guardians_song (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
guardians_song) wrote2013-01-10 12:20 am
guardians_song) wrote2013-01-10 12:20 am
Entry tags:
What really, REALLY angers me about a whole bunch of conservative commentators.
No, it's not any of the gripes most liberals have, sorry. :P ...It's not something I have a moral or rational complaint about, it's just something that makes me amazed at some people's utter lack of shame - at their ability to say things so profoundly and fundamentally stupid in public, much less spin them into "articles" and get paid for their columns.
It's claims that America's society is decadent and narcissistic at levels never before seen in any society in history, that modern political campaigns are dirtier than that of any society in history, that today's youth are surly and egotistical at levels never before seen in any society in history - or, to be frank, that ANYTHING is ANYTHING at "unprecedented" levels "unlike anything we have ever known".
I suppose one is supposed to be shocked and awed by the grandiose claims, impressed by the chutzpah of the author, and compelled into reflecting upon the decay of modern society. "Gee whiz," we're supposed to get from these articles, "am I not incredibly clear-sighted and sharp-tongued, readers? Clearly, I am a [man/woman] of a sort no longer made in this decadent world. A regular Cato the Younger, I am."
Oh, that's right - your hyperbole just made it clear you have no idea who Cato the Younger is whatsoever.
You know what I get from such articles?
"I have never read any work of Greek or Roman history. I have never read Cicero's Philippics. I may know who Nero is, but I know none of the other Roman Emperors. Nor do I really understand what became of the Roman Republic, and though I may know who Julius Caesar, Pompey the Great, and Mark Anthony were, I don't have the foggiest about the Roman civil wars that led up to the war between Caesar and Pompey. I certainly have no idea who Catalina was. I have not so much as read I, Claudius.
"Nor have I read anything involving the Renaissance era at all. I have no idea about the events that led to the Protestant Reformation, and I have no understanding of kings, nobility, and priests beyond what I read in The Lord of the Rings and the Narnia series. I certainly didn't even read The Silmarillion, and if I somehow glanced at it one day I definitely skipped over all the parts about Numenor. I have not read so much as one cheap romance novel set during the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I, or Elizabeth I.
"In fact, I haven't read anything about any great civilization or organization's rise and fall. Come to think of it, I've never even worked in one. Or, if I did, I had my head submerged in the water cooler the entire time, and all the gurgling and thrashing scared off any people who might have given me any information regarding the progression of the organization at all.
"To tell you one thing that I don't dare mention around my fellow conservatives? I've never even read the Bible. Ecclesiastes? Damn, I hope no death panels deny you treatment for that. Ezekiel? Oh, he's the one who ascended to heaven in the pillar of fire, right? Wait, was that Eijah? I never can keep my Old Testament prophets straight. Exodus? Tell you the truth, the golden-calf part always put me to sleep - I'm sure that scene couldn't be too important, though. Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis? Uh - Wait, wasn't their big sin homosexuality? I'm sure it was. And I definitely didn't miss any parts of the Bible that said otherwise, I'm sure of that too.
"Really, for all my pretensions to intellect, learning, and erudition, I'm as illiterate, narcissistic, and sheltered from criticism as the modern youth I so hate. I can't be bothered to learn anything about any society that came before my earliest memories, because, truth be told, I don't really think anything worth mentioning happened before that point. Surely the world must have been filled with barbaric, illiterate savages before I was born. It hadn't been graced with my presence, after all.
"But I'm sure nothing can be too badly wrong with me - After all, I was born before television!"
The only audience to which these people can appeal must be proud-yet-hypocritical Luddites who love to hear how their generation was infinitely superior for growing up before all this newfangled technology stuff, yet see no irony in reading such articles on the internet that is filled with such evils, embedded in news sites that epitomize the shallow, attention-grabbing mentality they claim to so hate, and on pages flanked by tacky, flashy advertisements that are supposedly the very things that are corrupting the youth of today.
The sad thing is that I can't even say they'll die off with time. Such hatred of new things has been embedded in "intellectuals" for all of recorded time, and will doubtless persist for as long as humanity's genetic make-up remains largely unchanged. And they're not even limited to conservatives - sickening numbers of progressives, for all of the general group's love of modernity, are quite likely to stamp down on their fellows' faces in a desperate attempt to scramble to the top of the huddle and proclaim hysterically just how much better their decade was, and how the radicals back in their good old days of the 60's/70's/80's/90's/00's were SO much better than these spoiled, overindulged college children now, and how technology is making everyone so much more decadent and conservative look at me I'm special I'm not like the rest of this drooling rabble look at me please I'm special Mommy always told me so I'm special please lookatmeLOOKATME
And so it has been ever since that great philosopher, the erudite and enlightened Socrates, warned us all about the dangers of this sickening, radical new technology that would erode pupils' memory, render them unable to distinguish truth from illusion, and surely lead them terribly astray, making them "hearers of many things [that] will have learned nothing", "[those who] appear to be omniscient [yt] generally know nothing", and" tiresome company, having the show of wisdom without the reality" -
Yes, this disturbing new technology of WRITING.
