Saturday, June 19, 2010
Monday, February 22, 2010
Tea Baggers Euphoric Recall
I have noticed a couple of characteristics of the so-called Tea Baggers.
They are almost universally white, and they seem to be mostly Baby Boomers.
What I think they are trying to get at and earnestly working replicate are the pleasant times of the 1950s. They are piss off because they have discovered that you can’t put the toothpaste back into the tube…Unfortunately this makes them vulnerable the political shills and corporate whores who are playing them like badly tuned violins.
My recollection of the American fifties was of a country that seemed very sure of itself.
This, I believe for a few reasons.
They are almost universally white, and they seem to be mostly Baby Boomers.
What I think they are trying to get at and earnestly working replicate are the pleasant times of the 1950s. They are piss off because they have discovered that you can’t put the toothpaste back into the tube…Unfortunately this makes them vulnerable the political shills and corporate whores who are playing them like badly tuned violins.
My recollection of the American fifties was of a country that seemed very sure of itself.
This, I believe for a few reasons.
One, there was not the multi-media twenty-four hour news-cycle that we have today – which is in competition with the Internet.
And, two it was very rare for public figures – with the possible exception of movie celebrities to have their dirty laundry aired in public. It was considered in those days to be bad taste to do so. Three and perhaps most important of all we had prevailed in the Second World War! We took the military from almost scratch to a full on to mighty military industrial complex. We were big and strong and never wrong, and if you screwed with the Red White and Blue it was at your peril – we had the bomb and knew how to used it! We had pulled together for the common good during the war…we had been willing to make sacrifices for the common good. There actually was a sense of the common good.
We thought that corporations were our friends. They were largely headquartered in the U.S…They were the fount from which flowed the good life…If you were a blue collar family you strived to get a permanent position in a corporation – especially if it offered medical insurance.
Your job was to be diligent in your work - almost obsequious - and move up the ladder as far as you could go and stick around long enough to retire with a pension and lifetime medical insurance. If things got to be really good, your sons could follow you on that same career path. You might even introduce your daughter to a nice young man from the plant who seemed to have good prospects. That my friends was a time that America seemed to make sense – at least to the Boomers. It was a time when there were really only two religions in America; Catholic and Protestant; and religion was not the topic of polite conversation – it was private matter. A good man, on the make with the company, was either a Mason or he belonged to the Knights of Columbus
Conspicuously absent from the Tea Bagger rallies are people of color. There was not much for them to celebrate during the fifties. They sure as hell don’t want to turn back the clock! I remember all too well my parents and grand parents attitudes toward Negroes, Mexicans, Japanese and Chinese people….The others.
If you were a kid in the fifties you had only a few things to worry about. Graduating High School (that was the biggie) and either getting a good entry level job, or making it into college – preferably a four-year land grant university. You needed to have a job after school, such as delivering papers or some sort of retail sales – taught you thrift and enterprise…. and if you were really lucky your folks underwrote the acquisition your first car.
You were still too young for the draft. And because the pill hadn’t been invented yet you damned sure didn’t want to get someone pregnant or get pregnant -which assured that your life would be messed up forever more. This, even though the focus of teen music was about love affairs in all of their iterations…It seems all pretty cute, romantic and tame, even if it made for a fair amount of confusion…. yes – no? – why not?
Which, looking back was a hell of a lot simpler than what the kids today have to deal with. If we had fights at school or after school it was about fists, occasionally kicks (which were considered dirty fighting)….I guess knives once in a while were brought into play, but not where I lived. We had clubs that today would look like gangs…. we weren’t organized around criminal behavior unless you consider stealing hubcaps and getting drunk once in a while criminal.
A woman’s place was in her home. A woman at work was referred to as a girl -regardless of how old she was….It was understood she was working for intellectual stimulation and therefore didn’t have the financial obligations of a man – so, of course she was paid less. Or she was a divorcee. It which case it was assumed that she would hook another guy and therefore still not require any more money.
