My pet peeve list changes as I age. I have chronicled a few in the past (http://philosopherking-michael.blogspot.com/2011/07/bsp-and-other-pet-peeves.html) and I have a new crop now. It is not by accident that I associate these things with hipsters, not quite sure if it is the chicken or the egg white omelet. I would like to think my general patience level has slowly risen over the years, but there are still a few things I just cannot seem to accommodate or evolve to. Here are a few more:
Satire
I suppose I just object to the word itself - it is sarcasm and a special sort of degradation and mocking that has been anointed grown up status. I don't mind an argument or scrap now and then, but this medium is pedantic and its wielders suck up a little too much self gratification for me to appreciate the action. Action, by the way, that is unidirectional from a safe, cowardly distance. Most confounding, however, is that there are entire movies, magazines, and online sites that are purely dedicated to this obnoxiously cloaked criticism. Sarcasm is effective sometimes simply because it comes out of the blue and, if administered properly, must be constructed to give its recipient pause, not immediately discernible from sincerity. So no, I never cared for National Lampoon, the Airplane movies, the second half of Leslie Nielsen's career, the Onion, Stephen Colbert, and so on. If the aim of intelligence is ugliness, evolution is no bargain.
Cartoons and Comic Books
I should have paid more attention to those kids years ago absorbed in cartoons and comic books. I suppose they were nerds, but we did not have the word then (Sapir-Whorf stuff). I watched cartoons until I approached my teens, and I read a few comic books here and there but never collected them. Perhaps I learned to love the extra few hours of sleep on Saturday mornings, or I outgrew the genre. I never got the comic book thing, given I could read one in the check out line at the store. Most importantly, I didn't share the fantasies so prevalent in the pulp. Instead, I started reading history and poetry, preferring to make my own images and to extend my juvenile attention span past the five minute mark. Not that I thought then or think now that animated activities were shallow or trite, I just lost interest - but I am paying now. I am constantly dismayed at the number of movies based on cartoons, comic books, and graphic novels (the "novels" deigned under protest) that have inundated the market in recent years. I find them superficial and beyond my capacity to suspend my disbelief. CGI and pyrotechnics (two issues from my previous list) envelop these stories so pervasively, that I cannot even follow, disliking the visceral bombardment. Super human abilities are not very special because they are not very unique evidently. I am really not sure what the take aways are from these films? It probably didn't help when I heard some literary type listed The Watchmen as one of the greatest works of fiction ever. There are simply no reference points for me with characters possessing virtual immortality in constant combat. I just don't get it and hope that these giant productions aren't keeping every decent subtle movie from the light of day. Perhaps my evolution is out of whack?
Intellectual Prostitution
This will be short, despite the fact that I could drone on and on about it forever. Every day I listen to liberals and conservatives who have long ago bargained away any sense of equanimity or critical thinking. The world has ironically returned to being flat - flat in the literary sense where issues are black or white, never gray. Somehow some sort of valence is established, and the intellect never turns back. From fascist liberal professors to coarse and ugly conservative pundits, all too sure there is nothing else to learn, nothing else to negotiate, nothing else to cleanse within themselves. The world is spinning backwards rapidly to an age of raw power and brute force. There is less and less serious pretense of balance, rarer and rarer admissions of mistake or wrong doing, and virtually no desire to flirt with humility and the ameliorating grace of an apology. The most affluent and "civilized" nation on earth is the angriest and least inclined to the tenets of its rich and robust religious heritage. Thinly veiled self-interest and proactive offensiveness predominate communication. Compassion, empathy, self-sacrifice, and a broader sense of collegiality and cooperation have been bartered at what cost? No evolutionary quip here, perhaps a nod to statistics - regression to the mean.
Part-Time Patriots
I know the concept of patriotism has been well discussed by intellectuals and knuckleheads forever. I won't add much to the discussion, just a few stark inconsistencies I see amongst the redneck rabble I have known. It amuses me how they distrust the government so, preaching a version of the constitution that is half perversion and half aversion. They don't want to submit any information or suffer any intrusion. They love the police and military, not realizing these are governmental agencies long versed in any level of corruption such divisions indulge in. Despite the plethora of restraints they would heap on other governmental entities, law enforcement and the military are not to be questioned at all. They have notions of a single faith country that only tolerates one language, thus not really being able to comprehensively quote any particular founding father. Beer is sacramental and the flag is a holy relic representing who knows what given their historical ignorance. They have an inordinate array of enemies and imagine threats and conspiracies everywhere. America is great simply because they find themselves here. America is not great, it was and probably won't be again, at least to listen to them. Sports are paramount activities, only giving way to anti-intellectualism in between seasons. Finally, the lofty haven of love is reserved for their guns, not their spouses or children. They are gun lovers and freedom fearers. The temptation to analogize them to Neanderthals is an insult to a species unable to defend itself.