It's claims that America's society is decadent and narcissistic at levels never before seen in any society in history, that modern political campaigns are dirtier than that of any society in history, that today's youth are surly and egotistical at levels never before seen in any society in history - or, to be frank, that ANYTHING is ANYTHING at "unprecedented" levels "unlike anything we have ever known".
I suppose one is supposed to be shocked and awed by the grandiose claims, impressed by the chutzpah of the author, and compelled into reflecting upon the decay of modern society. "Gee whiz," we're supposed to get from these articles, "am I not incredibly clear-sighted and sharp-tongued, readers? Clearly, I am a [man/woman] of a sort no longer made in this decadent world. A regular Cato the Younger, I am."
Oh, that's right - your hyperbole just made it clear you have no idea who Cato the Younger is whatsoever.
You know what I get from such articles?
"I have never read any work of Greek or Roman history. I have never read Cicero's Philippics. I may know who Nero is, but I know none of the other Roman Emperors. Nor do I really understand what became of the Roman Republic, and though I may know who Julius Caesar, Pompey the Great, and Mark Anthony were, I don't have the foggiest about the Roman civil wars that led up to the war between Caesar and Pompey. I certainly have no idea who Catalina was. I have not so much as read I, Claudius.
"Nor have I read anything involving the Renaissance era at all. I have no idea about the events that led to the Protestant Reformation, and I have no understanding of kings, nobility, and priests beyond what I read in The Lord of the Rings and the Narnia series. I certainly didn't even read The Silmarillion, and if I somehow glanced at it one day I definitely skipped over all the parts about Numenor. I have not read so much as one cheap romance novel set during the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I, or Elizabeth I.
"In fact, I haven't read anything about any great civilization or organization's rise and fall. Come to think of it, I've never even worked in one. Or, if I did, I had my head submerged in the water cooler the entire time, and all the gurgling and thrashing scared off any people who might have given me any information regarding the progression of the organization at all.
"To tell you one thing that I don't dare mention around my fellow conservatives? I've never even read the Bible. Ecclesiastes? Damn, I hope no death panels deny you treatment for that. Ezekiel? Oh, he's the one who ascended to heaven in the pillar of fire, right? Wait, was that Eijah? I never can keep my Old Testament prophets straight. Exodus? Tell you the truth, the golden-calf part always put me to sleep - I'm sure that scene couldn't be too important, though. Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis? Uh - Wait, wasn't their big sin homosexuality? I'm sure it was. And I definitely didn't miss any parts of the Bible that said otherwise, I'm sure of that too.
"Really, for all my pretensions to intellect, learning, and erudition, I'm as illiterate, narcissistic, and sheltered from criticism as the modern youth I so hate. I can't be bothered to learn anything about any society that came before my earliest memories, because, truth be told, I don't really think anything worth mentioning happened before that point. Surely the world must have been filled with barbaric, illiterate savages before I was born. It hadn't been graced with my presence, after all.
"But I'm sure nothing can be too badly wrong with me - After all, I was born before television!"
The only audience to which these people can appeal must be proud-yet-hypocritical Luddites who love to hear how their generation was infinitely superior for growing up before all this newfangled technology stuff, yet see no irony in reading such articles on the internet that is filled with such evils, embedded in news sites that epitomize the shallow, attention-grabbing mentality they claim to so hate, and on pages flanked by tacky, flashy advertisements that are supposedly the very things that are corrupting the youth of today.
The sad thing is that I can't even say they'll die off with time. Such hatred of new things has been embedded in "intellectuals" for all of recorded time, and will doubtless persist for as long as humanity's genetic make-up remains largely unchanged. And they're not even limited to conservatives - sickening numbers of progressives, for all of the general group's love of modernity, are quite likely to stamp down on their fellows' faces in a desperate attempt to scramble to the top of the huddle and proclaim hysterically just how much better their decade was, and how the radicals back in their good old days of the 60's/70's/80's/90's/00's were SO much better than these spoiled, overindulged college children now, and how technology is making everyone so much more decadent and conservative look at me I'm special I'm not like the rest of this drooling rabble look at me please I'm special Mommy always told me so I'm special please lookatmeLOOKATME
And so it has been ever since that great philosopher, the erudite and enlightened Socrates, warned us all about the dangers of this sickening, radical new technology that would erode pupils' memory, render them unable to distinguish truth from illusion, and surely lead them terribly astray, making them "hearers of many things [that] will have learned nothing", "[those who] appear to be omniscient [yt] generally know nothing", and" tiresome company, having the show of wisdom without the reality" -
Yes, this disturbing new technology of WRITING.