My dad was a republican who was not quite obsessed with the Communist Plot. He actually started out a Democrat but had an epiphany around the time of Pearl Harbor. My mom took her political lead from my dad – which was not at all unusual…. Looking back and comparing the Republican Party of the fifties and sixties with those who call themselves Republican today – well, all I can say is that, if they were to meet each other in a large convention hall, they would not recognize each other as co-conspirators.
I believe what the Tea Baggers are suffering from is Euphoric Recall! Euphoric recall of the mendacity of our childhood and adolescence.
Who the hell doesn’t wish for a simpler time when we readily knew who are friends and our enemies were…. And that didn’t change every quarter.
Who doesn’t yearn for the days when our hi-ways were new and smooth and more or less free of congestion..
My oh my what I wouldn’t give for a tank of twelve and one half cent gasoline, complete with getting my fluids checked and widows cleaned. Or, twenty-five cent cigarettes – which I could smoke assured of their health benefits.
Don’t we all just grieve for the days when folks who waited on us at the local store knew about their products, were glad to be of service, could count out change (now that seems quaint).
Do you remember Norman Rockwell and the Saturday Evening Post, how in the Reader’s Digest there weren’t any ads; and never was heard a disparaging word, and the skies were not cloudy all day – at least not on the RR- ranch.
So, dear hearts when you are exposed to the hysterical angry cacophony of today’s Tea Baggers, just remember, they come from a gentler kinder time, and what with all of the pollution in the air and media overload polluting their brains they should not be condemned…
Nor, should they be encouraged when they fall prey to the cynical slight of hand that is working night and day to manipulate them into believing that it is possible to turn back that clock to those simpler day of yesteryear….When you can - without putting yourself at risk - gently lead them to a coffee shop and gently hear them out….then in the kindest way possible help them to realize that we can’t get there from here. Perhaps suggest that they get off of the caffeine and go to green tea.
We thought that corporations were our friends. They were largely headquartered in the U.S…They were the fount from which flowed the good life…If you were a blue collar family you strived to get a permanent position in a corporation – especially if it offered medical insurance.
Your job was to be diligent in your work - almost obsequious - and move up the ladder as far as you could go and stick around long enough to retire with a pension and lifetime medical insurance. If things got to be really good, your sons could follow you on that same career path. You might even introduce your daughter to a nice young man from the plant who seemed to have good prospects. That my friends was a time that America seemed to make sense – at least to the Boomers. It was a time when there were really only two religions in America; Catholic and Protestant; and religion was not the topic of polite conversation – it was private matter. A good man, on the make with the company, was either a Mason or he belonged to the Knights of Columbus
Conspicuously absent from the Tea Bagger rallies are people of color. There was not much for them to celebrate during the fifties. They sure as hell don’t want to turn back the clock! I remember all too well my parents and grand parents attitudes toward Negroes, Mexicans, Japanese and Chinese people….The others.
If you were a kid in the fifties you had only a few things to worry about. Graduating High School (that was the biggie) and either getting a good entry level job, or making it into college – preferably a four-year land grant university. You needed to have a job after school, such as delivering papers or some sort of retail sales – taught you thrift and enterprise…. and if you were really lucky your folks underwrote the acquisition your first car.
You were still too young for the draft. And because the pill hadn’t been invented yet you damned sure didn’t want to get someone pregnant or get pregnant -which assured that your life would be messed up forever more. This, even though the focus of teen music was about love affairs in all of their iterations…It seems all pretty cute, romantic and tame, even if it made for a fair amount of confusion…. yes – no? – why not?
Which, looking back was a hell of a lot simpler than what the kids today have to deal with. If we had fights at school or after school it was about fists, occasionally kicks (which were considered dirty fighting)….I guess knives once in a while were brought into play, but not where I lived. We had clubs that today would look like gangs…. we weren’t organized around criminal behavior unless you consider stealing hubcaps and getting drunk once in a while criminal.
A woman’s place was in her home. A woman at work was referred to as a girl -regardless of how old she was….It was understood she was working for intellectual stimulation and therefore didn’t have the financial obligations of a man – so, of course she was paid less. Or she was a divorcee. It which case it was assumed that she would hook another guy and therefore still not require any more money.
