Cultural Festivities.
Happy 2009.
I’m in a hotel room in Laughlin Nevada, it’s not quite midnight yet. Got 35 minutes left to go on Nevada time. Kim and the kids are asleep and I have thoughts. Thoughts I need to purge before I go to sleep.
What is foremost on my mind is what I’ve seen tonight on the news concerning the new years celebrations from around the world. Sydney Australia presented an elaborate and beautiful display of fireworks that looked like fleeting moments of colorful chrysanthemums blooming in the darkness of night. Taiwan and Hong Kong presented similarly awesome displays of mathematically artful aerial combustion. In Tokyo, they released hundreds, maybe thousands of white balloons into the air, but they were made of rice so that when they land- probably in the sea- they will dissolve and not hurt the environment. That was a stunning vision, these many white balloons climbing into the night like bubbles sailing up on the sounds of centuries old bronze bells being tolled for all of our many lifetimes. London’s display was optimistically festive and bright, and Paris showed pure class in the azure-glowing lanes along the Avenue des Champs-Elysées. Nothing obnoxious, just a glowing, blue-lit mood held aloft and cheery by the freed reverie of giddy Parisiennes and their open bottles.
Then they jumped to America, where in Atlanta they dropped a giant replica of a Chicken McNugget into some kind of sludgy sauce. That just made me sad. I mean really sad, that this is our American culture. Atlanta is no small town, it’s the metropolitan center of the Southeastern part of our country and really a very large center for the news we get every day. And here they are, celebrating their culture in a way that shows their devotion to unhealthy diet, pettiness, and their soul-serving holy devotion to the Gods of global corporate dominance. “Here ya’ go, people of Earth! Here’s what we’re all about! Wooo-haaa!” New York’s celebration was comfortable, familiar, charming, and despite the freezing temperature, very cozy. But Jesus Atlanta,… was that supposed to be cute?
What the hell? Why would they do that? It really bothers me. I’m sorry if I’m making such a big deal- to the point of not being able to go to bed. But I just can’t help but wonder what people out there are thinking about that.
I know some folks out in that part of the country, and they are smart people. Very thoughtful and decent people who deserve better than this ignorance they are force-fed in their culture very day, telling them that they should be proud to be common and non-intellectual, and to hate and resent- even religiously condemn in some cases- people who read and think for themselves.
This just pisses me off. It’s the very epitome, the very pinhole in the red center of the dartboard, that symbol of what pulls our country back from growing up. From progressing into what everyone believes our shining country is supposed to be, and keeps it in the image of the fly-swatting, sweaty, beer-slugging, fat, belching, selfish American that the world abroad really believes us to be.
Thanks Atlanta.
And f you too.
I’m in a hotel room in Laughlin Nevada, it’s not quite midnight yet. Got 35 minutes left to go on Nevada time. Kim and the kids are asleep and I have thoughts. Thoughts I need to purge before I go to sleep.
What is foremost on my mind is what I’ve seen tonight on the news concerning the new years celebrations from around the world. Sydney Australia presented an elaborate and beautiful display of fireworks that looked like fleeting moments of colorful chrysanthemums blooming in the darkness of night. Taiwan and Hong Kong presented similarly awesome displays of mathematically artful aerial combustion. In Tokyo, they released hundreds, maybe thousands of white balloons into the air, but they were made of rice so that when they land- probably in the sea- they will dissolve and not hurt the environment. That was a stunning vision, these many white balloons climbing into the night like bubbles sailing up on the sounds of centuries old bronze bells being tolled for all of our many lifetimes. London’s display was optimistically festive and bright, and Paris showed pure class in the azure-glowing lanes along the Avenue des Champs-Elysées. Nothing obnoxious, just a glowing, blue-lit mood held aloft and cheery by the freed reverie of giddy Parisiennes and their open bottles.
Then they jumped to America, where in Atlanta they dropped a giant replica of a Chicken McNugget into some kind of sludgy sauce. That just made me sad. I mean really sad, that this is our American culture. Atlanta is no small town, it’s the metropolitan center of the Southeastern part of our country and really a very large center for the news we get every day. And here they are, celebrating their culture in a way that shows their devotion to unhealthy diet, pettiness, and their soul-serving holy devotion to the Gods of global corporate dominance. “Here ya’ go, people of Earth! Here’s what we’re all about! Wooo-haaa!” New York’s celebration was comfortable, familiar, charming, and despite the freezing temperature, very cozy. But Jesus Atlanta,… was that supposed to be cute?
What the hell? Why would they do that? It really bothers me. I’m sorry if I’m making such a big deal- to the point of not being able to go to bed. But I just can’t help but wonder what people out there are thinking about that.
I know some folks out in that part of the country, and they are smart people. Very thoughtful and decent people who deserve better than this ignorance they are force-fed in their culture very day, telling them that they should be proud to be common and non-intellectual, and to hate and resent- even religiously condemn in some cases- people who read and think for themselves.
This just pisses me off. It’s the very epitome, the very pinhole in the red center of the dartboard, that symbol of what pulls our country back from growing up. From progressing into what everyone believes our shining country is supposed to be, and keeps it in the image of the fly-swatting, sweaty, beer-slugging, fat, belching, selfish American that the world abroad really believes us to be.
Thanks Atlanta.
And f you too.