what i see little addressing of in the clamor of the election is the issue of anti-intellectualism in the US... a heated topic that is in discussion regularly, here it is on a back burner, back stage area... a lot seems to date to the end of the 19th century and the emergence of communism as part of the worlds political makeup and the association of intellectual ideals with being 'red'....later the whole 'nerd' concept... what needs to be really put forward here? everyone sees it... what perplexes me is that even though the idea of the poet warrior is looked up to when it comes to Samurai films it is not considered a 'real' option for life in America... at its most extreme the persecution of the educated has resulted in the excesses of extreme dictatorships like the Khmer Rouge which murdered those of its subjects who had even a simple education...
anyone interested just look up 'anti-inellectualism' in wikipedia and there you will find long discussions that are outlines of the current 'positions' or 'sides' of the political arena, the same stupid stances of 'conservative' vs. 'liberal' the position of the media; Gore portrayed as a boring 'brain' who 'spoke monotonously about theories and numbers no one could understand', Bill O'Reilly having a hostile attitude towards what he calls the 'ivy league' elite etc. etc.
the word 'intellectual' itself being used as an insult...
am i alone in feeling this is a crazy state of affairs... America entered the 20th century embracing the ideals of intelligence; Einstein was a popular figure and his work helped end the second world war, send men into space all of that...
is everyone out there really so far gone that they but into all of this... the last few days have seen huge rifts in the economy that are results of the last eight years of government... the same people who picked the current government have picked the people they want to see as the next government, why are we supposed to think that there is going to be a difference
since writing the above the debate and the crash... in the debate we saw Ob address one of the issues i am always on about... the other day for the first time i was actually called by a political poll... 'what did i see as a central issue...' well the image of the US in the eyes of the world of course... as i mentioned probably several times on my blog things... once more every time we travel and talk to just average people i see that almost 100% they are confused about the situation in the US; how could we here have let this guy be our leader, twice no less...
so now with the financial crisis i see that Wm. Gibson one of our favorite writers has proved his vision for America to be even more accurate than i might have imagined; we are looking forward to an immediate future that will in all likelihood be owned and operated by a lot of international interests...
soon enough we will see the neon signs filled with Chinese characters, the cities filled with the new 'foreign' elite who own all that we can no longer maintain...
empires come and go... i recently saw it put forth that the 'swinging London' of the Beatles sixties was in fact the last gasp of the British isles rather than the beginning of anything... America leads the world in instant gratification, the Chinese as just one example have been able to put it off for years in order to create a future for their next generations...
over the last half a year or so maybe more i have seen the word "owned" enter the popular lingo to mean control, influence etc etc... lots of you tube clips titled 'so and so owned by this or that'... so in a way perfect timing here; who is gonna 'own' the US?
finally on a lighter note (maybe) i have seen commentators go on about "things in the US may soon come to resemble conditions the way they were in the seventies"... well you can all imagine how i might feel about that... my new slogan is: "DEPRESSION MEANS HAPPIER ARTISTS"
