Up to My Ass in Shit

Tags

crap conversations with the stupid, Ferguson, immigration

I keep going back for more, because I can’t believe that people can say these things, let alone think them.

Let’s be blunt. I can believe that people think these things but not  stupid enough to voice them.

Let’s be brutal. I can’t believe you can be on the Far Right and be this unable to even see how stupid what you say sounds.

I mean, seriously. Be a flaming conservative. Hate people by the train-load full. But no finesse in at least pretending otherwise to the world? Do you have to Rambo deliver your stupid?

I’m admonished from time to time to be gentle, to be kinder, to be more willing to assume that people are NOT the image that they so studiously work to portray. Forgive me if I don’t have time for niceties. It’s the looks, acts, talks, walks, lika. . . . Am I supposed to assume otherwise? Why are you entitled to the benefit of the doubt?

I had two fairly long conversations this week with idiots. I am not gonna quote verbatim because that would be boring, but I’ll give you a good idea of what transpired. Names have been changed to protect the children of these bastions of extreme stupid.

One of the “discussions” involved immigration. Peggy Sue was against all that stuff. Peggy Sue said the key word was “illegal”, in fact Peggy Sue just made the whole process simple,

“They are illegals,” she said in exasperation, “they have entered the country ILLEGALLY.”

“So, what’s that mean to you? I mean illegal is a word that describes some state of mind you have. It’s illegal to drive over the speed limit, to not pay your fair share of taxes, to litter. What does entry across the border without papers mean to you?”

“THEY CROSSED ILLEGALLY,” she shouted.

I get that, besides breaking a law, which we all do, why does that bother you so much? You see I see the term “illegals” as a code word for (a) they are brown and I don’t like that, (b) they will take our jobs, (c) they will change our way of life. I see that as racist, coming to you from Fox Noise and their hate machine.

After a few hours, I got this response:

“I’ll make this clear. They are breaking the law, and it’s important to know who crosses our borders because they may be carrying diseases to infect our children,  they may be criminals, or they may be terrorists. I’m not a racist. The only racists are liberals playing the race card,” she suggested in her best recall of what Fox said.

Tens of thousands of children are born in this country every year. Do you know which ones will be criminals or get diseases, or become terrorists? If you get a new neighbor do you know this? Your neighbor is not legally required to vaccinate their children. Why do you impose this on others? Did you know that South American countries on a whole have better rates of vaccination than this country? Are there ANY verifiable reports of terrorists crossing the southern border? Do you worry about the northern border ever?

Jack Sprinkle popped in at that point with “you’re wordy. You baffle with bullshit.”

Thanks Jack, that certainly enlightened the fly on the wall.

“Typical liberal. If you disagree with them it’s because you watch Fox News!” shouted Peter Pooch. And then to emphasize the point, he added, “I watch Fox and I’m proud of it.”

Later, we gave thanks for Thanksgiving, brought to us by all those hard-working migrants across the land who pick your food so you can celebrate. Thank you Jesus, for this food. Jesús, the worker, says da nada.

Peggy Sue scrunches up her forehead, denoting that she’s thinking hard, and asks, “they don’t celebrate Thanksgiving do they?”

FACEPALMS ALL AROUND at that one. Yeah, Peggy Sue they do. Oh triple sigh.

We move on to Ferguson.

Peter Pooch is all to excited to discuss this one.

Michael Brown is described as “a criminal, a thug, a giant, or better yet Giant Thug, a 6’5″ 270 pound charging cigar stealing police attacking criminal “. It’s all summed up this way:

“Giant Thug robs store
Attacks police officer
Gets shot for it
Cop was in the right”

Um except for the fact, that the Officer was the same height, so giant is perhaps a bit much. Except that he was never convicted of a thing, so “thug and criminal” is not correct. Except that there is conflicting evidence as to whether he attacked the officer. Your conclusion that the “cop was right” is your conclusion, not the facts there.

Peter Pooch was not done, “I will take the word of a police officer over a known criminal any day of the week.”

No doubt you will, and that disqualifies you Pete from sitting on a jury anywhere in the US of A. Got that?

It got worse:

If the black community wants to get ahead in this world they need to learn about education they need to learn that the leaders they have now such as Rev. Al have been lying to them for many years There may be some racism in this country but it’s very little compared to air to 50 years ago we have black senators black congressman black police officers black fireman black politicians by the way have a black president which it entire group of white people voted for There are more black racist than there are white racist these days

I gotta hand it to ya Pete, you don’t miss a beat of the Fox News distortion. And the African-American community thanks you for all that good advice on how to be white. I’m sure they will have family discussions and implementation strategies soon employed now that they understand how to be as you wish them to be.

African-American friends I have don’t listen to L Sharpton and And they teach their children to respect the laws of this country they teach their children to get an education and they teach their children to have respect for themselves I don’t riot and they don’t loot and I don’t attack police officers they have respect for each other for themselves for the walk

Which I take to mean that Peter Pooch’s African-American friends, are just like him. I can imagine them all calling Michael Brown a “giant thug”. But then I snap back into reality. African-American “friends” my ass.

As I was telling my husband, I’m not a really nice person. I sorta like poking sticks at caged animals if you get the metaphor. But it’s awfully sad too. Knowing that racism is so much a part of our daily lives still. At least in large parts of our country. Such conversations no doubt occur down here in New Mexico, but in much more isolation I believe.

I don’t meet many in my daily life here.

There are so many errors. The conclusion that is held by so many uber right wingers that liberals and Blacks are the real racists today, because they don’t understand what the word racist means. Pretending that whites are the new “oppressed” “race”. Pretending that racism can be masked by “criminal” and “disease” and “illegal”.

Going about daily lives sanctimoniously, because you are “Christian” and “good” and “law-abiding”. Manipulating the world to reflect how you want it to be because it is what you envision as safe.

