"The Menace Of Monotony"
In response to this post, a reader comments:
I don't think I buy it. I don't think the average American gives that much thought to the war. Americans are easily distracted by bread and circuses. Most people have enough to eat, and most people know more about the latest celebrity scandal than they do about anything to do with the war.We know the Dolchstoss meme is already out there, ready to go. Heaven help us if Britney straightens her life out or we get a particularly boring season of Dancing with the Stars.
posted by The Cunning Realist at Wednesday, October 31, 2007
8 Comments:
While celebrity gossip and reality shows don't really have script writers, there is possibly a writers strike coming up, so we may get stuck with re runs. How does that change the equation?
I don't think much about the war, but it's not because I'm distracted by bread and circuses. There just isn't much to think about. The leading presidential candidates, democratic or republican, won't be pulling us out of there no matter what they claim now (or, in the case of Hillary, semi-claim with suitable conditional phrases and noncommittal generalities). The costs of the war are pretty much fixed at about $150-200 billion a year.
It's not like anything I do is going to change that. Thinking about it is just a waste of time. I'd like to see something change, but the political realities just don't seem to make that possible right now.
"If you sit by while injustice is being done, then you are unjust."
Make a difference. Pay attention. Speak your piece. Maybe if you do, everyone else will too.
Ever think of that?
Yes. Years ago. It didn't work.
Got anything else?
ignorant investor, you obviously do and have thought a good deal about the war. You have a prediction (almost certainly accurate) about what's going to happen. You probably know the difference between Sunni and Shia (or that there is a difference). I was talking about the people who have never really given the war more than the slightest, shallowest thought. The people who can't name a single Supreme Court justice, but can give you the names of Britney's kids. The type of people who wouldn't read this blog.
I've always thought that the downfall of America would be its sheer ignorance of the political process, sports obsession, and lack of knowledge of the world outside our borders.
It looks like it's becoming ever more so the case. However, with globalization, I think we're going to see an increasing cost for our ignorance.
"I was talking about the people who have never really given the war more than the slightest, shallowest thought."
Ah, okay. I agree they're a different story. That's more a matter of blind faith in militarism and a lack of curiosity.
Nah! The downfall of America will be the MBA, one of whom sits in the White House now. Remember that only sixty years ago, America was the world's permier manufacturing nation and the world's largest creditor. Today, America is no longer an industrial power but is the world's greatest debtor. We can thank President Nixon for our fiat currency, but we can thank MBAs for exporting our industrial plant. A few idiots in positions of power are infinitely more dangerous than a hundred million beer-sodden TV watchers.
Post a Comment
<< Home