Just me? World gone nuts? News of the Weird?

[Art Eatman]

I've gotten to where I hate to even read headlines, much less threads in L&P at THR.

Mainstream news, whether paper, TV or online, all seems like News of the Weird.  Reminds me of Heinlein's "Crazy Years".

From my perspective, it all looks like a whole bunch of importance or emotion attached to trivial BS or just toally unsane crapola.  Movie stars' comments on any subject seem more trivial than in the past, or farther out of touch with any reality.  Same for politicians.

I keep wondering what happened to the adult leadership in our society.  This holds at the local and state level.

Why would anybody pay attention to the looneytunes like Ingrid Newkirk, or that cretinous Phelps and his yawp about "don't ask, don't tell" in the military justifying his shrieking "Queers!" at a GI's funeral?

And the anti-Christmas BS.  I'm not at all a religious guy, but I'm not offended by anybody's enjoyment of that tradition.  Heck, I enjoy just seeing how happy people are at this time of year!  Lordy, they're even more polite in the malls than usual!  But some folks in an England education agency said that Santa is bad for kids; he scares them.  Duh?  (A link to a paper "over there" in today's WND)

How do gunners get so emotionally attached to some particular brand of gun that they get into flame wars over itsy-bitsy minutiae?  Dumb.  Dumber'n hammered dirt.  And car nuts ain't no better.

Do people feel helpless in the face of changes in the world, such that they lash out at anything they think they can influence?  In part, I think of the degree of emotion of the anti-smoking bunch.  I can understand disliking smoking or other personal activities; it's the amount of emotion that puzzles me.  Not much different from the more rabid environmentalists--which could get me into another stage of ranting.

Nuff fer now...

Art

[matis]

"Location: Used to live in the USA; now find myself in the twilight zone.
Posts"


Art,

I've reproduced above my "location" from my TFL profile.


Remember Twilight Zone?  

I now find myself living there.  Sounds like you do, too.



I realize that old farts like us have always complained that society was going to the dogs.

Seems like it really is, though, doesn't it?


Complaints like this by the elders are a constant.  But society does cycle up and down.


Sure seems that in this case our complaints coincide with an actual down-turn, doesn't it?


The barking/snarling seems to me to be getting louder.



Oh, well, Twilight Zone seemed real to me, too.



Gotta get back to the TV, now.  I'm watching a man of the cloth, "reverend" Jesse Jackson, ignore deuteronomy to champion a killer who shot-gunned four innocents to death, then laughed at their death gurgles.


Probably gonna need to dispatch grief counselers wholesale after the state "murders" this poor victim of society.



Sure hope I haven't committed hate speech by writing this.



matis

[Justin]

Perhaps it's all just an unintended consequence resulting from the continued division of labor?

[Sindawe]

Crackers don't matter.

Sorry Art, but the world has been going nuts for as long as there have been people in it.  Our kinds loves to get all worked up and get our undies in a knot over silly BS that really does not matter.  Just the nature of the beast.  Possessions, politics, religion, the color of the neighbors house and that he cuts his grass 1/8 longer than the HOA permits.

Little people HAVE to have something/someone to hate.  It gives meaning to their otherwise empty lives.

Like the man said  "...We've got a front row seat to the end of the world.  Its time to embrace the horror."

I think I'm gonna go have me some pizza and margarita shooters!

[mtnbkr]

But some folks in an England education agency said that Santa is bad for kids; he scares them

I have last year's photograph of Abby trying to get away from the Eeeevil Mall Santa with a terrified look on her face.  It took me a few minutes to calm her down once she escaped.

Sindawe, what is that picture, it looks familiar.

Chris

[Art Eatman]

Aw, sure, I've always been aware of the various things about which people have concern.   Race, Vietnam, etc.  It just seems to me it'smore widespread and that more people are more emotional over less-important events.

Sticking just with guns and 2A:  I've been in it since the arguing over the GCA of '68.  We wrote letters, talked to whomever we could, sent money to the NRA as the main lobbying group; did all the usual stuff.  But even in my favorite gunstore, I don't recall a great amount of "Kill the bastards!" type emotion.  A lot of disgust, but nothing like the degree of emotion shown in L&P at TFL or THR.

As far as "Art, it's always been this way!":  Schools?  Education levels?  I don't think so...

Gimme a parallel to body piercing, okay?

, Art

[Preacherman]

Well, the Roman Legions were pretty good at body piercing, particularly barbarian bodies...