Life is mean, ugly, dirty, and freakin’ complicated. There are no answers that are definitive about most anything. There are things that are better or worse than some alternative. Life is unstable. It always was always will be. If you find a place of quiet, where life is serene, consider yourself lucky. Seek out good people and cling to them for the crazies are numerous and will drive you insane otherwise.

People are people everywhere and every time. There are not bad people, only bad situations that some find themselves in. Some of the fault is theirs, a lot of it is not. You’re not better just different. God favors no one. You don’t have any right to anything, you have only the privilege of certain advantages. If you spent half the time helping others attain your advantages instead of trying to protect your stuff, we’d all be better off by twice.

If it sounds like hate, it usually is. If you start using the word them, you are hating somebody. Stop it.

Get over yourself. You’re gonna die and be forgotten, in probably no longer than three generations.

Smell a flower. Drink a glass of wine. Watch a sunset. Smile at a stranger.

And get over yourself.

Some Thoughts on Books

Tags

Books, classical literature, education

I grew up in the 50’s and 60’s. I went to a normal county school. Bond issues always passed. Our schools were modern and clean. The books were up-to-date and in good repair. We had a lab and a gym, a football field, a cafeteria. All the normal accouterments. Our parents were mostly factory workers, many probably hadn’t graduated high school, but most probably had. What did they know? What did I know?

How does one judge one’s school when one has never known another?

So I matriculated through, and thought I got the normal A- education, not quite the private school, but wasn’t I one of those American students who set the bar for the rest of the world? I thought so.

Looking back, I remember reading Silas Marner, The Scarlet Letter, and some farcical redo of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar (the remaining memory is “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears [a bag of ears lands at Antony’s feet]). That’s all I remember.

I remember as I prepared to go to college having a pamphlet entitled something to the effect: “The one hundred books every college freshman should have read.” I had read almost none. I set up rectifying that, but I don’t think I read more than about six.

I majored in political science and dabbled in philosophy and whatever else fancied me. I took a writing course, but never a formal literature class as I recall.

At some point I realized that I was not well versed in literature per se. It comes from reading books which explain an emotion or an event with reference to another well-known classic and, well, I seemed never to have read it or understood the comparison therefore. A lot of fairly heavy academic subjects often reference the hero or heroine of a fictional account to explain someone else. I usually missed those too.

It was then that I began to suspect that perhaps I had not been well taught in high school.

That’s an easy explanation and serves to put the blame squarely on another set of shoulders.

In part it might be true. I don’t know, but surely no English teacher I had in my youth ever managed to find the right button with me. I read a ton of fiction as a child, but most all of it was cheap trash that was not notable either by title or author. I got most of it from the school library. An only child has to fill some hours every week doing something and reading was my escape when  the time of day or situation presented no friend to wile away the hours with.

In part it was probably due to parents who were not readers. To my knowledge my mother never read a book, at least that I ever saw. My father confined his reading to the 25¢ paperback novel about the west or about the war. There were no “great novels” in our home. It’s little wonder I had no idea what one was.

Along came law school, and there was no time for fiction. I read day and night of course but not fiction. And then there were other interests over the years. I read deeply into paleontology, the origins of man, and astronomy, the origins of the universe. That later turned into a deep interest in Christianity which blossomed into a return to academia. Have you picked up the theme here? Origins. I read tons of science fiction for several years.

So reading was never the issue, but fiction fell by the way side, and I found in my fifties that gosh, I was pretty illiterate when it came to American authors and most of Europe’s best. I had read most of Twain, most of Dickens. I’d read Moby Dick,  and a few others. I’d read a fair number of more popular authors like Leon Uris. I read all of Shakespeare. I read Homer. I read Thucydides and parts of Tacitus. I’d read parts of Aristotle, and all of Plato, and most of the Greek playwrights.

I had not read Chaucer or Flaubert, Proust, Cervantes, Hemingway or Fitzgerald, Salinger, or Hesse, or Conrad, Vonnegut, Plath or Dreiser, Sinclair, Cather. Oh the list was and is quite long. I’ve read most of these now, at least one of their novels, and a host of others. I’ve seen so brilliantly what real writing is all about.

The list remains long  in this late attempt to catch up to where I think I should be. And in the end, it falls upon me, only me. I can push off some blame for not being directed as a child, but surely I decided as an adult to spend my time on this rather than that. And perhaps that was not wrong, so much as it led me to these beliefs and not some others.

Who is to say which would be better? I’m convinced in some real sense that reading some of these authors at 20 is not profitable. It takes a lot of living to extract the value of say a Salinger or a Plath don’t you think?

If we can think beyond the tip of our nose, then it is on each of us how much we will decide to benefit from the wisdom of those that have walked before us. Hermann Hesse says that wisdom cannot be taught. One can convey knowledge but wisdom? No. And he is right. We do not learn wisdom from these greats, but we gain insight and perspective, and these are, to me, some of the building blocks of wisdom.

At my age there is little else to strive for, except to be known as wise. Today a nice enough fellow suggested that I wrote long replies to appear brilliant and cover up the bullshit of what I was saying. I think that not true actually, I speak in carefully constructed sentences to be properly understood. But of course, flowery prose does have a way of making shit smell better. So there was a point to his statement if alas he only meant to dismiss my remarks with mean-pointed barb.

Still, words are the tools of my craft, and I admit to being a bit in love with the playing with them. Yet, in reading so many marvelous for-the-ages authors, I’m reminded at how much wisdom is offered if not always received. And I’m the worse for it for taking as long as I have to discover what I have missed.

Nothing to do now, save to read on. Read on, my captain.

