Socs verses Greasers
Let's face it: America is like a big high school, and all the cool kids are liberals. They are the celebrities, the college students, the Harvard Law professors. They tend to be the most attractive, and they dress better than the rest of us. Most are fairly wealthy, too, despite the old myth that liberals are poor while conservatives are rich. That no longer holds true.
Back when Bush was president, to be cool, you simply had to hate Bush. Every celebrity under the sun made some kind of anti-Bush statement, to the point that it became absurd. How many times does something like, "I can't believe such an idiot is president!" need to be repeated before it loses all sense of originality. It's like that summer in the late 80's when every girl had her hair french-braided with a giant scrunchie at the bottom.
It was groundbreaking when Green Day came out with American Idiot (way before it was cool to hate on the Prez), but by the time Pink came out with "Dear Mr. President," it was overkill. Yeah, we got it. You guys didn't like President Bush. POINT TAKEN!
Still, the fact that anyone would not be a liberal is sometimes surprising, since liberals--for the most part--have the bullhorn, and peer pressure is tough. They have television, movies, and FM radio, leaving the uncool conservatives with a tiny sliver of noise, also known as AM radio.
But the uncool kids made a lot out of almost nothing, which would be glorious if they hadn't built themselves into a network of nothing more than anti-Cool Kids. These are Christian conservatives. They watch Christian movies and listen to talk radio. They only expose themselves to Christian music and Christian-conservative books. They read Christian-conservative magazines and--if they could--would eat only Christian food. They avoid anything and everything that isn't Christian or conservative.
They complain about birth certificates, death panels, the Olympics, Obama's name sounding Muslim, and most recently, the Nobel Peace prize. They seem to sit most comfortably in petty arguments, the ones that are big and explosive, but not all that important. They ignore the stuff that is more complicated, less exciting, but ultimately much, much bigger than Barack Obama's middle name.
Myself, I usually root for the underdog, and--with my upbringing--I'm more inclined to be a conservative than a democrat. But I also respect the fact that liberals (the Cool Kids) are gifted artists. They really are "cool" in that sense of the word. They're creative. They make great movies, and they have a lot to teach the "Uncool Kids." On the other hand, they have a lot to learn from people who don't depend on artifice, you know, the regular Schmoe who works hard, feeds his family, pays his taxes, and has a voice but no way of making his voice heard.
I'm tired of being preached at by the Cool Kids for not believing the way they do, and I'm tired of being lectured at by the Anti-Cool Kids for liking anything about the Cool Kids.
So I wonder....when is 8-Face going to sit down and have that talk with Ponyboy? Or do those small moments of commonality only exist in small moments? After all, the greasers and socs still ended up in a rumble. At least the greasers won.
Back when Bush was president, to be cool, you simply had to hate Bush. Every celebrity under the sun made some kind of anti-Bush statement, to the point that it became absurd. How many times does something like, "I can't believe such an idiot is president!" need to be repeated before it loses all sense of originality. It's like that summer in the late 80's when every girl had her hair french-braided with a giant scrunchie at the bottom.
It was groundbreaking when Green Day came out with American Idiot (way before it was cool to hate on the Prez), but by the time Pink came out with "Dear Mr. President," it was overkill. Yeah, we got it. You guys didn't like President Bush. POINT TAKEN!
Still, the fact that anyone would not be a liberal is sometimes surprising, since liberals--for the most part--have the bullhorn, and peer pressure is tough. They have television, movies, and FM radio, leaving the uncool conservatives with a tiny sliver of noise, also known as AM radio.
But the uncool kids made a lot out of almost nothing, which would be glorious if they hadn't built themselves into a network of nothing more than anti-Cool Kids. These are Christian conservatives. They watch Christian movies and listen to talk radio. They only expose themselves to Christian music and Christian-conservative books. They read Christian-conservative magazines and--if they could--would eat only Christian food. They avoid anything and everything that isn't Christian or conservative.
They complain about birth certificates, death panels, the Olympics, Obama's name sounding Muslim, and most recently, the Nobel Peace prize. They seem to sit most comfortably in petty arguments, the ones that are big and explosive, but not all that important. They ignore the stuff that is more complicated, less exciting, but ultimately much, much bigger than Barack Obama's middle name.
Myself, I usually root for the underdog, and--with my upbringing--I'm more inclined to be a conservative than a democrat. But I also respect the fact that liberals (the Cool Kids) are gifted artists. They really are "cool" in that sense of the word. They're creative. They make great movies, and they have a lot to teach the "Uncool Kids." On the other hand, they have a lot to learn from people who don't depend on artifice, you know, the regular Schmoe who works hard, feeds his family, pays his taxes, and has a voice but no way of making his voice heard.
I'm tired of being preached at by the Cool Kids for not believing the way they do, and I'm tired of being lectured at by the Anti-Cool Kids for liking anything about the Cool Kids.
So I wonder....when is 8-Face going to sit down and have that talk with Ponyboy? Or do those small moments of commonality only exist in small moments? After all, the greasers and socs still ended up in a rumble. At least the greasers won.