This entry was posted on Sunday, November 14th, 2010 at 10:37 am and is filed under All Blogs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
15 Responses to “The Stupid 365 Project, Day 44: Mann, oh Mann” -
Bonnie Says:
November 14th, 2010 at 10:44 am
You had me worried: I thought you were going to talk about Thomas Mann, the guy who never met a subordinate clause he didn’t like.
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Phil Hanson Says:
November 14th, 2010 at 11:55 am
Hell, Tim, I’d name the planet after him. It seems pretty obvious that Mann had a terminal case of ethics. Too bad that more of our political elite (notice that nowhere did I use the term “leader”) don’t share the same affliction.
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Timothy Hallinan Says:
November 14th, 2010 at 12:10 pm
Bonnie, you’re safe from Thomas Mann here.
Phil, one of the saddest things I know is that American politics has turned into a fight among vultures, jockeying for a bigger piece of the nation’s corpse. The crooks, hacks, and cowards we elect from both parties — again and again and again — are in the process of killing this country deader than Ancient Rome and feasting on the remains.
Time for the Ixnaycrats. I’ve been avoiding writing about the Ixnaycrats, but I can’t avoid it any longer. Things have GOT to change.
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Suzanna Says:
November 14th, 2010 at 1:54 pm
Someone recommended the film INSIDE JOB to us sometime last week and if my insides could talk they would have groaned back, NO!!!!!
I was so sick of reading and hearing about the financial crisis there was no way I was going to sit in a theater for anything less than the usual escapist entertainment I normally seek to soothe my overwrought heart and mind that generally agonizes over the state of our country, our planet, our future.
Well, I was dead wrong. I did end up seeing INSIDE JOB at a time when I felt buoyed by a relatively good mood and the sense that I needed to know more, even if it hurt.
Charles Ferguson, the filmmaker who tackled this subject with great veracity, confronted some of the very same self-serving A-HOLES who put us in this position in the first place, fed at the trough, continue to do so, and have no shame about it.
Hank Paulson, Timothy Geithner, Larry Summers were no where to be found but he didn’t let you forget about them.
Ferguson left some stuttering with surprise that anyone would dare ask them the pointed intelligent questions that he did. Others asked him sharply to end the interview, another pointed to the camera and desperately asked him to TURN THAT OFF!
Yes, I felt very satisfied that he made them squirm, but also great satisfaction that an individual like Ferguson devoted a few years of his life to make a film that will help educate many people like myself who may not know how to make sense of this historic crime.
It is my contention that seeing movies like INSIDE JOB, or reading, or talking to each other about what happened, about why it happened, can help empower us to begin to see a way out of this mess. Not by giving us easy answers but by raising our awareness, and pissing us off to the point that we do not tolerate the actions of the corrupt, greedy, self-serving, individuals and institutions that got us to this place and who remain in power.
There’s simply no relief in site if we continue to look to a democracy strangled by greed and corruption to solve all of our problems.
Horace Mann was right about education, it can most definitely “lead to improvements in society.”
I think as members of this society we have a responsibility to stay informed, even if it hurts, and to make choices that disempower those who have screwed us over, and let us down, and to work equally hard to find ways to help each other through this very dark time. There is no Papa Democracy that will come to the rescue.
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Bonnie Says:
November 14th, 2010 at 2:59 pm
Since most of you are unknown to me, I don’t know whether I’m among fellow old farts or not, old enough to remember Neil Postman (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amusing_Ourselves_to_Death).
“Postman asserts the presentation of television news is a form of entertainment programming; arguing inclusion of theme music, the interruption of commercials, and “talking hairdos” bear witness that televised news cannot readily be taken seriously. Postman further examines the differences between written speech, which he argues reached its prime in the early to mid-nineteenth century, and the forms of televisual communication, which rely mostly on visual images to “sell” lifestyles. He argues that, owing to this change in public discourse, politics has ceased to be about a candidate’s ideas and solutions, but whether he comes across favorably on television. Television, he notes, has introduced the phrase “now this,” which implies a complete absence of connection between the separate topics the phrase ostensibly connects. Larry Gonick used this phrase to conclude his Cartoon Guide to (Non)Communication, instead of the traditional “the end.”
I think Postman was prophetic and what he predicted is even more true now. It seems that almost everyone who has real money to throw at the problem is more interested in raising compliant little
consumers than in developing thoughtful, questioning, responsible citizens. It’s painfully ironic that here in the bastion of free speech there is so little worthy discourse. I guess you could say it’s worth what we pay for it.
Thanks for the reminder of another time and another perspective, Tim.
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Laren Bright Says:
November 14th, 2010 at 4:23 pm
“A house without books is like a room without windows.” I love that. My personal belief is that a bathroom without magazines is like a library without toilet paper.
So, do you know all this stuff about these cool people or are you getting help from google? Knowing you I would not be surprised if you keep this information in the nooks and crannies of your brain. But how you fid them in there is the real mystery.
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Sharai Says:
November 14th, 2010 at 6:09 pm
This is in no way a straight across comparison, but Al Gore jumped into my mind, and yes it hurt. He is an odd guy and so much fun to make jokes about: “They could tell he was lonely as of late because when he’d hug a tree he’d linger”. (Bill Maher on Al’s marriage problems. He was a huge disappointment until he quit politics and put great effort where his passion was. That’s when he really accomplished something.
