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Saving America
Brian turned in early and Captain America was available for free through Amazon prime's streaming video library so I just watched it. It's great living in the future, some of the time.
But having finished it, I am reminded why there is so much nostalgia (among those who did not live through it) for the period of the second world war, and why there is so much attraction to stories like this. There is a clear bad guy, a band of unquestionable heroes, and a surety of purpose that is mostly lacking in our country right now.
We have thousands of Watt-hours of Americans being mostly idle, while others walk ramshod over our rights and our democracy, and then other thousands of Watt-hours being spent just to survive and raise families in a country that no longer seems to value that process as it once did.
Our kids are being sold Angry Birds clothing and toys. Is flinging birds with a slingshot in order to kill a bunch of pigs really the clearest, most compelling narrative we can offer our kids right now?
I know, I know, there's also Dora (explore!) and Elmo (Love!) and Barbie (Buy!) and the Disney Princesses (Not even going there) and Spongebob (don't even know enough to guess), but I think the lack of national cohesion is visible in more than just our presidential politics.
Watching the film, one of the moments that most caught in my throat was the scene with kids running through the streets, following a leader with a Captain America shield. We don't have narratives like that about many current figures, real or fictional, that our kids can pick up and run with, at least not any that are modern.
A friend loaned me some DVDs of the Wonder Woman television shows. And again, oh lookie. She fought the Nazis. Though I guess in the cartoons I watched as a kid she must have done something else...?
When I was a kid we watched M*A*S*H, which had more complexity but still had heroes. And of course there were the fantasies. Peter Pan, Snow White, Star Trek, etc. But in the meantime, complexity was undermining (sometimes in good ways) the stories that had created the roleplaying games of years past. Cowboys and Indians? Not so clear-cut, once examined, who is the bad guy. Cops and Robbers? We had Chips, but also The Dukes of Hazard. Our generation especially admired the clever loners. MacGyver and the A-Team. As we entered the Me Decade and watched the communities and families around us struggle and falter.
But the problem is not just our kids and their stories, its ourselves. Who do we hope to emulate? Who do we look up to? Who do we trust, who has power? Clearly, if you look at the polls, there's Jon Stewart, Ellen DeGeneres, and, for me, Melinda Gates. Oh, and Elmo of course. As well as many hundreds of doctors, teachers, and emergency personnel out fighting the good fight, but often fighting the tides of administrative obstructionism.
Maybe this is why I keep a copy of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. Maybe I should watch it. But I'm afraid it will just get me down, too.
I would love to see 10 or 20 million of us march on Washington and our own State Capitols, demanding an end to corporate financing of elections and candidates, and a decent system of public financing and media access to replace it. And legislators brave enough to put forth the bills to make it happen. And posters and film strips supporting the idea: Have a cup of Freedom!
But I don't believe in it. That it could happen right now, I mean.
In Captain America (the movie), the biggest job of the female foil is to have faith in him, to remind him of his purpose. I feel like my country is hanging around waiting for someone to do that for us. It's not a happy feeling.
But having finished it, I am reminded why there is so much nostalgia (among those who did not live through it) for the period of the second world war, and why there is so much attraction to stories like this. There is a clear bad guy, a band of unquestionable heroes, and a surety of purpose that is mostly lacking in our country right now.
We have thousands of Watt-hours of Americans being mostly idle, while others walk ramshod over our rights and our democracy, and then other thousands of Watt-hours being spent just to survive and raise families in a country that no longer seems to value that process as it once did.
Our kids are being sold Angry Birds clothing and toys. Is flinging birds with a slingshot in order to kill a bunch of pigs really the clearest, most compelling narrative we can offer our kids right now?
I know, I know, there's also Dora (explore!) and Elmo (Love!) and Barbie (Buy!) and the Disney Princesses (Not even going there) and Spongebob (don't even know enough to guess), but I think the lack of national cohesion is visible in more than just our presidential politics.
Watching the film, one of the moments that most caught in my throat was the scene with kids running through the streets, following a leader with a Captain America shield. We don't have narratives like that about many current figures, real or fictional, that our kids can pick up and run with, at least not any that are modern.
A friend loaned me some DVDs of the Wonder Woman television shows. And again, oh lookie. She fought the Nazis. Though I guess in the cartoons I watched as a kid she must have done something else...?
When I was a kid we watched M*A*S*H, which had more complexity but still had heroes. And of course there were the fantasies. Peter Pan, Snow White, Star Trek, etc. But in the meantime, complexity was undermining (sometimes in good ways) the stories that had created the roleplaying games of years past. Cowboys and Indians? Not so clear-cut, once examined, who is the bad guy. Cops and Robbers? We had Chips, but also The Dukes of Hazard. Our generation especially admired the clever loners. MacGyver and the A-Team. As we entered the Me Decade and watched the communities and families around us struggle and falter.
But the problem is not just our kids and their stories, its ourselves. Who do we hope to emulate? Who do we look up to? Who do we trust, who has power? Clearly, if you look at the polls, there's Jon Stewart, Ellen DeGeneres, and, for me, Melinda Gates. Oh, and Elmo of course. As well as many hundreds of doctors, teachers, and emergency personnel out fighting the good fight, but often fighting the tides of administrative obstructionism.
Maybe this is why I keep a copy of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. Maybe I should watch it. But I'm afraid it will just get me down, too.
I would love to see 10 or 20 million of us march on Washington and our own State Capitols, demanding an end to corporate financing of elections and candidates, and a decent system of public financing and media access to replace it. And legislators brave enough to put forth the bills to make it happen. And posters and film strips supporting the idea: Have a cup of Freedom!
But I don't believe in it. That it could happen right now, I mean.
In Captain America (the movie), the biggest job of the female foil is to have faith in him, to remind him of his purpose. I feel like my country is hanging around waiting for someone to do that for us. It's not a happy feeling.
no subject
The advantage of publicly financed elections is that they can level the playing field so that people with the know how and desire to be good public servants can run for office without having to outspend rival candidates.
The current process, in which PACs are legal, reduces elections to games of fund raising, for the most part.
You might argue that teachers and school systems can ultimately stem the tide of ignorance and lies by raising a smarter and more discerning generation of voters, but where are the schools going to be able to do this in an environment where the only goal many students see is simply personal survival or personal success through the corporate system.
The system of government looking after public interest is one that served the U.S. well in the 20th Century, and it continues to do so, to some extent in the 21st Century. I believe we should continue to provide an incentive for citizens whose primary desire is to serve the public interest to run for public office. With corporations able to control government by being the principle campaign donors for elected officials, I believe we distance ourselves from the chance of electing a good government.
Are you saying that the accumulation of corporate wealth is a process that outranks providing a high quality of life for all citizens of a country? Historically, this is a philosophy that causes nations to fail.
no subject
Let's pick a different venue if you'd like to discuss this; I hate to hijack other peoples' blogs for these sorts of debates.
no subject
Perhaps if you gave specific examples as to what history illustrates your models of success or failure of societies and governments?