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« on: July 02, 2011, 05:03:55 AM »
Hey guys. I know I'm making a pretty sweeping and assumptive statement, telling you what you do and don't know, but I'd like to briefly talk to you about a few things you didn't know, or at least didn't think about, were wrong with the U.S. (I'd also like to ask for your pardon if not everything I say is perfectly worded; it's 4:30 in the morning here, I'll at least make an effort to churn out proper grammar and punctuation, but my phrasing and cadence might be a bit clunky and circuitous.)
So, Shinji's thread brought up points that are worth thinking about, but he's basically churning up thoughts that have already been thought, if that makes sense (again, 4:30 right now.) What I'm trying to say is that he's kind of regurgitating your run of the mill "America sucks hurrdurr" points, and while these aren't invalid, they only go a few inches deep in the reservoir of stuff wrong in this country. I have a fairly menial job, and it leaves me a lot of time to think about a lot of stuff, and reasons why modern society sucks is one among a legion of thoughts. So allow me to make some broad assertions, here.
Also, feel free to argue with me on any of this. Almost all of this is a result of my own or only a few other friends and my's thoughts, so attack it, dispute it, argue it, and maybe we can actually collectively reach some new insight rather than saying "well american are stupid." Why? Why are Americans stupid? Let's find out...
-Instant access to information to has made us largely apathetic to 'enlightenment'-
I think humans inherently have a desire for things we don't have, and a natural inclination to, over time, take for granted what we have access to. You see this ubiquitously, in all periods of history, all over the world, from every walk of life. In Americans, this ends up manifesting itself as consumerism. In states that suppress Christianity or other religions, you find that there are very strong, if underground, followings of that religion within that state. During the Reformation, the desire of the lower class to have access to the Bible to draw their own conclusions and freedom from the Catholic church to form their own beliefs led people to do incredible things and even sacrifice their lives in the face of incredible persecution. I'm not trying to start a religion war, this is just an area of history and an aspect of life that I have a good bit of knowledge in, so that's what I'm drawing from.
Back when a decent education wasn't as freely available, and knowledge wasn't instantly accessible, and the only way to really rise up from manual labor for a farm worker, say, was to go to college or somewhere to receive higher education. There was no internet. You couldn't learn about literally anything by typing it into a machine and then draw on the world's collective knowledge, almost completely for free.
However, now in today's post-modern society, if one spent enough time at the library, one could amass enough relevant knowledge to enter the profession of their choosing (assuming a degree or official accreditation wasn't necessary. I believe that this has been around long enough that we're beginning to take it for granted. We don't know the struggle for knowledge, the great toil one once had to go through to become educated. I could type "internal combustion engine" into Wikipedia and read a short book's worth of information about almost every aspect of the engine, including its history and technical details of its operation, but today I found myself asking a friend what the choke on a small engine does. And all of this information can be accessed with a computer that I carry around in my pocket at almost all times. However, what do most people use this computer for? Angry Birds. The desire for entertainment and novelty, however, leads me to my next point:
-24/7 news has ruined news-
I was talking to a friend at work about what a 100% unbiased news source would look like. We agreed that it would be impossible, because bias not only presents itself in the form of how an article is written, but also in subtler ways, like what is written about, the priority that certain stories are given, and then wording of an article. An unbiased news source would have everything that happened on a given day that can be reported on in alphabetical, or random, order.
Being able to be kept abreast with everything going on in the world within a few moments of it happening decreases the need for details, for things that would "bog a person down", perhaps is one way of putting it. Instead, because it's assumed that this information is readily available to anyone that wants it (to tie in my last point), the focus of news is not reporting what happens, but making it relateable to the person "consuming" it. What were the phrases thrown around during the last presidential election? "Well, I like Obama because it seems like I could have a beer with him." "McCain is a real straight talker and cares about American values." "Sarah Palin would bring a sense of real-ness to the White House." Speaking of politics...
-Politics are being presented like a reality show, except what happens actually matters-
Look at the Anthony Weiner debacle that recently cropped up in the news. The reason that this got so much air time and captured our attention for so long is because it's like an interesting thing that happens on a reality show. Without human interest stories, politicians doing stupid things, and idiots flapping their jowls about how disappointed they are in their government, the way politics would be reported on would basically be C-SPAN. And nobody cares about C-SPAN, because it isn't interesting, because it "doesn't relate" to the average American, even though it very much does.
But what's ridiculous is, how much does it really relate to me? The only reason to educate myself and keep myself abreast with everything that really goes on in politics and the intricate details of each candidate is solely idealistic. It's like, "okay, how much difference is my vote going to make? But at the same time, if everyone that cared thought like that, then people that didn't care as much as they should would decide every election, so I suppose I'll educate myself." No matter how little or how colorfully one individual is educated, their vote is ultimately only one vote. Does that mean that they shouldn't get educated on as many aspects as they have time to keep up with? Of course not, but it's discouraging every time you see a Tea Party rally on TV.
-America is built around America's economy-
It's hard to complain about this when you really think of the implications of what a country that isn't focused on making their economy strong would look like, but it's also discouraging when you realize that we spend half our tax dollars on a military that hasn't fought a foreign aggressor on American soil in two centuries. Our military protects foreign interests and influence, which ultimately is in order to keep our economy strong. America's schools are comparatively awful and “churn out” “productive members of society” because the arts can't be exported en masse to the rest of the world for a profit. You don't built a fortune 500 company on the back of philosophy. There's not a “credible” high school counselor in the world who will tell you it's probably a good idea to escape the rat race of working for personal economic advancement and spend your life philosophizing or creating art or living in a commune. Consciously and subconsciously, the dollar rules all, government included. This is necessary in many ways, but when you look at some of the side-effects you're forced to wonder “is this what an ideal society looks like?
-Women entering the work force severely affected the texture of household economics and subsequently the American economy and standard of living-
World War II. A large swath of the nation's men are off in Europe keeping the European world from uniting under a couple of madmen who crush their oppressors and ideologically and physically exterminate their dissenters through propaganda and genocide, respectively. It's good that we fought and won World War II, but it changed everything. Women entered the work force in a serious way supporting the war effort during WW2. However, the war ended, men returned home, took up their jobs again, and for a decade and a half we had the quintessential 1950s American dream type style of life. Consumerism and commercialization everything started picking up in earnest, and if you'll notice in old TV shows and general media produced in that era, we have the man working, and the woman keeping house and raising children.
The 1960s come along, and along with free love, the peace movement, hippies, etc., we have women's liberation. They fight their way out of this oppression, they would call it, and in the 70s redefine themselves as professionals and productive members of the work force. This is not bad, and I'm not saying that women shouldn't be in the work force, but now that households are working with two incomes, a household may feel like they are entitled to more. (Consumerism? The desire for more? Forgetting what they've come from) Bigger houses. Two cars. Daycares for the kids. Prozac. Everything is adjusted for a two income household, but when you lose one income? Due perhaps to illness or injury, and a family is forced to work with one income? That's when mortgages start collapsing, especially when you've got every person in your neighborhood attempting to own something that they can barely afford with two people working.
I could write much. Much. More, but alas, I've been writing for almost an hour, and I need sleep too. Have fun either being a little more enlightened, or picking this apart.
Also, for you cigarettes who'll request a tl;dr, go back to Shinji's thread for your canned bitching. If you actually feel like trying to pick apart the underlying reasons why today's society may suck, read all that.
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