Seriously, though, body piercing has been traditional in some Indian religious cults for centuries.  It's just made it to the mainstream.  Blame the Beatles and their Guru!

[Sindawe]

Santa scares children?  Who'da thunk such with a song about him that goes...

He's making a list,
Checking it twice;
Gonna find out who's naughty or nice.

He sees you when you're sleeping
He knows when you're awake
He knows if you've been bad or good
So be good for goodness sake

Scared the pants off me when I was two.  Then I had MEET the villain in person!  Scarred for life....

mtnbkr: Its a sceen shot from the SciFi series Farscape.  2nd season episode "Crackers Don't Matter"  First appearance of Harvey, who is the main characters invisible side-kick through out the rest of the series.

You want weird Art?  Try this on for size. http://www.suspension.org/

Frankly, I think the comic frame I saw years ago is all too true.  It had a skeletal figure in a cowboy hat, smoking a cigarette, saying "Earth is the insane asylum of the Universe".

[matis]

From the suspension.org website:

"Some people are seeking the opportunity to discover a deeper sense of themself "
_________________________________________________

Sindawe,

Aside from the lack of agreement between plural and singular in this sentence, there is a Yiddish word for this bunch: "Meshugah".

Translates as craziness -- they're just plain nuts.


Trying to find yourself by hanging yourself from hooks?


I looked through their forums and boy -- am I glad that I'm just too square and un-enlightened for this.


With all the problems mankind has yet to solve -- with all fantastic ways to experience pleasure, excitment and joy -- these guys choose to hang and pierce themselves?

I thought that painting and scarifying one's body "marked" one as a savage

No longer.  Now it's hip.  Well, thank G-d I'm square.



The point of this thread is, I believe, that society is getting weirder and weirder.


Don't have to look far for proof.


matis

[Art Eatman]

Lemme say that I'm not at all a pessimist about what COULD be.  For instance, I and my wife, both, are continually seeing ways to make money.  Figure out business deals of one sort or another, and live quite well--not that we're having any trouble now.  I'm at the "Why bother?" point, though, and mostly want to goof off and "do my own thing".

But the history of the 1920s and 1930s isn't that old to me.  I listened to my grandparents and parents, with their first-hand experiences.  I've read of the societal behaviors of that era.  And, I see some parallels today.   Sort of a mixing of the hedonism of the flapper era and the amount of denial of the mid-1930s with both the Great Depression and the rise of Nazism--all spread out over a longer period of time.  We still have the hedonism that began in the 1960s/1970s that's now coupled with a widespread assault by religious crazies against modernity.  

The pattern of denial in lifestyles, with a sort of, "Oh, that's not really happening, is it?" is really a common thread at THR, implicit in comments about sheeple and blissninnies and soccer moms.  Aside from the mindsets of gun-controllers, we talk about it when discussing Iraq or Al Qaeda.

Maybe it's "always" been that way, but it looks like maybe history is a sine wave.  I don't see us as being on the upswing side of the curve...

Art

[Sindawe]

Society has ALWAYS been getting weird/changing to those who are older or of an older mind frame.  Personally, I think that looking apon that change is one of the hallmarks of getting "old" and loosing touch with the moment.  Sorta like how Ann Rice describes her Vampires loosing touch with the world of the now and feeling very out of place after a few generations.

I don't think history is a sine wave, but more like a fractal pattern.

[Guest]

Folks want attention and sense of belonging.
Bad news sells media. Print it in bolder type, holler louder with sensationalism and folks glue to the teevee folks. Folks feel if they 'deny' it - it won't happen.
Folks in a hurry going nowhere.

Some I call the "Oz" syndrome.  Frank L. Baum's  Wizard of Oz, folks really either believe they will be taken care of, or they really want to be.

Not as smart as some of you folks, seems throughout history folks have escaped reality in some fashion. Some gamble, some abuse sex, others get high/ drunk.

My gut feeling about some matters is Control.  Make some matters difficult like 'scripted meds, medical hassles and folks will give into socialized medicine. I get suspicious about some media releases, and the timing for legislation.

For some time I just quit getting involved in some matters. One cannot change people, places and things. I walk away. These folks are a lost cause. Better to save energies for the fence sitters or those with genuine interest.

So when the fella said he was going to do a PGO shotgun and use 3" buckshot - I said nothing. He busted his nose, busted his wrist, skinned up the shotgun. Oh...Daddy -In- Law chewed his butt good for messing up a family shotgun passed to daughter. I mean folks were real clear from the ER to down the halls a bit...