PS: there are enumerable lists of “The 100 books everyone should read”. They are probably all equally good and bad. But they do offer a guideline. I’d stick with newer models if I were you, since the older one’s are decidedly western-centric.

Livin’ Life Across America

Tags

states of the US

Create Your Own Visited States Map

You can find this on Facebook. My map is pretty bare compared to a lot I’ve seen. Many people have visited nearly every state in the union. I’m not especially a joyful traveler, i.e., I don’t really care much for the process. After the initial excitement of “starting” I’m pretty much happy to be drugged and awakened at the destination.  I find “sightseeing” tiresome. This may in fact be genetic or at least experientially  induced, because as a child we traveled hardly ever. We traveled to upstate Michigan and a couple of times to see relatives in Canada but that’s it. My father often remarked that “he had seen all the traveling he ever needed in the war.” So that was that.

So I have seldom traveled for pleasure, but rather for a reason. Business mostly or moving.

That has not stopped me from having rather definite opinions about most places, having seen them or not, or having at best tasted of their airports or highways and little else but a place to placate a growling stomach.

I rather assume that most of my impressions are wrong, at least the ones that are based on the aforementioned.

However, I shall relate some of them.

Shall we start with those I know best?

1. MICHIGAN:  born there, raised there. Flint to be exact. Lived in Detroit for many years as a working adult, already spiraling in major decline. Flint nothing more than the poorest of step-sisters. If Buffalo is the armpit of America, Flint is a dirty factory town with almost no redeeming qualities. When traveling, to say you were from Flint brought stares of non-comprehension, to say Detroit brought an instant compassionate grimace. Full of lovely trees and forests in the upper portions and lots of lakes. Good places to raise a family but know that everyone north and west of Detroit hates the city  for sucking the lifeblood of the state into its hungry jaws of need. Upper peninsula is like another country with more affinity for Wisconsin than down-staters. Cold and snowy in the winter, hot and humid in the summer and nearly always partly cloudy which used to piss me off as a young girl chasing a tan. Would rather push a hot poker in my eye that ever live there again. Seriously. You are not a true mid-western state, and you are way too unsophisticated to be an Eastern state. I do know a lot of fine people who live there and I don’t know why they do. Provincial as one would expect. If you must visit, stick to Ann Arbor and East Lansing.
2. CONNECTICUT: Lived there two years. Loved it immensely. New England is the place where it all began. Where constitutions were hidden in the hollows of trees dating from the 1660’s. Where cemeteries host the remains of revolutionary soldiers. Where a day trip can take your through five states and back home. Where the Atlantic is but a short drive. Where I-95 covers in part the Old Post Road that brought mail from the newly instituted Washington D.C. to Boston. Where the lights of NYC are but an hour’s train ride away. Where David Letterman lives and Paul Newman did, and Katherine Hepburn and Eugene O’Neill. It is the setting for A Long Day’s Journey into Night. Where houses bear signs designating their date of build in the 1700’s, and the whole place wreaks of history. What’s not to love? Where you realize that lots of street and county names in Michigan originated from. Home of Yale. Cosmopolitan as it gets.
3. IOWA: Lived there twelve years. Hated the very thought of it. Where dumb football players originated. Where one of your best friends can be a self-employed high school drop-out who is a man of all trades and would be unrecognizable  cleaned up and another of your best friends is a retired college professor and can discourse on a variety of subjects with ease. It’s a ying-yang state, proving that to be rural is not to necessarily be a bumpkin. Proving that wholesome farming people are some of the best you will ever meet always willing to lend a hand. Living near a town that is unincorporated where everyone knows your name and nobody is pretentious. Going to a church where there are a dozen retired and current professors and even the CEO of one of the two major hospitals. Where a first class college town exists but an hour away and art thrives in the hearts and minds of people who live in small towns. Truly a state not to be believed by the average person. Just don’t go west, where it all falls apart and becomes exactly what you would expect–red neck nuts who vote for Steve King.
4. NEW MEXICO: Lived here two and one-half years and probably for the rest of my life. Visited once for two weeks back in the early 90’s. Realized it was special. Mountains everywhere, most all raised from volcanic activity. Lava is abundant in some places, black rock protruding in forested hills and mountain trails. Some of the most magnificent scenery, certainly to rival Arizona and Oregon and Washington State. Deserts and mesas painted in desert colors. Turquoise skies and red clay sands. In the North and West the Native populations are prevalent, in the South we are filled with a wonderful mix of Hispanic peoples, most from Mexico. The mix of Native and Mexican brings its own special Southwestern flair to decorating, cooking and architecture that is truly New Mexican. It embraces the cultural heritage of its peoples like no other state I believe. Anglos know they tread on land that belonged to others and they are truly blessed guests  welcomed to a land that was not savaged by the greed that faced Texas and California, because nobody saw anything here worth pursuing here. It’s roots are deep as New Englands and probably more obvious with petroglyphs and carved declarations abounding on its cliffs. Spanish conquistadors claimed the land for the Church and for the Empire of Spain “Here was the General Don Diego de Vargas, who conquered for our Holy Faith and for the Royal Crown all of New Mexico at his own expense, year of 1692.” etched in the rock at El Morro.
5. TEXAS: Been to Houston and Dallas. Not especially impressed. Traveled to El Paso more than a dozen times. El Paso and Las Cruces share a television network and weather. Lots of our commercials refer to locations in El Paso. So El Paso at least doesn’t seem exactly Texan to me. Still, I don’t like crossing the state line. People drive like maniacs. State is just too damn big. Sign not long after entering Texan from New Mexico, says something like Beaumont 856 miles. That is just too far. Traveled through the handle of Texas from Oklahoma. Open, boring land. You just have to wonder at a state that can produce a Stockman, a Gohmert and a Perry in one generation. The water must be bad. Still I have some fine friends who live there, and I wish them well. Some dude who sells cars has his mother hawking for him–old bat who says, “he’s such a good boy”. This to a man in his 60’s. Doesn’t speak well for sanity there.
6. GEORGIA: Confine yourself to the airport and you will be fine. I am deeply concerned that venturing too far from it will lead to your being sucked into the vortex  that will spit you out in stupid Alabama where all thought goes to die.
7. ALABAMA: Already said all that needs be said.
8. MINNESOTA: People talk funny. If there are aliens, they left their kids  here. They elected a wrestler as governor. They elected Michele Bachmann. They were the real site of the television show Fargo, which tells you just how confused they really are. They may have 10,000 lakes but every one of them suckers is frozen over now. They live there by choice. The capital of stupid has this state in its sights.
9. WYOMING: Not to be confused with Montana, but always is. Open skies. Forever ruined because Dick (the Dick) Cheney claims it as home. If ever a mother should have thrown that chick from the nest, this was the child that should have landed on his head. Well, actually he probably did. Think cowboys and cattle and the women who attach themselves to a man wearing boots with cow shit through the house. Ain’t a pretty sight is it? Look up and things are much better.
10. DELAWARE: Just a throughway to other places. Nothing to see here folks, move along.
11. KENTUCKY: a place only horses and drunks can love.
12. OHIO: You have to get really high to forget you are in this god-forsaken waste of good space. It has nothing to recommend it. Two demerits for housing that atrocious university which clings to “THE” as its claim to importance.
13. COLORADO: Home to aging hippies and fundamentalists. What a mix. Watch where you walk. A good place to buy pot.
14. CALIFORNIA: Psychopathic and schizophrenic at the same time. Everything and nothing. New York on steroids, or the new laid back New Sophisticates. Has it all with a place for every value or moral turpitude invented by humans on the fast track to nowhere. But they all think they are going somewhere. There’s the rub. And the charm.
15. NEVADA: only if you gamble.
16. MAINE: “Let’s go to sight-see in Maine,” said nobody ever. They re-elected a vile and stupid governor, which means their synapses have long frozen over.
17. NEW HAMPSHIRE: Like to think of themselves as independents but they just switch back and forth every two years because they talk funny too and can’t understand each other.
18. FLORIDA: shaped like a penis. And they think like one too. Visit soon. Climate change will make it history.
19. MISSISSIPPI: has a very strange and sick relationship with the letter  S. and I, and P for that matter. Avoid it. Fifty-two percent of its citizens cannot spell it.
20. WASHINGTON STATE: Nice except a perpetual cloud hangs over it and makes everyone grumpy.
21. ALASKA: proves that pretty is not enough.
22. HAWAII: Where God would have placed Eden if in fact he loved us.

