Cuppa One
A quarter to one in the morning. I tried to sleep during the day, preparing for our release night, but I didn't get much after 10 AM. I'm doing well so far, just poured my first cup of leaded coffee. Sure tastes good.
Well, I put them on the line. I wrote to five friends asking them to be a part of the theatre I hope to get rolling. I read and reread them so many times I wasn't registering what I was reading any longer. Save them, polish them, make them perfect... No! That's just evasion by procrastination, one of my (old) tactics. So, I sent them. Boom. Don't expect to hear anything for a while, but that won't stop me checking my inbox all the time. Like a dope I sent them from my work account, forgetting to change the sender. That means I'll have to log in to my work account to check later in the weekend. Much more bother. Bother.
After I'm done here, it's on the motorcycle and to Seattle. I bet it is a cold ride. It has been frosty all week, and as I don't commute on the freeway it's not too bad. A shorter trip to Seattle from the office timewise, but it will be very nippy at 60mph. I was thinking of going to Caffe Vita, but they don't open until 7AM. Maybe I'll go home and sleep for a couple hours before my 11AM class. I write that down, and it makes a lot of sense now. Probably because it wasn't nearly 2 AM when I packed up the laptop and such planning on a morning writing session.
I have a simmering rage. The history of the House Un-American Activities Committee gave me a different perception of the 50's and the adjacent decades. We so often look back on those days, as days of innocence. Bullshit with a capital B. Anyone with functioning gray matter should have seen through the bizarre hype about the communist threat. It became so embedded people now fear it without any concept or understanding. A national bogeyman, nothing more. I'm not enthralled with the idea of non-ownership, but neither am I enthralled our version of capitalism, in which government and business exercise increasingly authoritarian control over the population for our own good and safety. Interesting we call it privatization. It was tried seventy years ago, then we called it fascism. Changing the name doesn't seem to have made it more ethical, compassionate, or palatable.
We prosecute a president for having an affair, and telling a 'gentleman's lie'. The very next president lies about his military service, obtains and buries the official records, lies to start a war, condones war crimes, prosecutes grunts following said guidance, promotes the man who codified the guidance, promotes another man who was implicitly involved in US war crimes against the Sandinista government, and so on. As a nation we resent the fact we are no longer respected and trusted like we once were. We lie and say we simply can't understand anyone not idolizing us, so we blame the rest of the world for not thinking terribly highly of us. We need to be sent into the corner, and have our graham crackers taken away. Apparently we are not mature enough to be treated in any other manner.
Today I turned on the tv for a bit, switching between the British version of Whose Line Is It Anyway? on the comedy channel and Columbo on bravo while I cooked and ate my lunch. I don't watch much tv, and daytime tv is not something I've watched in years. The ads were disturbing, especially those for casinos and reality shows. They pandered to something unsavory and dark. Are these ads actually producing revenue? I shudder to think they must be. It's boggling to me to think anybody can watch these and think, "Gee I think I'll go to the casino tonight! And tomorrow, I'll watch survivor.", because of these ads.
More subtle is the tone for more sedate commercials. They are somehow reminiscent of the fifties and early sixties. The innocent, wholesome facade which did not age well at all. You see those commercials now and the mockery is automatic. I get that same feeling watching most ads today. Like saccharine gone horribly bad. Is it just my disillusionment with America at the moment, or do you see the same things?
Well, I put them on the line. I wrote to five friends asking them to be a part of the theatre I hope to get rolling. I read and reread them so many times I wasn't registering what I was reading any longer. Save them, polish them, make them perfect... No! That's just evasion by procrastination, one of my (old) tactics. So, I sent them. Boom. Don't expect to hear anything for a while, but that won't stop me checking my inbox all the time. Like a dope I sent them from my work account, forgetting to change the sender. That means I'll have to log in to my work account to check later in the weekend. Much more bother. Bother.
After I'm done here, it's on the motorcycle and to Seattle. I bet it is a cold ride. It has been frosty all week, and as I don't commute on the freeway it's not too bad. A shorter trip to Seattle from the office timewise, but it will be very nippy at 60mph. I was thinking of going to Caffe Vita, but they don't open until 7AM. Maybe I'll go home and sleep for a couple hours before my 11AM class. I write that down, and it makes a lot of sense now. Probably because it wasn't nearly 2 AM when I packed up the laptop and such planning on a morning writing session.
I have a simmering rage. The history of the House Un-American Activities Committee gave me a different perception of the 50's and the adjacent decades. We so often look back on those days, as days of innocence. Bullshit with a capital B. Anyone with functioning gray matter should have seen through the bizarre hype about the communist threat. It became so embedded people now fear it without any concept or understanding. A national bogeyman, nothing more. I'm not enthralled with the idea of non-ownership, but neither am I enthralled our version of capitalism, in which government and business exercise increasingly authoritarian control over the population for our own good and safety. Interesting we call it privatization. It was tried seventy years ago, then we called it fascism. Changing the name doesn't seem to have made it more ethical, compassionate, or palatable.
We prosecute a president for having an affair, and telling a 'gentleman's lie'. The very next president lies about his military service, obtains and buries the official records, lies to start a war, condones war crimes, prosecutes grunts following said guidance, promotes the man who codified the guidance, promotes another man who was implicitly involved in US war crimes against the Sandinista government, and so on. As a nation we resent the fact we are no longer respected and trusted like we once were. We lie and say we simply can't understand anyone not idolizing us, so we blame the rest of the world for not thinking terribly highly of us. We need to be sent into the corner, and have our graham crackers taken away. Apparently we are not mature enough to be treated in any other manner.
Today I turned on the tv for a bit, switching between the British version of Whose Line Is It Anyway? on the comedy channel and Columbo on bravo while I cooked and ate my lunch. I don't watch much tv, and daytime tv is not something I've watched in years. The ads were disturbing, especially those for casinos and reality shows. They pandered to something unsavory and dark. Are these ads actually producing revenue? I shudder to think they must be. It's boggling to me to think anybody can watch these and think, "Gee I think I'll go to the casino tonight! And tomorrow, I'll watch survivor.", because of these ads.
More subtle is the tone for more sedate commercials. They are somehow reminiscent of the fifties and early sixties. The innocent, wholesome facade which did not age well at all. You see those commercials now and the mockery is automatic. I get that same feeling watching most ads today. Like saccharine gone horribly bad. Is it just my disillusionment with America at the moment, or do you see the same things?
1 Comments:
That's one powerful cup of coffee to get you going on a political rant like that! *smile* I like it.
I notice many of the same things and am disgusted by them. However, the wonderment displayed by the populace as to why we're not more well liked in the world can, IMO, be traced back to that willful ignorance that I keep bringing up.
We do this in elections. Rather than study the issues and wade through the incredible (I mean that as a perjorative) rhetoric presented by major party candidates, the American public tends to prefer the lazy way our and pick either the person that they like the best or hate the least.
They do the same when it comes to our standing with the rest of the world. Rather than take the time to read history and understand our place in the world and how we got here - and I mean read different sources of history, compare and contrast them and reach your own conclusions, which are never nearly as rosy as what the dominant political culture projects - the majority of the public wants to "trust" their public officials (it's their job to do this, right?) and assume that they are doing what's best for the world and best for the country. We want to believe that we're a nice player in the sandbox and the truth is that, as individuals, many of us are, but as a government, we're often bullies.
Politicians, like any good con artists cum propagandists recognize this implicit trait rampant amongst most of the populace and they prey on it. They exploit it. They manipulate it. They take a rather good trait and use it's trust and naiveté against the populace.
The populace are complicit in their willful ignorance and their lack of diligence. Where have I seen that before in history?
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