article on the declining numbers of people able to retire ("Comfortable retirement a
fading dream for many," June 16) is consistent with other indicators such as war,
famine and plague that we are entering into a New Middle Ages.
As the American empire crumbles, the barbarians hordes establish their fiefdoms.
The common man becomes a lifetime serf to the corporate aristocracy that uses its
wealth to fund misguided crusades.
Media, in the role of the Church, offer solace through illusion, while heretics are
burned in the headlines.
Most fascinating of all is what form will the coming Renaissance take? Steve Abney -
San Francisco
The other piece of news that continues to disturb me since I first read this bit on the day of the issue was published. The heading read: Inaction in boy's beating called justified: Experts say witnesses are understandably scared and confused (June 18, 2008)
Something is weirdly wrong with our society. I will share my reflection as I find time to sit down in front of my computer.
Came home and saw this on CommonDreams via The Toronto Star: Haunted by Iraq War. (Read the full story here http://www.thestar.com/News/World/article/456877 )
It is a story of one Pri
vate Dwyer celebrated as a hero for saving an enemy's child. At home a father kills his two years old by kicking and punching him over hundred time by a roadside and people driving by stop and watch in horror. No one intervenes for the fear he might hurt them. Wonderful! They say they had nothing to stop him with. How about getting in your car and crushing him? I wonder what role media has played in creating such a society that we have come to embrace? For one thing, they justified and continue to sanction a cruel, inhuman war and turned it into a video game as opposed feeling horrified. The sensitized the war by showing images of (not carnage our soldier committed on a foreign people) but by displaying images of humanitarian gestures by the US soldiers, some of whom are now dying by sniffing aerosol spray cleaner. The media has truly turned us into a passive spectator of murders. Media, instead of going after the Neocons who devised the war and exposing their criminal side, turned us into weightless dumbells. Steve is right on when he calls them the new Church.
3 comments:
It shows the sad state of our society that people no longer care about the welfare of others. We are living in a "me, me, me" culture and it seems to only be getting worse. I live in Kentucky and just last week, a young woman was riding her bike on a busy street and a car hit her from behind - she was seriously hurt, but no one stopped to help her. Someone did call 911, but by the time the EMS arrived, she was dead. The hit-and-run driver is still at large.
The same thing happened in another state - I don't remember where - but a secruity camera caught a car hitting a pedistrian, and then no one offered the man any assistance. He was hospitalized. The media aired the secruity tape, but this hit-and-run driver is also still at large.
Insanity is epidemic. There are multiple reasons for the insanity. In a pop psychology way, one might say it is the return of the repressed. 500 years after the barbaric invasion of the world by the Europeans all the crimes against humanity are now coming up like soldier's from the teeth of dragons. As Aimee Cesaire wrote many years ago, Europe is indefensible in her arrogance and to the extent the United States emulates European arrogance or exceeds it.
I'll never forget seeing the News Hour in 2003, where a number of experts and generals were sitting around discussing the invasion of Iraq.
"We have to be prepared for casualties." One of them said.
There was a dissenting chorus and a lot of head shaking.
"That's unacceptable!" Another said.
"No, no, I meant Iraqi casualties."
Relieved, they all looked at each other and smiled, as if to apologize for the misunderstanding.
I was struck, not just the sheer callousness of this moment, but by the pompous, self-assurance of these people.
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