Read the whole thing ...

The Perpetual Adolescent: "'Obviously it is normal to think of oneself as younger than one is,' W.H. Auden, a younger son, told Robert Craft, 'but fatal to want to be younger.' I'm not sure about fatal, but it is at a minimum degrading for a culture at large to want to be younger. The tone of national life is lowered, made less rich. The first thing lowered is expectations, intellectual and otherwise. To begin with education, one wonders if the dumbing down of culture one used to hear so much about and which continues isn't connected to the rise of the perpetual adolescent."
...
At a certain point in American life, the young ceased to be viewed as a transient class and youth as a phase of life through which everyone soon passed. Instead, youthfulness was vaunted and carried a special moral status. Adolescence triumphed, becoming a permanent condition. As one grew older, one was presented with two choices, to seem an old fogey for attempting to live according to one's own standard of adulthood, or to go with the flow and adapt some variant of pulling one's long gray hair back into a ponytail, struggling into the spandex shorts, working on those abs, and ending one's days among the Rip Van With-Its. Not, I think, a handsome set of alternatives.

Why post this? As I approach a "difficult" birthday (because I didn't think I'd be on this particular road at my age? ... when did I miss my exit? Or did I take an exit that led nowhere, and although I can dimly hear the roar of traffic on the road where I'm supposed to be, I can't seem to find the on-ramp) I see that I'm surrounded by "youth" and pressures to be "young" ... Yuck. I want to enjoy being my age, with available ways to celebrate approaching 40, not dread it.

A friend reminds me "be the change you want to see in the world." Okay, here's me ... being. I just have to figure out how to get clothes designers, culture mavens, the entertainment industry, and my co-workers to join in ...
- posted by Chris @ 12:03 PM

 
Only a beginning ...
Unfortunately, a constitution is not a magic wand. It's just a tool. And like all tools, it's only as useful as the people putting it to use (assuming it was well-made to begin with). If you don't respect anyone else's perspective, nothing in a constitution can make you. If you don't respect a system of law that doesn't discriminate based on shared affiliations, family connections, or financial entanglements, a constitution may be an impediment, but it won't keep you from going around, under, or over it.

We're still working out some of the kinks of ours, and we have people here who don't get it.

I've been told a number of times recently that I'm not exactly a "glass half-full" kind of person. Guess what? The glass isn't half full.
- posted by Chris @ 9:00 AM

 
spiked-culture | Article | The geek shall inherit the Earth
Read the whole thing, but here's an excerpt:

No, the broader reason why mainstream society has become more disposed to immerse itself in fantasy is because of a general cultural stagnation that exists today. At a time when we feel less certain of our ability to impact on the world around us, we tend to retreat into fantasy worlds instead. One consequence of this is that we are increasingly more comfortable contemplating the ins and outs of life in Tolkien's Middle-Earth, than we are confronting the ins and outs of life on Earth proper. As Hollywood serves up ever more lavish fantasy spectacles for us to marvel at, the society that lies outside of the cinema and the comic shop stagnates.

This is a state of affairs that not only speaks ill of society, but actually demeans science fiction and fantasy as well, by putting them in the impossible position of having to provide us with the answers to life, the universe and everything. Fiction in these genres can be a terrific tool for exploring ideas, but it cannot satisfy the human urge to find meaning in life and to aspire to a better world. That can only come through confronting the questions that we face in the here and now.

- posted by Chris @ 10:46 AM

 
Again, Lileks with the good points...
(scroll down to the "screed")
but James, it's not the hammer, it's the screwdriver. And it's not a bomb at the mall, it's the morass of unintended consequences. It's not the poles we need to populate, it's the middle.
- posted by Chris @ 10:16 AM

 
Bush ads anger some 9/11 families - Mar. 4, 2004
Of course they do!
The ads use images designed to provoke our 9/11 anger, horror and sorrow all over again. If the Bush/Cheney campaign wants to use images of leadership, these ain't them!

I understand the goal of advertising. I understand the impact of emotional imagery.

I can see someone running for the office of Chief Terrorist using the images. I can't see a responsible American office-seeker wanting to use these images to manipulate us into a vote.

It's not that they won't work. We're all talking about the Bush/Cheney campaign, aren't we? And not about the Kerry/? campaign. They didn't do it with integrity, but the B/C people achieved the mission of making their candidates the top news story of the day. Congratulations, you dogs of war. I hope you get the result you deserve.
- posted by Chris @ 2:28 PM

 
I Love Lileks, but ....
This Lileks column has some good points, but quite honestly, it's not a Republican hammer I fear if Bush wins again, it's the screwdrivers that come with his tool kit.
- posted by Chris @ 10:01 AM

 
Are these the choices in November?
1. A government program for everyone, without enough resources to make any program work well.
or
2. Trust that big corporations really care about the longterm interests of their workers and customers.
- posted by Chris @ 8:52 AM

 
God Just Is ...
damnit.

I don't want someone forcing his or her belief system down my ears at every opportunity. I don't want to listen to someone stumbling over a lame attempt to craft an answer to a question about what God would or wouldn't do in any situation. I don't want to engage in a debate about whose side God is on.

Religion is a belief system crafted by humans in order to preserve some semblance of sanity in the face of our inevitable mortality. Its rituals, rules and rigors give structure to a human existence that requires such framework for creating civilization and culture.

Any time we try to put our thoughts and words in God's mouth, we make fools of ourselves and enemies of each other.

Spirit exists, Transcendence exists. God Just Is.
- posted by Chris @ 4:12 PM