Tell me I’m wrong.

 

The Industry of Controversy

Making broad generalizations about anything is usually dangerous business, and this is no exception. I’ll state my belief and then, well assume I’m probably wrong.

From the perspective of a normal lifespan, it appears to me that political discourse has changed. I seem to recall in my youth, when politics played but a minor interest across my frontal lobes, that the one thing that would kill a politician was to be caught in a real lie.

The lucky journalist who could ferret out the scheming liar was rewarded with a bi-line and the unfortunate recipient of his/her research retired to pick daisies in their garden while shunning the public forevermore.

Today, the lie is revered for its ability to start the firestorm of controversy.

Let me explain with an example my husband once used in a piece he once wrote.

Man takes a loaf of bread for another man. (the fact).

Newspaper 1: Desperately poor man is forced to steal a loaf of bread from wealthy financier in order to feed his family.

Newspaper 2: Lazy local man steals a loaf of bread from beloved philanthropist to feed his dependent family members, none of whom work.

Although I believe that journalism has fallen off a cliff, it probably hasn’t. Emotion has always sold better than simple facts. While the above suggests that “both sides” do it, we know rather definitively that they don’t do it equally. However, THEY BOTH DO IT.

The example the Contrarian uses was from some years ago. It was reported that a polling of British citizens suggested that about 1/3 supported the monarchy, about 1/3 did not, and about 1/3 did not care at all. Depending on what you wished to portray, it was reported by the media as “most people are happy with the monarchy” or “most people are not happy with the monarchy”. The “do not care” is used by either side to push their meme.

It’s not hard these days to find a number of people making the point that things are infinitely worse in our political drama called Washington, because the press has determined that all that interests them is controversy. If you want to get on camera and say that the other side sucks eggs and is the latest great installment of totalitarian governance, well, you will get that microphone. If you wish to fuel the hate, by all means, spout off.

That drives up ratings apparently.

The media does not cause the hate, but they do nothing to stop it. They watch the alley fight with fascination, and encourage it from the sidelines, occasionally dodging the odd piece of mud that flies from the melee.

Somewhere along the line, asking the push back question became  “partisanship”. So anything goes. Any statement is left hanging out there to an increasingly ignorant viewing audience who doesn’t even know that the push back question exists let alone what the answer might be.

This became clear this morning when Mika Brzezinski pointed out about the “Bill Cosby controversy” that the news people seemed apologetic to even ask Cosby the questions. Indeed they are. The icon of comedy is somehow untouchable at “his age” much like the genius of Woody Allen is guard against his possible pedophilia activities.

It works as the politicians intend for one reason. They know to whom they speak. They believe fully in their heart of hearts (no matter how much they flatter  and pander when called upon), that most people are ignorant as dirty water left over from a pig bath. They lie, knowing that the media won’t push back, and the listener has neither the time nor the interest in determining whether they speak a lie or truth. The lie works, and the media is complicit in the drama.