My dad was a republican who was not quite obsessed with the Communist Plot. He actually started out a Democrat but had an epiphany around the time of Pearl Harbor. My mom took her political lead from my dad – which was not at all unusual…. Looking back and comparing the Republican Party of the fifties and sixties with those who call themselves Republican today – well, all I can say is that, if they were to meet each other in a large convention hall, they would not recognize each other as co-conspirators.
I believe what the Tea Baggers are suffering from is Euphoric Recall! Euphoric recall of the mendacity of our childhood and adolescence.
Who the hell doesn’t wish for a simpler time when we readily knew who are friends and our enemies were…. And that didn’t change every quarter.
Who doesn’t yearn for the days when our hi-ways were new and smooth and more or less free of congestion..
My oh my what I wouldn’t give for a tank of twelve and one half cent gasoline, complete with getting my fluids checked and widows cleaned. Or, twenty-five cent cigarettes – which I could smoke assured of their health benefits.
Don’t we all just grieve for the days when folks who waited on us at the local store knew about their products, were glad to be of service, could count out change (now that seems quaint).
Do you remember Norman Rockwell and the Saturday Evening Post, how in the Reader’s Digest there weren’t any ads; and never was heard a disparaging word, and the skies were not cloudy all day – at least not on the RR- ranch.
So, dear hearts when you are exposed to the hysterical angry cacophony of today’s Tea Baggers, just remember, they come from a gentler kinder time, and what with all of the pollution in the air and media overload polluting their brains they should not be condemned…
Nor, should they be encouraged when they fall prey to the cynical slight of hand that is working night and day to manipulate them into believing that it is possible to turn back that clock to those simpler day of yesteryear….When you can - without putting yourself at risk - gently lead them to a coffee shop and gently hear them out….then in the kindest way possible help them to realize that we can’t get there from here. Perhaps suggest that they get off of the caffeine and go to green tea.
Tea Baggers Euphoria
I have noticed a couple of characteristics of the so-called Tea Baggers.
They are almost universally white, and they seem to be mostly Baby Boomers.
What I think they are trying to get at and earnestly working replicate are the pleasant times of the 1950s. They are piss off because they have discovered that you can’t put the toothpaste back into the tube…Unfortunately this makes them vulnerable the political shills and corporate whores who are playing them like badly tuned violins.
My recollection of the American fifties was of a country that seemed very sure of itself.
This, I believe for a few reasons. One, there was not the multi-media twenty-four hour news-cycle that we have today – which is in competition with the Internet. And, two
it was very rare for public figures – with the possible exception of movie celebrities to have their dirty laundry aired in public. It was considered in those days to be bad taste to do so. AND perhaps most important of all we had prevailed in the Second World War! We took the military from almost scratch to a full on to mighty military industrial complex. We were big and strong and never wrong, and if you screwed with the Red White and Blue it was at your peril – we had the bomb and knew how to used it! We had pulled together for the common good during the war…we had been willing to make sacrifices for the common good. There actually was a sense of the common good.
We thought that corporations were our friends. They were largely headquartered in the U.S…They were the fount from which flowed the good life…If you were a blue collar family you strived to get a permanent position in a corporation – especially if it offered medical insurance.
Your job was to be diligent in your work - almost obsequious - and move up the ladder as far as you could go and stick around long enough to retire with a pension and lifetime medical insurance. If things got to be really good, your sons could follow you on that same career path. You might even introduce your daughter to a nice young man from the plant who seemed to have good prospects. That my friends was a time that America seemed to make sense – at least to the Boomers. It was a time when there were really only two religions in America; Catholic and Protestant; and religion was not the topic of polite conversation – it was private matter. A good man, on the make with the company, was either a Mason or he belonged to the Knights of Columbus
Conspicuously absent from the Tea Bagger rallies are people of color. There was not much for them to celebrate during the fifties. They sure as hell don’t want to turn back the clock! I remember all too well my parents and grand parents attitudes toward Negroes, Mexicans, Japanese and Chinese people….The others.
If you were a kid in the fifties you had only a few things to worry about. Graduating High School (that was the biggie) and either getting a good entry level job, or making it into college – preferably a four-year land grant university. You needed to have a job after school, such as delivering papers or some sort of retail sales – taught you thrift and enterprise…. and if you were really lucky your folks underwrote the acquisition your first car.
