So I’m watching Tucker. Why? Because it was on.
Tucker may have lost the bow tie but he’s still a Republican. He had resident Democrat Bill Press on and that crazy Pat Robertson who’s recently has been made to look sane in comparison to this neo-con administration. So in a way it was a balanced table.
The topic changed to Obama’s use of the phrase “social Darwinism” at a Union rally. They all laughed together and agreed it was a foolish mistake on Obama’s part.
Funny thing is when I went to look for the exact quote I could only come up with a blurb that referenced the phrase here:
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama told a union forum Tuesday the Bush administration is pursuing a policy of “Social Darwinism” that leaves every man and woman struggling.
The same stupid paragraph here, and here.
Why did no one use the quote where he actually says “social darwinism”?
Is this how news is done?
Personally, I’m glad that he is speaking to the heart of the matter, identifying the core of conservative’s beliefs. If there’s any doubt that they believe in, and wish to practice social darwinism, one need only peruse right-wing blogs following Katrina. Tax Cuts for the rich, Higher Tuitions for the poor. Might = Right. And, of course, Privatized Health Care. Republicans are Biological Creationists, Social Darwinists, and Lilliputian, self-righteous Viagra Swallowers, at least Rush Limbaugh.
So Tucker, Pat, and even Bill were having a good laugh at Obama’s supposed faux-pas and I was sitting on the couch ten feet from the screen wondering what was so funny. After Tucker joked that Union members are too ignorant to know what that phrase even meant, Bill Press upped him by joking that union members probably don’t even know who Darwin is.
Nice one, Bill.
This is what the media thinks of the working man. Not only are we not up to the task of having a politician speak about the truth, and in a philosophical sense, but we are too stupid to understand the words coming out of his mouth, like Jackie Chan in Rush Hour.
What hope is there when the gatekeepers to the political discourse are a bunch 5-Cent comedians who think we’re baboons to be mocked and ridiculed and when a public figure dares to respect his audience by speaking from the heart, they sit in the seats and blather at the cameras about what a mistake it was.
Things started to click.
The other night I clicked on a link to watch a clip from the 60 Minutes interview with John Edwards and his wife. While it was loading a cheesy car commercial played — and then straight into the heaviness of a discussion about his wife’s unavoidable, imminent death.
It struck me hard.
The sudden change of emotion. The utter heartless, illogic of running that commercial while one was waiting to view such a clip. While waiting to witness a woman and her husband discuss the enormity of cancer, who is going to be persuaded to buy a new Ford? It dawned on me that our culture, the way we receive information, is structured this way. Commercials ALWAYS, by design, interupt your emotional stream of being. You’re watching a documentary on children born with autism and five seconds later Ronald McDonald is singing to a dancing tree while children slide down rainbows. Huh!? You’re drunk, up late watching Blind Date and a commercial comes on for starving children in Africa, South America, somewhere in the world where children live in landfills. Bummer.
There’s no continuity, no contemplation. It drives me crazy. The see-saw of modern life.
I think it’s why, as a society, we’re so anxious, why all the kids in the playground swinging on the monkey bars have ADD, why we end up voting more for the next American Idol than the next American President. Why we don’t sit and reflect and deal with our lives. Why we’re always running from them.
The emotional signals we receive are constantly being interrupted, overwhelmed, or jumbled. We don’t think about one thing for too long. The cultural and media participant is so overloaded with conflicting signals and ideas that our attention spans are constantly diverted, and our emotional maturity is evermore stunted. 50 year-old women with juicy on the ass of their sweatpants. When things gets heavy, we’re easily consoled by other thoughts.
This is what Tucker, Pat, and Bill were doing. When Obama got too serious they distracted us with a joke and the inference that speaking truth like this is something not to be done.
And then they moved on.
Assuming we would too.
The wife and I have tickets for the Greek, we’re geeked for it.
