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TechnoratiTwo score and six years ago I fell out of my mother's vagina onto a table at the last extant Automat in New York City, knocking over a sugar dispenser and causing only the Romanian busboy to barely bat a sleep encrusted eye. People, I learned then and there, are strangely unfazed by nature, truth and the glorious, random symmetry of this thing we call Life.
What they are instead impressed by is the utterly inane and dubious assertion that Existence is the result of a big, bearded guy in a flowing robe performing a whimsical act of creation. I, on the other hand, sensed from the moment my umbilical was handily severed with a spork, that life would be filled with beauty and wonder; that the infinite splendor of the human experience, no matter how occasionally deranged and violent, holds me firmly in its thrall to this day. As I grew, repeated viewings of Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kindom and a British documentary series called "The Ascent of Man" (back before television was a plasma, pablum-injecting brain syringe) exposed me to the perfect, thrilling symmetry of nature. Later still, a summer at a New Jersey sleepaway camp giving my first hickie to a bespectacled Robin Trontz under a blanket of stars brought me into contact with the heady combination of pubescent sexuality and the vastness of the cosmos. And in all these early experiences in which I was captivated by their awesome complexity, every revelation seemed to be accompanied by a corresponding and equally compelling sensuality. And never did I feel lonliness or abandonment or the need to put a face like mine on any of these phenomenae in order to appreciate their existence or my place in it all. I saw little need to anthropomorphize Existence.On May 22nd I attended a debate on politics and religion at UCLA between authors Sam Harris and Chris Hedges, both outspoken and articulate critics of modern religion and religiosity, Harris being a thorough debunker of religion and all its claims, Hedges an uncharacteristically wise and high profile true believer. The participants agreed on many points and of course diverged on many more. But watching the invigorating exchange between these two formidable, passionate and accessible intellects, I was simultaneously heartened and depressed: heartened that such a public forum could take place at all and depressed that such an occurrance is nothing in this country if not scarce. Regardless of who might be perceived as having won the night, the real winner was the audience. They were privvy to a level of discourse that is not usually seen by the wider public, a conversation that's been conspicuously absent from the greater current dialogue about religion and politics. As with most of what could be described as the steady diet of pop culture upon which our country gorges (about as nutritious as the Big Macs and American Idol also contributing to its ever expanding, sloshing girth), the conversation about God and Country has been just plain bad for one's health. It has been broken down into meaningless, toxic fragments and mixed with artificial ingredients that---instead of heralding enlightenment---bring division and despair. In other words, the perfect climate to keep a business running at a steady profit, that business being AmericaTM. That this country no longer provides a valid wide-reaching forum in which a free and healthy exchange of ideas would result in certain wisdom comes as no surprise to anyone who can pry their eyes from the glittering diversionary tactics epitomized by the Main Stream Media and their corporate sugar daddies. To oversimplify the fundamental arguments regarding our own existence, to reduce it to divisive slogans and monosyllabic bromides is to chip away at all the subtlety that knowledge possesses and hurls the collective intellect of the population back to its tribal roots, and the essential prerogative to accurately analyze and ponder the more provocative issues is utterly corroded.
The quality of political discourse (as exemplified by last week's Republican debate as a recent example) indicates that its promulgators have but miniscule respect for the people they seek to supposedly represent, just as the promulgators of radical religion use the malleability of the congregation to sate their own cravings, far removed from their stated intentions. What the Sam Harris/Chris Hedges debate attested to and the Republican debate did not was a tacit respect for the evolution of thought and the necessity to see things as they need to be seen: free of superstition, deception and demagoguery, and in a forum that is widely accessible to all. Life would be so much more beautiful that way.
Best known for having played a string of affable, horny fools and affable, quirky sociopaths, in a logical next step Steven Weber now plays the chairman of a television network on NBC's Studio 60, finally attaining the credentials to become a spewer of hyperbolic, liberal-leaning outrage, which first burst forth some 6 years ago.
© 2007 The Huffington Post
12 Comments so far
Show AllSteven Weber sez--
I was simultaneously heartened and depressed: heartened that such a public forum could take place at all and depressed that such an occurrance is nothing in this country if not scarce. Regardless of who might be perceived as having won the night, the real winner was the audience.
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Your article and its content certainly disprove the point you are tryig to make above--
A week ago you went to a sophisticated and intelligent debate and here you are a week later sending your impressions around the world via the Internet.
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Steven goes on to say--
That this country no longer provides a valid wide-reaching forum in which a free and healthy exchange of ideas would result in certain wisdom comes as no surprise to anyone who can pry their eyes from the glittering diversionary tactics epitomized by the Main Stream Media and their corporate sugar daddies.
Steven's credentials:
Best known for having played a string of affable, horny fools and affable, quirky sociopaths, in a logical next step Steven Weber now plays the chairman of a television network on NBC's Studio 60, finally attaining the credentials to become a spewer of hyperbolic, liberal-leaning outrage, which first burst forth some 6 years ago.
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Cognitive dissonance--"psychological conflict resulting from incongruous beliefs and attitudes held simultaneously"
Source--Merriam-Webster.com
Steven, people who live in glass houses such as your own should not throw stones at those similarly domiciled.