A guy called Gruber said that the ACA passed in part because the American people are stupid and don’t know the first thing about economics or insurance. What Gruber said is hardly news, most any professor across the country would agree, by simply plugging in their field of interest–art history, quantum mechanics, or marine biology. Yet the hue and cry from the Rightie-Tighties was swift and loud. The very folks who depend on stupid were outraged that anyone should say such a vile thing about the American people!

The fact of the matter is that all these people, be they politicians, journalists (I use the term loosely of course), scientists of any flavor, doctors, lawyers,  (insert anyone with a decent college degree and a “professional” job) thinks exactly the same. That is why my friends, that the average working stiff has nothing but contempt deep down in his heart for any of them “ed-u-kay-ed” types, with their snooty knowledge. Gruber said it out loud and for that he can be condemned, especially if you can twist it into some political advantage.

The President contemplates using his executive authority to manage the immigration laws,attempting to fix the worst problems with limited resources. The GOP screams that he is shredding the  constitution. When it is pointed out to some of those who take up the banner that executive orders have been used by presidents since Washington and frankly on issues of even greater important such as desegregating the entire national school system or incarcerating tens of thousands of Japanese citizens, the chatterers proclaim–it’s not the numbers it’s the subject!

But the opening salvos made no mention that executive orders were legal and had been used since the inception of the nation, they simply started screaming about destroying the Constitution. They made it about EO’s themselves. They count on the fact that those who are listening don’t know about EO’s, and will start puppeting the “shredding” remark. And they count on them not listening to other sources that might inform them otherwise. They count on this stupidity. It is their ace in the hole.

We can shut down the government, we can sue the President, we can filibuster each and every thing proposed to lighten the burden on the middle class, we can deny millions health care coverage, all in the name of “stopping this evil man” because we can support our decision by any frightful lie, and know that neither the poor saps we gush at nor the supposedly free press will point out our lies. Nobody is listening, nobody cares.

The only thing that matters is blaming somebody other than me. And everybody who doesn’t want to be blamed is surely able to find a suitable scapegoat. And the press? Well, try looking at the FCC and their willingness to allow the consolidation of radio, television and newspapers into fewer and fewer hands, and then you might get a clue why journalism is nothing more than fluff pieces designed to entertain rather than inform. That would be a start.

**title stolen from my husband

 

In the Age of Secessionist Gabble

What this country needs is a constitutional convention.

Well, yes of course we do, but of course we can’t have one because a shockingly large percentage of our population is tone deaf to rationality. They are out there, in states spread across the South largely, talking about whether the only answer to America’s perceived woes is SECESSION.

Yes, they actually talk about it. Threaten it, as  Bud Lite dribbles down their chins followed by a hearty belch. Yep, best just cut them heathen atheistic commie lovers off at the knees. See how they fare without old Alabama to carry their weight!

Surely I jest.

Surely.

Given our political climate, a constitutional convention would be a farce and more likely to produce a new installment of Dr. Seuss than a working framework for governance, but hey a woman can dream can’t she?

Like Lennon said,

You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one

The truth is though, that while a number of folks (nobody has original thoughts any more remember? The last original thought was either René and his “I think therefore. . . .” or Julius Caesar, “et tu, brute?”, I can’t remember which) think that a rewrite would be useful, damn few of us would agree on what that should be. But if limited to only rational people (as I define them), heck, it could be pretty good exercise in self-governance.

Now such a notion verily causes the blood pressure of some folks to skyrocket to Orion’s Belt, (which as you know is only an “appearance” of location given our planetary view and would look way difference say from Arcturus where that configuration of stars appears as a lady giving birth to a kangaroo), but hey, nobody ever didn’t say that I don’t like to rile the sensibilities of all those I love and don’t respect much.

If we can just for a second think of the Founding Men (the women never do count do they?), as human beings and not godlets  from Olympus God’s holy throne room, then it would seem obvious that from time to time a new one is in order. Seriously, do you think a bunch of rather rich men who were pissed at being treated like country bumpkins and  decided they could do a damn good job of running the show alone, REALLY thought their bit of parchment would one day rule over 350 millions of folk across a land that spread to the Pacific and then some?

Did they contemplate nuclear energy, moon-landings or coco puffs? How about plastics and rubber? Who the hell could predict a haircap Donald Trump for lordly sakes, or that we would call eating as many hotdogs as you can stuff in your craw in 3 minutes as a sport?

Of course not.

So, it seems prudent (people actually named their daughters that at one time–Prudence, come hither and beat the rug!), to revisit the efficacy of some of the words and so forth from time to time, no?

I don’t mean to go word by word or even article by article, for that is stuffy and dusty work indeed, and I’m more of a fly-by artist, so I’ll just hit the high spots of you don’t mind, (and even if you do).

First off, lets get rid of this Federalism stuff. A quaint and I might say quite useful system when a person might walk 20 miles in a day, or a horse run itself into the ground at say 50 miles. Even in the days of the great iron horse that puffed its way up the Rockies and down the other side to visit nirvana (i.e. California otherwise known as THAT SPACE BELONGING TO THE MEXICANS WHO LIVED THERE AND CALLED IT HOME FOR A COUPLE OF HUNDRED YEARS BEFORE WE GOT THERE AND “DISCOVERED” IT).

It made sense when government was so very far away from it’s citizenry to have aN up close and cozy arrangement of local governments which would administer all the basics as only up close and personal can. Since Merika was all new and shiny, why not experiment across the land with methodologies of state legislatures, election cycles, funding for roads and schools, and where to build cemeteries? I mean it made sense.

Along came the telephone, the plane, and the Inter-tubes and well, all that changed. We are all instantly connected, to a degree that some of us find down right too personal. Differing methods for elections, different requirements to matriculate through the state-sponsored good citizen course (public schools), and so forth only serve to piss off travelers and and mobile populations. We after all, more and more of us at least, live in something like ten different places from birth to death, and many of us a lot more, encompassing several states. Change in the sense of how basics are accomplished is just a pain.