You were still too young for the draft. And because the pill hadn’t been invented yet you damned sure didn’t want to get someone pregnant or get pregnant -which assured that your life would be messed up forever more. This, even though the focus of teen music was about love affairs in all of their iterations…It seems all pretty cute, romantic and tame, even if it made for a fair amount of confusion…. yes – no? – why not?
Which, looking back was a hell of a lot simpler than what the kids today have to deal with. If we had fights at school or after school it was about fists, occasionally kicks (which were considered dirty fighting)….I guess knives once in a while were brought into play, but not where I lived. We had clubs that today would look like gangs…. we weren’t organized around criminal behavior unless you consider stealing hubcaps and getting drunk once in a while criminal.
A woman’s place was in her home. A woman at work was referred to as a girl -regardless of how old she was….It was understood she was working for intellectual stimulation and therefore didn’t have the financial obligations of a man – so, of course she was paid less. Or she was a divorcee. It which case it was assumed that she would hook another guy and therefore still not require any more money.
My dad was a republican who was not quite obsessed with the Communist Plot. He actually started out a Democrat but had an epiphany around the time of Pearl Harbor. My mom took her political lead from my dad – which was not at all unusual…. Looking back and comparing the Republican Party of the fifties and sixties with those who call themselves Republican today – well, all I can say is that, if they were to meet each other in a large convention hall, they would not recognize each other as co-conspirators.
I believe what the Tea Baggers are suffering from is Euphoric Recall! Euphoric recall of the mendacity of our childhood and adolescence.
Who the hell doesn’t wish for a simpler time when we readily knew who are friends and our enemies were…. And that didn’t change every quarter.
Who doesn’t yearn for the days when our hi-ways were new and smooth and more or less free of congestion..
My oh my what I wouldn’t give for a tank of twelve and one half cent gasoline, complete with getting my fluids checked and widows cleaned. Or, twenty-five cent cigarettes – which I could smoke assured of their health benefits.
Don’t we all just grieve for the days when folks who waited on us at the local store knew about their products, were glad to be of service, could count out change (now that seems quaint).
Do you remember Norman Rockwell and the Saturday Evening Post, how in the Reader’s Digest there weren’t any ads; and never was heard a disparaging word, and the skies were not cloudy all day – at least not on the RR- ranch.
So, dear hearts when you are exposed to the hysterical angry cacophony of today’s Tea Baggers, just remember, they come from a gentler kinder time, and what with all of the pollution in the air and media overload polluting their brains they should not be condemned…
Nor, should they be encouraged when they fall prey to the cynical slight of hand that is working night and day to manipulate them into believing that it is possible to turn back that clock to those simpler day of yesteryear….When you can - without putting yourself at risk - gently lead them to a coffee shop and gently hear them out….then in the kindest way possible help them to realize that we can’t get there from here. Perhaps suggest that they get off of the caffeine and go to green tea.
They are almost universally white, and they seem to be mostly Baby Boomers.
What I think they are trying to get at and earnestly working replicate are the pleasant times of the 1950s. They are piss off because they have discovered that you can’t put the toothpaste back into the tube…Unfortunately this makes them vulnerable the political shills and corporate whores who are playing them like badly tuned violins.
My recollection of the American fifties was of a country that seemed very sure of itself.
This, I believe for a few reasons. One, there was not the multi-media twenty-four hour news-cycle that we have today – which is in competition with the Internet. And, two
it was very rare for public figures – with the possible exception of movie celebrities to have their dirty laundry aired in public. It was considered in those days to be bad taste to do so. AND perhaps most important of all we had prevailed in the Second World War! We took the military from almost scratch to a full on to mighty military industrial complex. We were big and strong and never wrong, and if you screwed with the Red White and Blue it was at your peril – we had the bomb and knew how to used it! We had pulled together for the common good during the war…we had been willing to make sacrifices for the common good. There actually was a sense of the common good.
