Wait for me, I'm still chasing you...
This was cool.
I came home tonight with every intention of going straight to bed. Instead I had a 4 hour conversation about politics with my housemate. I've been feeling a bit of tension building between he and I just over a bunch of small things, but this completely eradicated it. It was slightly heated, but in a good natured way. We're quite different people, really, but we get along well politically (and otherwise) for a lot of reasons, most significant of which has to be the fact that we're both not very religious at all, so our discussions tend to be purely secular, with no "Oh well jesus hates negroes in office" brick walls. In any case I feel like we did a lot to educate one another tonight. He's about 20 years older than me, so he brought his considerable world experience to bear, and my financial education cleared up a few issues he had with the government's handling of GM's bankruptcy. We both came out of it with a better understanding of things. A little knowledge went a long way for both of us, I think.
Its really, really, really interesting though to see how he and I interact given our stances and backgrounds. Dean (thats his name) is a former business owner and has been self employed and financially independent since about age 16, making him the very definition of fiscally conservative. He was raised in the south in an Italian-American household as the oldest of 5, making him the very definition of morally conservative as well. I, on the other hand, am a University student in one of the most liberal cities in the country and who had a relatively privileged upbringing (you know, nice car, big house, only had a job in high school because I hated asking my dad for money...spoiled Jewish kid, pretty much) making me the very opposite of him, mostly fiscally liberal and extremely morally liberal.
The sticking point for me with conservative people has always been religion....it seems that a lot of them can't put it aside long enough to have a practical conversation about politics, so this chance to explore that dynamic sans Jesus was (I believe) a rare one and not to mention good fun. We talked about the idea of the US as a citizen of the world, whether or not we're really moving toward communism (we're not, we determined), Joe Biden, why GM's cars suck, etc etc etc.
It was, for once, a good reason to stay up way too late. Some good laughs, too. We agreed to finish his 1970s 318 V8 dodge van before the summer is over...so that'll be fun. It really just needs to have the front end buttoned up. The motor and trans are in, just have to reassemble the suspension.
Other than that, I'm hanging out with Ali tomorrow and thats honestly all I have planned for the day, so I'm probably going to sleep until then. I decided that just for this weekend I'm not going to stress about getting a job, my classes, or anything. Monday I'll go back to normal.
Speaking of this weekend, we have TWO effing shows! (Ballin!) We're playing Swayze's friday night which will be awesome because a lot of our friends will be there. The place, I hear, sucks...but still. Its a show. Saturday we're playing a 9 hour festival in Woodstock, Ga which will be teh rock. There's like 14 frickin bands, and we're going on around 6pm. Also ballin'. We're staying in a hotel friday night too like real rock stars. Time to fuck some shit up!!!! WOOO!
Father's Day is coming up....I NEED to get on that shit.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand sleep.
I came home tonight with every intention of going straight to bed. Instead I had a 4 hour conversation about politics with my housemate. I've been feeling a bit of tension building between he and I just over a bunch of small things, but this completely eradicated it. It was slightly heated, but in a good natured way. We're quite different people, really, but we get along well politically (and otherwise) for a lot of reasons, most significant of which has to be the fact that we're both not very religious at all, so our discussions tend to be purely secular, with no "Oh well jesus hates negroes in office" brick walls. In any case I feel like we did a lot to educate one another tonight. He's about 20 years older than me, so he brought his considerable world experience to bear, and my financial education cleared up a few issues he had with the government's handling of GM's bankruptcy. We both came out of it with a better understanding of things. A little knowledge went a long way for both of us, I think.
Its really, really, really interesting though to see how he and I interact given our stances and backgrounds. Dean (thats his name) is a former business owner and has been self employed and financially independent since about age 16, making him the very definition of fiscally conservative. He was raised in the south in an Italian-American household as the oldest of 5, making him the very definition of morally conservative as well. I, on the other hand, am a University student in one of the most liberal cities in the country and who had a relatively privileged upbringing (you know, nice car, big house, only had a job in high school because I hated asking my dad for money...spoiled Jewish kid, pretty much) making me the very opposite of him, mostly fiscally liberal and extremely morally liberal.
The sticking point for me with conservative people has always been religion....it seems that a lot of them can't put it aside long enough to have a practical conversation about politics, so this chance to explore that dynamic sans Jesus was (I believe) a rare one and not to mention good fun. We talked about the idea of the US as a citizen of the world, whether or not we're really moving toward communism (we're not, we determined), Joe Biden, why GM's cars suck, etc etc etc.
It was, for once, a good reason to stay up way too late. Some good laughs, too. We agreed to finish his 1970s 318 V8 dodge van before the summer is over...so that'll be fun. It really just needs to have the front end buttoned up. The motor and trans are in, just have to reassemble the suspension.
Other than that, I'm hanging out with Ali tomorrow and thats honestly all I have planned for the day, so I'm probably going to sleep until then. I decided that just for this weekend I'm not going to stress about getting a job, my classes, or anything. Monday I'll go back to normal.
Speaking of this weekend, we have TWO effing shows! (Ballin!) We're playing Swayze's friday night which will be awesome because a lot of our friends will be there. The place, I hear, sucks...but still. Its a show. Saturday we're playing a 9 hour festival in Woodstock, Ga which will be teh rock. There's like 14 frickin bands, and we're going on around 6pm. Also ballin'. We're staying in a hotel friday night too like real rock stars. Time to fuck some shit up!!!! WOOO!
Father's Day is coming up....I NEED to get on that shit.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand sleep.