Perhaps if you tended to the hypocrisy in your own life, the hypocrisy of others would not seem so stressful and depressing.
Tony mustbefree, may I copy and send around what you wrote? It is so poetic and profound, it felt like reading Abraham Lincoln. Any relation?
Maybe I should have watched the Republican debate. Sounds like they all made fools of themselves. But I do have an uneasy feeling that the Republicans are planning somthing really really bad for the next election. I know they won't go down without a fight and this time they won't misjudge the level of public disapproval. Why did Bush at this time write that martial law regulation, and why isn't Congress challenging it?
Kivals knows, and Steve Weber speaks for many of us. For their comments, I am grateful, as I am for Common Dreams.
The media play to the tastes of the lowest common denominator which leaves almost everyone feeling full but unsatisfied;like over-eating rubbish takeaway and then regreting it.Nabokov described life as a crack of light between two eternitys of darkness.To use that crack of light to shine on the big brother type "entertainment", seems to me to be a criminal waste of time.I am sure some will protest it a case of "each to their own",and I agree,but we require a bit of balance in the "quality" of media presented to us.Steven Webers' essay is the type of intelligent,thoughtful,poetic reply to the mountains of rubbish we have to plough thru each day.Thank you common dreams for this venue to throw some light on alternative thinking.
Since life increasingly is coming to resemble a dark theater of the absurd, how about this hybrid. There's been some gruesome exposures of the rituals of "Skull and Bones" society, right? Seems too many war-for-hire statesmen adhere to their rituals. Given my metaphysical leanings, I shared time with a very well-read historian who encouraged me to read "THE SPEAR OF DESTINY" by Nigel Ravencroft to fully understand the degree to which Hitler and his nazi party communed with what we can best understand as quite viable FORCES of darkness. Maybe Bush is our generation's Rosemary's Baby on some level? What exactly comes together to produce one so incapable of feeling... it would make for a good Saturday Night Live episode, to have Clinton impersonator saying, "I feel your pain," and then asking Georgie, "Do you feel it... feel anything... George, not even now?" When life's actual pain exceeds what reason can countenance, humor plays a therapeutic role in maintaining sanity. (Just ask Robin Williams!)
Kivals, dirt can be mud slinging and sometimes that's the best weapon we've got. Keep slinging! Mustbefree, your poetic verse just touched my heart. Wonder if it could move the stone queen Barbara Bush?
Siouxrose,
De nada.
And agree that the boob tube is the enemy. A chairman of the FCC, Newton Minow, said back in 1961 that television was a "vast wasteland," and it has been going downhill ever since then!
But I probably shouldn't be posting so often. If my posts become as common as dirt, a perception may arise that they have about the same value.
My thoughts today
Memorial Day 2007
My heart ponders a life span of 71 and wonders at a world that has not seen a day that war was not contemplated or in progress.
My mind cannot, will not, grasp the enormous amount of living humans that knew death and destruction and left others to mourn and bless.
My body saw and felt the warriors lament, the supporters in the rear bases that sent engines of death from the sky. The difference? I did not face death on moments notice but I killed as surely as if the trigger was on my finger.
My soul knows that life is not meant to take life and it is the way of armies to get minds to forget the soul and get the heart and body to harm another. A Memorial day to remember that all, not just vets, should show death, in war, the door and persuade life to linger.
To all with love, Tony
Hey Kivals, time-wise, you and I are virtually engaged in the intellectual equivalent of synchronized swim. The splashing is cooling me off. Gracias.
Debate beyond pre-fab soundbytes would be a healthy infusion into our nation's virtually hypnotized media consumers' minds. Ironic that there are so many channels and so little CONTENT. How many stations just play re-runs, or offer things to shop for, or package violence AS entertainment. I quit TV 7 months ago, and read a lot more (plus this forum). Flee to Canada: propaganda is an equal opportunity (across the global plane) exploiter. Human nature tends to be the same in every land; it's the little matter of those puppet masters gaining control of the strings from which to manipulate it. We are a species that NEEDS to communicate, and therein lies the basis for those strings. So long as the internet stays open, we have a shot at genuine sharing of uncensored data and free opinions. Pray that this lasts!
The difference between China and the US is that the propagandists in the Chinese government generally try to shape the Chinese citizens so they have healthy attitudes and approaches to life to produce a harmonious society so that China can become a strong and prosperous country. In the US, the propagandists try to make the American citizens servile consumers that can be preyed upon and used as useful idiots for those in control, without any concern whatsoever for creating a harmonious society with healthy, capable, and happy citizens.
Just read an article on China's control of culture on MSNBC.
Here's an interesting quote from it:
"The enduring use of study campaigns and role models, sometimes with the help of fictional embellishments, illustrates the party's abiding determination to mold public opinion in China, hiding inconvenient truths through censorship and creating useful truths through the promotion of popular legends. Since coming to power in 1949, the party has made this two-pronged control of information one of its principal weapons in retaining a monopoly on power."
Tell me what part of this doesn't also apply to the US?