Austin Improv

Yeah, but what's REALLY scary is that rather than fade back into the fabric of 'Merica like an old episode of reality tv, she has energized the ignorant and trail blazed the political landscape for the Sharron Angle and Christine O'Donnell's. It's not just a ridiculous joke anymore, it's spreading like a disease.

O'Donnell's about two seconds away from cementing her place as a permanent punch line, so i feel like my point still stands. there will always be idiots. there will always be figures those idiots rally around. and we fret and freak out and cry out that the sky is falling...but on the whole, we're kind of doing okay. it all works out and the idiots tend to go back into their little boxes eventually. until the next time satirists need good fuel.

I think you may be right Jordan. Reason will prevail. And as one of those jerk asses who talks about religion and politics on facebook, I guess what I've realized about myself is this...

I feel a sense of urgency. A sense of anxiety. Because I always felt like I came *this* close to conforming to the ideas and values that were projected upon me in rural Tennessee. Hell, my freshmen English teacher confiscated magic cards because they were tools of the devil.

Luckily the school had enough decency to fire her (probably for something completely unrelated to church vs. state). The point is this: I grew up in what Mencken called the "Sahara of the Bozart." A land void of culture and diversity. I grew up one hour away from Dayton, where the scopes trial cast a dull shadow on the future of public education in the United States. It's easy to feel positive in a place like Austin. Or Los Angeles. But in most rural areas tradition and ritual are difficult hills to climb. People are resistant to change. No matter what century we live in.

I mean.... hell. We need iconoclasts. Badly. We need educators.

Spots wrote:I think you may be right Jordan. Reason will prevail. And as one of those jerk asses who talks about religion and politics on facebook, I guess what I've realized about myself is this...

I feel a sense of urgency. A sense of anxiety. Because I always felt like I came *this* close to conforming to the ideas and values that were projected upon me in rural Tennessee. Hell, my freshmen English teacher confiscated magic cards because they were tools of the devil.

Luckily the school had enough decency to fire her (probably for something completely unrelated to church vs. state). The point is this: I grew up in what Mencken called the "Sahara of the Bozart." A land void of culture and diversity. I grew up one hour away from Dayton, where the scopes trial cast a dull shadow on the future of public education in the United States. It's easy to feel positive in a place like Austin. Or Los Angeles. But in most rural areas tradition and ritual are difficult hills to climb. People are resistant to change. No matter what century we live in.

I mean.... hell. We need iconoclasts. Badly. We need educators.

but in the end, Scopes won. not the trial, but the cause. no one's been arrested for teaching evolution since. modern efforts to introduce/integrate creationism or intelligent design into the science curriculum continually fail. people may be resistant to change, but that doesn't stop it from coming. and ritual and tradition aren't necessarily bad things. we've become so indoctrinated in this country to believe in these arbitrary divides. us vs. them. liberal vs. conservative. country vs. city. and the truth is it's all an illusion...one we lend power by believing in, but an illusion all the same. yeah, it's easy to feel positive in Austin and L.A. but it's also easy to ghettoize ourselves with the like minded and ideologically compatible. so that all country folks seem like rural backwards hicks and all city folk seem like elitist condescending pricks. and yes, there are plenty of those stereotypes, but the world and people are much more interesting than that.

my problem with Sarah Palin isn't that she's a Republican or a conservative or a Christian. it's that i know some pretty cool Republicans, conservatives and Christians and fringe idiots like her give them a bad name.

Oh, you and I are talking about two separate things then. Clearly most individuals are quick to attach themselves to a brand for an "ends justifies the means" assault against whatever.

There was this great episode of Penn & Teller Bullshit where they tricked a bunch of environmentalists into signing a ... well just watch:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yi3erdgVVTw[/youtube]

I lean left, but you're totally right. My issue is that people don't decide for themselves on individual issues. They inherit their father's bundle. They agree to the packaged deal. Me, I never want to stop learning.

Spots wrote:Oh, you and I are talking about two separate things then. Clearly most individuals are quick to attach themselves to a brand for an "ends justifies the means" assault against whatever.

There was this great episode of Penn & Teller Bullshit where they tricked a bunch of environmentalists into signing a ... well just watch:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yi3erdgVVTw[/youtube]

I lean left, but you're totally right. My issue is that people don't decide for themselves on individual issues. They inherit their father's bundle. They agree to the packaged deal. Me, I never want to stop learning.

amen to that. though it was my parents who taught me to question authority and think for myself, so i've never been able to determine if i really AM an independent thinker or just living the way i was brought up. :p

Hurray. It's like mid 90's WWF became the prototype for public discourse:

http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/ ... /homepage/

Spots wrote:Reason will prevail.

In my experience, almost never. Time makes more converts than reason.

mpbrockman wrote:

Spots wrote:Reason will prevail.

In my experience, almost never. Time makes more converts than reason.

guns. you're thinking of guns.

Spots wrote: There was this great episode of Penn & Teller Bullshit where they tricked a bunch of environmentalists into signing a ... well just watch:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yi3erdgVVTw[/youtube]

Hm. Since 1991, I've hosted city marches, done performance art at coffee shops, made flyers and placards, wrote a song, made a video, had a full-page write-up in a college newspaper, and was an official county deputy for registering voters at a registration booth, all as part of my campaign to ban water. Those were good times. I never got to be on TV, though. Stupid Penn and Teller, grumblegrumble...

Anyway, Palin something something... and Christine O'Donnell. Sorry. Please, don't mind my tangent. Proceed.