I say we retain “states” merely for nostalgia and for college and professional sports reasons. The rest–belongs to centralized government. I still retain the right to say that good grief, at least I live in New Mexico and not Alabama, and I trust that will always be true.

Second, this 2nd amendment thing is has gotten all goofed up. Once upon a time virtually EVERYONE got that the point was a kind of old-fashioned protection against the Crown of England, like the “no housing of troops” which no doubt is just as outdated and quaint. States, particularly those in the South who based their economic success so much on owning humans, wanted to be sure they had the right to raise state militias should the need arise (they pretty much saw the hand-writing on the wall, I’ll give them that). The Feds also, having no good way to pay a standing army, and being a bit nervous about such a beast, wanted to be able to call upon the state’s militias in order to put down any future “revolutionary” upstarts such as they themselves have been.

None of which exists today quite obviously.

Please point out to me in the Federalist Papers where Monroe or Hamilton talked about the right of every individual to maintain the latest in firepower in case he/she/or increasing it/ needed to take up arms against the government for “treading on me” in their wild and crazy minds?

It is plain silly to suggest that a band of chamo-laden drunks with bandolier clips is going to take down the firepower of the US NAVY, US ARMY, US AIR FORCE, US MARINES. Seriously, such “patriots” need Freud more than they need another gun to pet.

In my college days when I was chock full of myself, I remember studying the electoral college and reading all about the pros and cons of such a strange configuration. Because the easy answer was “get rid of it”, I remember making the case for keeping it, because it sounded much more academic and therefore “smart” to me. When I was a child, I spake as a child. So get rid of it. It makes no sense.

We have federal elections. There should be a national federal election day, where EVERYONE gets off. We should make all voting laws FEDERAL. We should make it as easy as possible for as many as possible to exercise their vote. People should be penalized (lightly but real) for not doing their duty.

We could still maintain the House or Representatives, but we would elect all representatives “at large”, based on population within the state. Federal “districts” drawn by independent bodies without regard to political party would be arbitrarily assigned by lot. Those would be your constituents. If you win re-election you would likely get a different group of citizens to represent.

All elections would be limited to 6 months of campaigning and all funding would be federal apportioned equally to all candidates.

Rewrite “reasonable search and seizure” to be specific–spell it out. Same with “high crimes and misdemeanors”, and the same with “cruel and unusual punishment”. All these fuzzy statements take up entirely too much of our court time. Well,  except for the high crimes thingie. Just stamp a “just say no” when it comes to Republicans and their pouting.

Reparations to all native peoples, and all those held previously in bondage.

Limit terms for all federal judicial posts, and require that during their tenure in office they may not participate in partisan politics of any sort. Establish commissions that determine when any judge is ineligible to sit on a pending case due to “conflict of interest”.

A definition of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. This should include that the government is a compact of the people, by the people and for the people, and includes basic human rights–adequate food, lodging, education, health care, and a living wage. This the government should strive to provide.

Only humans have free speech. Person is defined as a living being capable of survival outside the womb, even with artificial assistance.

Religion is a personal matter and should be sustained by those who desire to engage in organized faith systems.. Churches are not exempt from taxes. Religious opinions should play no part in our political rhetoric, because all humans are free to believe what they wish and not be affected by another persons faith or lack of it.

Before any law discriminates against another group of people, the highest of bars must be met. It is presumed that all are equal and entitled to equality of rights.

All persons defined as human people have full integrity over the use of their own body. Laws may only inhibit one’s control over their own life to the degree that it threatens the integrity of another life as herein defined. Pursuit to this article, one has the legal right to terminate one’s own life, or a life that has not yet reached “person-hood”. People who have reached the age of majority (18) may ingest what they wish, as long as they are not a threat to the well-being of others.

And so forth and so forth.

Let the games begin.

 

 

Stupid Installment #4,592

A lady (no doubt a very nice one) took umbrage at my propensity to, as she put it, “insult” people when making a point. My insult is of course pointing out that some people are stupid. I don’t make the charge lightly, since it normally takes some work to be stupid, it doesn’t just come naturally to most people.

I was pointing out that while all people to a degree form opinions and then look for “evidence” to support their comforting thought, conservatives, given their mental makeup, do this to a greater degree than most people. An acknowledged expert in the field of motivation, Jonathan Haidt, professor of Ethical Leadership at NYU’s Stern School of Business says as much, though I dare say he is more diplomatic than I.

That was and is his point after all. The way to reach people who are intransigent when it comes to facts is to recognize that facts don’t sway people who have “gut” beliefs. You must appeal to the that which motivates their world view. In the case of conservatives it is things like tribalism, fears of the mean old world, and comforting religion. While liberals can fall victim to similar emotional motivations, I contend that they do so with less fervor and less often because liberals are by nature open to new ideas and things in general–thus a new explanation draws their attention.

I find conservatives for this reason often illogical and Haidt supports that conclusion. Logic and factual evidence don’t persuade, rather, hitting them where it counts (family, and values) does. If you can structure an argument that helps them to see the truth as supporting their tribal instincts or values as they see them, they are more likely to listen.

I myself, being who I am, don’t have the patience. I hit them between the eyes with the obvious, and then throw up my hands in disgust, and publish yet another diatribe on, you guessed it, “stupid people.”

The truth is, the word ignorant better describes such people, and I can tell you from experience that they loathe this term even more. Of course its the perfect word because all it denotes is that you are uninformed, and aren’t we all on more subjects than we care to mention? I am ignorant about architecture, and can barely tell my Ionic from Doric but fair a bit better with Corinthian I must say. I am ignorant when it comes to “reading” music. The list is long I assure you.