Bring on the Ixnaycrats! But what do they drink? I’m guessing organic fair trade coffee with a shot of brandy.
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Timothy Hallinan Says:
November 14th, 2010 at 6:23 pm
Suzanna, it’s bad times, all right. There’s not an ounce of difference between the parties — they’re all bought and paid for, and more to the point, they’re all whores, political hacks whose sole objective is to get re-elected, who will abandon the convictions they proclaim and turn themselves inside out, like the increasingly pathetic John McCain, for a few lousy votes. And all around them are the money men and women, just stretching their dry corporate paws in the direction of our pockets. This is the Age of Gimme, and it’s all flowing from us to them. If I hear the word “entitlement” one more time, I’ll scream. They’re entitled to our money, the sweat of our brows, our freedoms, our rights, our property if needed for “eminent domain” — on and on and on. Whoops. Take a deep breath. Will see INSIDE JOB and am NOT waiting for Papa Democracy. We need to vote this scum out of office at all levels.
Bonnie, I’m older than many giant redwoods, and I remember Neil Postman. Television is the worst-used great idea in history. It’s vulgar, brainless, blood-spotted, stupid, and pitched exclusively at the lower chakras — and that’s the GOOD stuff. News is so Neanderthal that it takes two or three stories to make up a sound bite, and the “sound-bite” image says it all — it’s been cut and chewed for us so nothing is hard to get down. Anderson Cooper’s “Keeping them Honest” is about the only journalism on television today, and it’s ten-minute segment. We need a “Keeping them Honest” CHANNEL, 24 hours of pointing up the broken and impossible promises, the pandering, the paucity of vision, the fiscal irresponsibility, the cowardice, the blame-gaming — all the things that make professional politicians the most reprehensible life form on earth.
Very funny, Laren. Or a fish without a bicycle. I know enough to know what to look for — I knew, for example, who Mann was and most of what he did, and I knew the two great quotes and looked up the rest. I’ve had the “Ashamed to die” quote banging around in my head for the past week or two as I watch the abject shamelessness of the whores and clowns who call themselves our leaders, and it just seemed like a good time to think back to when there were people in public life who actually wanted to make a difference. (And also, when we had an educational system that actually educated.)
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EverettK Says:
November 14th, 2010 at 7:57 pm
I’m in total agreement with pretty much everything said in today’s blog and comments. You guys are great, and I’d just be repeating were I to add anything.
So, I’ll say instead that in just two days, when Day 46 has been posted, Tim will have passed the 1/8th mark in his year of blogging. Everyone should prepare to celebrate on Tuesday by reading a book!
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Laren Bright Says:
November 14th, 2010 at 9:26 pm
Right. Preferably one of Tim’s books.
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Timothy Hallinan Says:
November 14th, 2010 at 10:09 pm
Hey, Sharai — This post got me to write the first Ixnaycrat post, which I’m hoping will turn into a series; it’s a very general overview and more serious-sounding than I’d like it to be, considering that it might be the movement that elects a ballerina or a dog trainer as president. And Ixnaycrats drink whatever they want. It doesn’t have to be fair trade, it just has to taste good. Poor old Gore just had such a stick up his butt, and as much as I hate Bush, I blame Gore for losing that election: it NEVER should have been so close that any one state could swing it.
Everett, really? 1/8th? I had no idea. Ummm, does that mean that I’ve still got 7/8ths to go?
And Laren, thank you for saying what I wanted to say. In fact, everyone should wait and read CRASHED when it comes out. You can read it on your computer if you’re not going to buy a Kindle or an iPad — Kindle for PC is free and quite cool. And I’m loving the book as I work through the ePub version,
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EverettK Says:
November 15th, 2010 at 8:12 am
1/8th FULL, man, 1/8th FULL! (Sheesh. Somehow, I never pegged you for a 7/8ths EMPTY kind of guy…)
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barbara macdonald Says:
November 15th, 2010 at 10:06 am
there is no way i am qualified to enter into a discussion about the politics of the USA but it is refreshing to read some opinions that display “critical thinking”
i’m hesitant to mention the book Game Change, which was a jaw dropping page turner for me even though i knew how the story ended and currently i have matt taibbi’s “smells like dead elephants” on the go – although i can only take small doses otherwise i’d have to jump in front of large trucks….so for comic relief (or just plain relief)i’ve turned to listening to NPR’s Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me on the computer, I’ve worked my way from 1998 up to 2004 programs now and also keep the current ones on my mp3 player, the hesitancy is in displaying from whence i get my “political information”…..
here in Canada we have our own political boneheads and control freaks, don’t get me started!
b.
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barbara macdonald Says:
November 15th, 2010 at 10:08 am
and proof reading would be a good thing – by reading refreshing opinions i meant the ones made here, today and yesterday…..
b.
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Timothy Hallinan Says:
November 19th, 2010 at 10:15 am
Hi, Barbara, and welcome to the ongoing nonsense. I don’t know why you should feel any more unqualified to enter this discussion than any of the rest of us. Just because most of us (not you, Gary!) are United Statesians, it doesn’t mean we know anything about anything. Geez, look at the last election. I LOVED “Game Change,” which is probably the book more people have mentioned to me in the past year than any other. Jaw-dropping barely begins to describe it.
Hang in here, even if I respond to you late (you got sorted into spam by WordPress, which happens about once a week) and CERTAINLY don’t worry about typos. Major mental lapses, perhaps, but not typos.
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