prisoner.
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May 14th, 2010 at 10:21 am
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Can it be called a “reality” if it’s not factually based? I’m veering into philosophical territory (not to mention quantum) but I think it’s a fair question.
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May 14th, 2010 at 1:56 pm
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Kit and MsDoc – We either create our own individual reality, which is hard work, or we allow it to be created for us. Those who follow the beck’s and palin’s, feel that they have lost control over their lives, their reality, and they have sought out someone, anyone, who will, effectively, pat them on the head and tell them it’ll all be alright, that it’s not THEIR fault, that it’s (Fill in the blank) fault, and that if they just get angry enough, and stay that way, and never, ever, listen to anyone else, or any contradictory information, data, facts, etc., that they can get control of their lives back.
Another conundrum of “the information age”, is that groups like the Teabaggers would probably not gotten formed, or at least would not have garnered such attention, if it were not for the internet, the 24/7 news cycles that need filled, the ability of each and every type of crazy to find others who agree with them and band together.
I think that the only fix is time. If we can get our “ship of state” righted, and on course for long enough – a daunting task – then these type groups will find the objects of their anger disappearing, and they will have to focus on new targets. The disenfranchised and angry, like the poor, will always be with us. We can only try to minimize both groups and the effect they have on our society.
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May 14th, 2010 at 2:05 pm
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I just hope we have time on our side.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6wcEik_JY8
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Sorry it wasn’t a response to you ex.
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Hey folks, you want a scoop? Do some poking around the Crossroads Antigua guitar fest thing happening in Chicago. Ask a few questions about where the money is going. Why Antigua?
Peace, Hope ya’ll are well!
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May 14th, 2010 at 5:00 am
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Froggie!!!!
Glad you’ve hopped in!!!!Don’t hop off again.
How’s tricks???
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May 14th, 2010 at 5:35 am
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Benn well. Working hard. Here’s my recent fun. http://picasaweb.google.com/Franoinmuncher/SpringFlowers10#
http://picasaweb.google.com/Franoinmuncher/HarrisonBrothers#
My fave recent pic.
http://picasaweb.google.com/Franoinmuncher/Fishing042910#5465806913798 793858
Love every one of ya’ll!
CJ
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May 14th, 2010 at 5:56 am
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Sorry to go on, but this has to be a close second.
http://picasaweb.google.com/Franoinmuncher/Fishing042910#5465791408049 372226
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May 14th, 2010 at 7:51 am
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Beautiful work froggie, and it was a delight to see your moniker when I tuned in this morning.
I wanna’ go fishing now.
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May 14th, 2010 at 8:16 am
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Great work, Frog, how the hell have you been?
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May 14th, 2010 at 2:31 pm
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OMG Froggy! So good to see you!
Thanks for the pics!
Absolutely gorgeous!
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May 14th, 2010 at 5:29 pm
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Fantastic shots, Froggie. It just occurred to me that a great photo is like a great haiku — it has a quality of tathata, suchness. It is not saying or doing or meaning; it’s simply being.
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May 14th, 2010 at 6:27 pm
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Hey Frog! Glad to hear you’re well. Pix are great. Thanks for sharing. Don’t be such a stranger
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May 14th, 2010 at 7:58 am
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FanTASTic photos, MJF!
Good to see you.
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May 14th, 2010 at 8:29 am
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Absolutely Fantastic and beautiful, MJF. Good to see you.
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