Yet somehow, to call a person ignorant is to deliver a most insulting blow.

Well, so be it.

People are known to prey on ignorance. These people are called grifters.

Sarah Palin is a perfect example. She is not a stupid person actually–in her own way she is quite brilliant. She set out to become wealthy and famous and has done a fine job of doing just that. She is much too lazy to actually learn much that doesn’t  have to do with her trade, so to normal people she appears buffoonish, but she rather relishes that since it plays to her real advantage.

Sarah’s true audience are other ignorant people, those who are “too busy” to read books, magazines of note, or listen to good public discourse. They are not fans of Mozart (a name they would recognize at least) but have never heard of Berlioz. They might vaguely have heard of Oscar Wilde, but couldn’t name a play he wrote if you held a hot poker to their eye. They probably remember that the name John Locke was mentioned back in high school history but would no doubt answer with the query, “wasn’t he one of the Pilgrims?”

The examples given above are just that examples, one could give an infinite number of similar “tests” of general knowledge and these folks would stare at you like you had grown a second head.

One reads of a time in this country when people went (as entertainment mind you) to listen to a lecture by William James. Parlors were filled in the evening with women and gents conversing on all manner of politics and religion. On the Continent they were called salons.

Today, “family rooms” are filled with kids playing video games, Dad watching football, and Mom making elaborately decorated cupcakes for the church sale on Sunday. Discussions relate to the latest shenanigans of the Kardashians, which team is likely to take the bowling trophy this season, and should they all watch the latest installment of Real Housewives of (insert city) tonight as a “family”. The kids are clamoring for Honey Boo Boo which sadly  I think left the air with me never having had the opportunity to learn what it was.

All this stems, at least as as I see it, from a quality of life that has mired in “diversion for diversion’s sake”. Since we don’t prize education for itself, but only as a means to an end (doctors and lawyers make “good livings”, i.e., more money), we don’t learn the joys of actually learning about the world, the history of it, or anything much else. We work to make money to buy things to help us forget that we hate our jobs, and hate much of what accompanies it.

We hate the commute, we hate the chores and the endless stops to pick up this and that. We hate the meetings, the bill paying, the yard work, the shopping. We hate the traffic, the noise, the crowds. We are physically exhausted from the effort. Is it any wonder that we actually walk into a supermarket and buy “partially boiled potatoes”? Seriously, we don’t have twenty minutes to spare to boil our own! Since cooking is a chore, best leave it to Prego, or McD’s, or somebody else (for a price), so that we, poor beaten down creatures that we are, can spend every single second RELAXING.

And relaxing has taken on the meaning of “make me forget how crappy life is”, so it must be “other”. It must be things that don’t require thinking or comparing, contemplating or contrasting. Relaxing should be mostly mind-neutral, requiring only the barest of attention. Fishing and scrapbooking, movies, and sports, all fit the bill equally well.

You would think we would reach another conclusion. But that would require thinking. If I am working my butt off 40 hours a week all for the privilege of falling exhausted into bed each night, ought I spend the few precious hours I have of LEISURE in figuring out how I can better my lot, how we all COLLECTIVELY can better or lots?

Or stated another way? Is somebody or something making my life like this because it makes their lives better?

Our time should be spent on understanding our government, what it is there for and what we can do to change it. We should understand the truth of our history (not the good citizen version but reality). We should understand the history of the world, not superficial dates and names. We should understand philosophy and explore the great themes of human existence. What is truth, beauty, and morality?

That is the stupidity of much of our citizenry. They have been lulled by a consumer “shiny object” to reach for the latest IPhone rather than Plato, a new recliner with built in snack tray rather than a book of poetry. None of these diversions are wrong, they are just the entirety of our leisure time and as such they serve to keep us stupid and ready prey to the Palins and the Murdocks and the Kochs of the world.

We may hear the news in the background, but we have been drugged by the seductive tones of “it’s all their fault” of all too many self-serving politicians and journalists and pundits who make a good living off misdirecting your anger and frustration. It causes you to do stupid things, like vote for an increase in minimum wages while at the same time voting for the guy who has campaigned against it. You don’t even know enough to know that. The sound bites just convinced you that Democrats are all socialists now and just give stuff to lazy people.

You know almost nothing of importance or value to the conversations we are not having but should. You have opinions and account them as good as facts. Truth is relative you claim to each of our life experiences, when everyone knows that the people who eschew that remark are the evangelical preachers who tell you that truth is never relative, but can be found perfected in a book that they will interpret for you, for a price.

As I pointed out to another. I would not give a rotted carcass of caribou about your stupidity if you would just have the nicety to keep your ignorant ass away from polling stations and let people who do care take care of the country. You would in the end thank us and be grateful for the better life you would have. But no, you meddle in affairs you have no idea about and make it infinitely harder for the rest of us to make the world a decent humane place.

Since I cannot logically argue for disallowing your vote, I can only rail at your failure to inform yourself of the truth. Get off your lazy dumb ass and learn something. I’m serious. You are stupid.

 

Is Work So Noble?

Gordon Gekko may have said that greed was good, but even more people attest to the fact that hard work is good. In fact, hang around any of those right wingers and you will certainly hear all about hard work, and how they did and not enough others are.

There is of course the requisite smugness. Right up there with “I trudged six miles to school every day through snow and rain” heard from the lips of our grandparents, we now have become accustomed to “my husband worked two jobs and I worked one, and took care of the house and raised four kids, just so they could have a better life.”

This is all to suggest that today’s whatever’s who are forced to ask for food stamps, Medicaid, housing allowances, unemployment insurance, and so forth are lacking in the moral fiber that “real” Americans like themselves were raised with and have taught their children.