 I don't give a *expletive deleted*it anymore about some folks, some things.  The ones I do feel passionate about...I sometimes share, most times don't.  I am there for folks in a heartbeat I care about .  I walk away from folks scared about going out to parking lots whom bashed CCW and guns.  I might suggest they flip a coin as to whom dials 911 while the other one gets raped...

"Comfortably Numb" - describes how I feel.  As the man said "I lived my life before somethings - I can damn sure live that way again."

Art...hell I dunno. I look to folks like you for reason and guidance.  You have lived and experienced more than I.

I mean I am only 50. Look at how much smarter you are now than when you were 50.

[Justin]

"Meshugah".

Good band.  Loud, though.

[bermbuster]

.....
 I don't give a *expletive deleted*it anymore about some folks, some things.  The ones I do feel passionate about...I sometimes share, most times don't.  I am there for folks in a heartbeat I care about .  I walk away from folks scared about going out to parking lots whom bashed CCW and guns.  I might suggest they flip a coin as to whom dials 911 while the other one gets raped...

"Comfortably Numb" - describes how I feel.  As the man said "I lived my life before somethings - I can damn sure live that way again."

Art...hell I dunno. I look to folks like you for reason and guidance.  You have lived and experienced more than I.

I mean I am only 50. Look at how much smarter you are now than when you were 50.

First post here.  I've been lurking.  I'm harmless.  I do have to say the above pretty much describes me.  I have my hot buttons.  Most of the time my philosophy is "Live and Let Live."

[Guest]

bermbuster,

Welcome To APS.

Err...my advice would be to read posts by Art, Justin, Felonious Fig, grampster, Barbara...cut to the chase...read the post of others, not mine. Not only can I not express myself - one is going to learn from anyone else a lot more from them - instead of me.

Aside-

I don't own a TV, I was around one just a bit ago...Art is so correct.  Folks are just friggin' nuts!!

[grampster]

Jeez, Steve.  You just stuck me in good company.  I'm humbled by your comment.  Don't sell yerself short, podnah.   An sm ramble is like jumpin' in a 53 chevy with old friends and highin' off onto a 2 track in the fall in da upper.
You just know its gonna be a good day.  Merry Christmas my friend.

And the same to rest of you keyboard pushin'  life samplers.  May your mornings be filled with the smell of cordite.

PS: Welcome around the campfire, bermbuster.

[Antibubba]

I don't think the world is any weirder than it used to be.  I've always thought it was crazy.  It's just that now, with the ease of internet use, every two-bit wacko can have a worldwide audience.   And the so-called "normal" ones have an audience too.  You realize that the mousy secretary at the office has her own sadomasochism website.  

If Warhol were alive today, he'd say, "In the future, everyone will be famous for 15 megabytes".

[grampster]

There are way more people today.  Numbers go up, every human thing gets magnified as a result.  When I was a kid, I could stand on the busiest corner of the township at high noon and look down the five streets that came together there and not see a car for a half hour.  People did stuff in the neighborhood,  Grocery stores, hardware, chuch, school, gas, repair shops, jewelry stores, neighborhood restaurant, the list goes on.  All within walking distance.  Everybody knew each other.  Kids could take off in the am on a bike with a lunch and not come home till dark.  Nobody worried.  Every now and then a kid drowned in a gravel pit, fell off a freight train he hopped, or a girl disappeared for a few months, or otherwise had limb and life at risk.
Life is broadened today.  Information is instantaneous.  Much to do. Distance has no meaning.  Every thing is magnified.  We are living in normalcy for our times, imho.

[Art Eatman]

Aw, I've always been pretty much laid back.  My wrinkles come from grinnin'.

Probably what I do differently from a lot of folks is back off and look at the big picture of things, trying to tie many disparate small things into a larger whole.  I guess I read too much Heinlein.  I don't think in slogans...

Sure, more people = more crazies, but I think the percentage is increasing.

Back when Tom Landry coached the Cowboys, you remember the old bit about what he had in common with Billy Graham?  They both could make 50,000 people stand up and yell, "Jeezus Christ!"  It seems like there's an ever larger group of pundits and politicos who affect me the same way.

, Art

[Justin]

"Once a person has all the things they need to live, everything else is entertainment. "  -Neal Stephenson

The above quote, I think, shines a lot of light on how things are.  The members of a first-society are going to have far more options with what to do in their abundant amounts of spare time.

Couple these inherently higher levels of personal wealth and spare time with the ages-old search to answer "Why am I here?" and you're bound to get all sorts of outcomes.