We thought that corporations were our friends. They were largely headquartered in the U.S…They were the fount from which flowed the good life…If you were a blue collar family you strived to get a permanent position in a corporation – especially if it offered medical insurance.
Your job was to be diligent in your work - almost obsequious - and move up the ladder as far as you could go and stick around long enough to retire with a pension and lifetime medical insurance. If things got to be really good, your sons could follow you on that same career path. You might even introduce your daughter to a nice young man from the plant who seemed to have good prospects. That my friends was a time that America seemed to make sense – at least to the Boomers. It was a time when there were really only two religions in America; Catholic and Protestant; and religion was not the topic of polite conversation – it was private matter. A good man, on the make with the company, was either a Mason or he belonged to the Knights of Columbus
Conspicuously absent from the Tea Bagger rallies are people of color. There was not much for them to celebrate during the fifties. They sure as hell don’t want to turn back the clock! I remember all too well my parents and grand parents attitudes toward Negroes, Mexicans, Japanese and Chinese people….The others.
If you were a kid in the fifties you had only a few things to worry about. Graduating High School (that was the biggie) and either getting a good entry level job, or making it into college – preferably a four-year land grant university. You needed to have a job after school, such as delivering papers or some sort of retail sales – taught you thrift and enterprise…. and if you were really lucky your folks underwrote the acquisition your first car.
You were still too young for the draft. And because the pill hadn’t been invented yet you damned sure didn’t want to get someone pregnant or get pregnant -which assured that your life would be messed up forever more. This, even though the focus of teen music was about love affairs in all of their iterations…It seems all pretty cute, romantic and tame, even if it made for a fair amount of confusion…. yes – no? – why not?
Which, looking back was a hell of a lot simpler than what the kids today have to deal with. If we had fights at school or after school it was about fists, occasionally kicks (which were considered dirty fighting)….I guess knives once in a while were brought into play, but not where I lived. We had clubs that today would look like gangs…. we weren’t organized around criminal behavior unless you consider stealing hubcaps and getting drunk once in a while criminal.
A woman’s place was in her home. A woman at work was referred to as a girl -regardless of how old she was….It was understood she was working for intellectual stimulation and therefore didn’t have the financial obligations of a man – so, of course she was paid less. Or she was a divorcee. It which case it was assumed that she would hook another guy and therefore still not require any more money.
My dad was a republican who was not quite obsessed with the Communist Plot. He actually started out a Democrat but had an epiphany around the time of Pearl Harbor. My mom took her political lead from my dad – which was not at all unusual…. Looking back and comparing the Republican Party of the fifties and sixties with those who call themselves Republican today – well, all I can say is that, if they were to meet each other in a large convention hall, they would not recognize each other as co-conspirators.
I believe what the Tea Baggers are suffering from is Euphoric Recall! Euphoric recall of the mendacity of our childhood and adolescence.
Who the hell doesn’t wish for a simpler time when we readily knew who are friends and our enemies were…. And that didn’t change every quarter.
Who doesn’t yearn for the days when our hi-ways were new and smooth and more or less free of congestion..
My oh my what I wouldn’t give for a tank of twelve and one half cent gasoline, complete with getting my fluids checked and widows cleaned. Or, twenty-five cent cigarettes – which I could smoke assured of their health benefits.
Don’t we all just grieve for the days when folks who waited on us at the local store knew about their products, were glad to be of service, could count out change (now that seems quaint).
Do you remember Norman Rockwell and the Saturday Evening Post, how in the Reader’s Digest there weren’t any ads; and never was heard a disparaging word, and the skies were not cloudy all day – at least not on the RR- ranch.
So, dear hearts when you are exposed to the hysterical angry cacophony of today’s Tea Baggers, just remember, they come from a gentler kinder time, and what with all of the pollution in the air and media overload polluting their brains they should not be condemned…
Nor, should they be encouraged when they fall prey to the cynical slight of hand that is working night and day to manipulate them into believing that it is possible to turn back that clock to those simpler day of yesteryear….When you can - without putting yourself at risk - gently lead them to a coffee shop and gently hear them out….then in the kindest way possible help them to realize that we can’t get there from here. Perhaps suggest that they get off of the caffeine and go to green tea.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