Everyone knows of a cousin, or a neighbor’s daughter and son-in-law, or “those people who live down the block” who stand around waiting to be given things because they are too lazy to work. Anecdotal stories abound to “prove” that a whole lot of folks are just takers. In fact, the GOP these days makes no apologies for suggesting that when you give people stuff they just want more, and it creates a “culture” of expecting others to take care of you.

The whispers about the Affordable Health Care Law were loud in fact. “We have to stop this before people actually get it, because when they do, they will like it, and we’ll never get them to give it up.” This is a strange way indeed to argue that a law is so patently awful that people hate it. In fact Republicans know it’s just the opposite. Its rough start (not a bit different from  the prescription law under Bush) aside, once it all got rolling people are thrilled. Nearly ten million more have health care, college kids stay on their parents policies, you can’t be rejected for a pre-existing condition, premiums are affordable. What’s not to like? Less than 3% can really claim that their premiums went up, and by and large (a) they could afford it, and (b) they had no real coverage in the first place, just an illusion of having insurance.

The real issue with most right wingers is not economic policies in general, but their unrelenting hatred of “those” people that they feel they are carrying. People like themselves (their tribe) work hard, and if times are tough they work harder. They feel those “other” people weren’t brought up that way, and why should they take care of them?

So work is a matter of pride, and you don’t have to go far to hear Republicans say that very thing.

But what is there about work that we should be proud of?

Where did all this come from?

A couple of places.

Once upon a time, there was the Catholic Church. It did a lot of things wrong as any group of humans likely will. One of them was to tie salvation to staying connected to the rituals of Mother church, such as attendance, confession, and the sacraments. Along came Luther and things changed. Work no longer became the means to salvation, but rather was an expression of the grace already given. It doesn’t sound like a big difference, but it was.

To Catholics, one expresses one’s faith by doing good work. To a Protestant, one is saved “elected” by grace, and working hard, being diligent, being frugal, being successful is a way to pick out those who are predestined or chosen. So if you want to impress people that you are somebody worth hanging with, then work hard so they will think God chose you.

Work becomes not a thing to do for others, but rather to prove something about yourself.

First coined by Max Weber, it became the cornerstone of the industrial revolution, and can fairly be said to have contributed to the growth and power of Western Europe and America. Gordon Gekko would approve. I said contributed, because plenty of experts could point to a variety of other things that contributed as well.

The other place is rather unexpected, and should (but does not) make the average fundamentalist shudder.

That is the concept of “survival of the fittest”.

Of course this comes straight from Darwin and was applied by him in a very different context. Darwin suggested that it is a natural given that if all other things are equal, the “fittest” genetic creature will survive ones that are not as gifted. They will be healthier, find more mates, and create more of their own kind that weaker, sicklier members of the species. Simple enough.

Herbert Spencer picked up the phrase and created what is known as “social Darwinism” a phrase that today is so widely misunderstood that it means just about anything you want it to, including the excuse for cut-throat economic policies, robber baron activities, deregulation, and so forth. Creationists of course don’t agree with the concept that some people are more genetically fit than others, but it has warped into the idea that those who work harder prove themselves to be “more fit” and are entitled to the fruits of their labor.

In other words, it is used as a bat by those who succeed to smugly look down upon those that don’t.

This, I believe is the general background form which we get this rather silly notion that work is somehow noble in nature. It has become the proof that we are good ourselves, a rather idiotic notion when you pare away all that clap trap.

Work should be that which causes the heart and mind to soar in delight. It should be the pursuit of things that bring joy to our hearts and minds, not leaving us so exhausted that we can barely manage a meal before falling asleep. Every person should have the opportunity to discover their talent and then have the chance to pursue it. To do this, people need a foundational support. Certain countries in Europe are now discovering this, and are reaching or have reached the point where they support their population in at least a minimum standard of living. Education through university is now free in some places. An annual income is provided in others. Health care is almost universally provided by enlightened nations worldwide.

Once upon a time in my youth, we saw the birth of great wonders (each generation of course does), and we dreamed of space travel, flying cars, and all sorts of modern conveniences. We also were told that one day people would work only four-hour days, and perhaps only four days a week. We saw those as advances, and were thrilled to think of the things we might all be doing with all that extra free time.

If we are God created, as so many of us do believe, it can only be for the pursuit of knowing, knowing ourselves, our worlds and thus our God. People cannot do this when they are working two jobs, raising families, with nary a moment to themselves but a few scattered hours on a Sunday, often spent in front of the television to just “tune out”.

There is nothing noble in work. It is the thing we do to afford the things we need and want and to provide the tiny space each week to unwind so we can return to the drudgery of work again on Monday. Work is what is needed and always will be to some extent I suppose, but it is not noble and spiritual. The people who tell you that usually are sitting back and watching you do it for them.

It is a convenient lie meant to keep the wheels of industry moving, keep your nose to the grindstone and out of the business of thinking about what life is really all about and for. It is meant to keep you at odds with your brothers and sisters in bondage to the mill.

It is why we all look, at some point to retirement, for finally we can spend our time doing what we want, thinking for endless hours about things that need thinking about. Sadly for too many it becomes the time to justify one’s life as meaningful when in fact it really wasn’t. We tell ourselves that the production of another generation is our meaning, but I rather doubt that is true, and that might well be the biggest lie of all.

We each matter, and we each have a right to pursue that which thrills us. We will work tirelessly at that which excites us. We will produce more and better quality and faster miracles when we can’t wait to get back at it. When we realize that, work will cease and engaging in our joy will move the world. Just think how fast robotics will progress when we have a good reason to find someone else to build that widget because we are busy creating our dreams? Just imagine how brilliant generations will become when raised by people who don’t take parenting for granted but find pure joy in the nurturing of a new mind.

Work noble? Seriously? No. Not at all. Stop buying into the lie.