Everything from high power competitors to people that find meaning in hanging from the ceiling by jabbing hooks through their hide to volunteering for the Boy Scouts, attending church, or learning to speak fluent Spanish or Klingon, composing music, play Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games, or whatever.

This is not to say that all such pursuits are equal, or even good.  People are bound to pursue avenues of self-exploration that are destructive.  But in the end, well, you pays your money and you takes your chances.

Perhaps as we become more capable of specializing and refining these pursuits with ever greater amounts of resources, the literally hundreds of thousands of subcultures in this nation become ever more incapable of cross-communication.

Just throwin' the idea out there...

[Guest]

Art,
Yep, I'm learning, always will be tho'.

Got an interseting email just a bit ago. Kinda fits here.

Like I have said before I fired some folks from my life. Now this email is about some folks that used to be "friends".

I used to work in a mall, many many years ago. Had some tense moments. I have conducted business in malls with some tense moments. Now to further preface - my mom just turned 76. Periphial Neuropathy makes walking - difficult. She share with the aforementioned 'friends'  1) her eldest son does not think she needs to be going to malls by herself [yeah backlash from me mentioning this of course], 2) Ours really do not have much in them to even bother going into one, and 3) all the carjackings and going's on.  Again I am blamed for all these "thinkings".

Now the 'friends' - besides more digs in me, snapping that gun, snapping them fingers and with cell phone in hand..."tell you what I'm gonna do if such and such even tried this or that"

Seems the big mouth of the bunch doing all the big talk did in fact go to the mall with a friend. Had to park way out yonder. Hiking in...car pulls alongside, fella gets out , points a gun at the driver, gets handed both purses, and backs out...no plates noted.

I'm not suppose to know, just a mutual person thought I might like to know, the cell phones never got a hand on them , and were  in the purses...no time to snap fingers, or smack gun. Both peed themselves and I guess that took the "Tell you what I gonna do" right out of them.

Mom found out another way.  Seems mom wants me to use the Internet to order something have it wrapped, and drop shipped.

"Nothing new Mom, want me to name the tense moments or the shoot out in the parking lot again from back in the '70s?".

"No- but be sure I get that free shipping offer you hear?"  

"Gotcha covered ..."

Oh ordered them LLBean Ice cream balls. Yep, put the ingredients in 'em, grandkid can roll it on the floor with sibs, and a dog, and make his own ice cream.  

I will admit I got to laughing, and spilled my plate of 'tater chips. See the other ice cream ball is for her Sunday School class... age 70 and up , men and women.  

You try and keep quiet if you hear your 76 y/o mom say on the phone to a friend " Yeah Sunday School class gonna get a blue ball...".

No wonder I have to fire folks...

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

I was at a movie the other night, at the late showing, at a quarter past midnight.  Sitting in the row in front of me was a mother and her infant child.  Infant was asleep in a carrier, the crrier was propped up in the seat next to the mother.  The show was sold out, and the mother got pissy when the theatre staff told her she couldn't take up two seats unless she had two tickets.  The poor child woke up halfway through the movie, no doubt terrified by the loud noises.  Mom spent the next ten minutes screaming at the screaming kid, trying to make him shut up.  Surely she knew that she was ruining the movie for everyone else in the theatre, but she clearly didn't care.

It used to be that you could tell someone like her that she ought to be ashamed of herself for the way she acted.  But try it today.  I dare you.

I think a lot of the nuttieness we see today is a result of society's sudden reluctance to tell other people to do the right thing.  We've become so hung up on not offending anyone that we've given up on any expectation of polite/civil/proper behavior.

[bermbuster]

I was at a movie the other night, at the late showing, at a quarter past midnight.  ......

By contrast, I was at a movie recently and behind me I could here some people whispering something.  Someone ahead of me turned around and said loudly, "Would you please be QUIET?!"

I would have called the manager to remove the woman with the kid.  I don't apologize any more.

[Paddy]

There's a whole lotta ranting going on, and the truth is that the majority of stuff is completely out of the control of those doing the ranting.

My observations?  Most people are always in a big hurry-why, I don't know.  The level of courtesy in our society has dropped significantly over the last 40 years.  People by and large have no problem with out-and-out bald face lies.  The focal point of our society has become who can get the most (usually from government) and whatever it takes to get that is ok.

blech.

[Unisaw]

Justin + 1.

I think the 24-hour news media has something to do with it too.  They have so much air time to fill that they are willing to let any kook on the air.  In addition, the 24-hour media has created shows that seem tailor-made for so-called pundits to advocate their positions.