Satire
I suppose I just object to the word itself - it is sarcasm and a special sort of degradation and mocking that has been anointed grown up status. I don't mind an argument or scrap now and then, but this medium is pedantic and its wielders suck up a little too much self gratification for me to appreciate the action. Action, by the way, that is unidirectional from a safe, cowardly distance. Most confounding, however, is that there are entire movies, magazines, and online sites that are purely dedicated to this obnoxiously cloaked criticism. Sarcasm is effective sometimes simply because it comes out of the blue and, if administered properly, must be constructed to give its recipient pause, not immediately discernible from sincerity. So no, I never cared for National Lampoon, the Airplane movies, the second half of Leslie Nielsen's career, the Onion, Stephen Colbert, and so on. If the aim of intelligence is ugliness, evolution is no bargain.
Cartoons and Comic Books
I should have paid more attention to those kids years ago absorbed in cartoons and comic books. I suppose they were nerds, but we did not have the word then (Sapir-Whorf stuff). I watched cartoons until I approached my teens, and I read a few comic books here and there but never collected them. Perhaps I learned to love the extra few hours of sleep on Saturday mornings, or I outgrew the genre. I never got the comic book thing, given I could read one in the check out line at the store. Most importantly, I didn't share the fantasies so prevalent in the pulp. Instead, I started reading history and poetry, preferring to make my own images and to extend my juvenile attention span past the five minute mark. Not that I thought then or think now that animated activities were shallow or trite, I just lost interest - but I am paying now. I am constantly dismayed at the number of movies based on cartoons, comic books, and graphic novels (the "novels" deigned under protest) that have inundated the market in recent years. I find them superficial and beyond my capacity to suspend my disbelief. CGI and pyrotechnics (two issues from my previous list) envelop these stories so pervasively, that I cannot even follow, disliking the visceral bombardment. Super human abilities are not very special because they are not very unique evidently. I am really not sure what the take aways are from these films? It probably didn't help when I heard some literary type listed The Watchmen as one of the greatest works of fiction ever. There are simply no reference points for me with characters possessing virtual immortality in constant combat. I just don't get it and hope that these giant productions aren't keeping every decent subtle movie from the light of day. Perhaps my evolution is out of whack?
Intellectual Prostitution
This will be short, despite the fact that I could drone on and on about it forever. Every day I listen to liberals and conservatives who have long ago bargained away any sense of equanimity or critical thinking. The world has ironically returned to being flat - flat in the literary sense where issues are black or white, never gray. Somehow some sort of valence is established, and the intellect never turns back. From fascist liberal professors to coarse and ugly conservative pundits, all too sure there is nothing else to learn, nothing else to negotiate, nothing else to cleanse within themselves. The world is spinning backwards rapidly to an age of raw power and brute force. There is less and less serious pretense of balance, rarer and rarer admissions of mistake or wrong doing, and virtually no desire to flirt with humility and the ameliorating grace of an apology. The most affluent and "civilized" nation on earth is the angriest and least inclined to the tenets of its rich and robust religious heritage. Thinly veiled self-interest and proactive offensiveness predominate communication. Compassion, empathy, self-sacrifice, and a broader sense of collegiality and cooperation have been bartered at what cost? No evolutionary quip here, perhaps a nod to statistics - regression to the mean.
Part-Time Patriots
I know the concept of patriotism has been well discussed by intellectuals and knuckleheads forever. I won't add much to the discussion, just a few stark inconsistencies I see amongst the redneck rabble I have known. It amuses me how they distrust the government so, preaching a version of the constitution that is half perversion and half aversion. They don't want to submit any information or suffer any intrusion. They love the police and military, not realizing these are governmental agencies long versed in any level of corruption such divisions indulge in. Despite the plethora of restraints they would heap on other governmental entities, law enforcement and the military are not to be questioned at all. They have notions of a single faith country that only tolerates one language, thus not really being able to comprehensively quote any particular founding father. Beer is sacramental and the flag is a holy relic representing who knows what given their historical ignorance. They have an inordinate array of enemies and imagine threats and conspiracies everywhere. America is great simply because they find themselves here. America is not great, it was and probably won't be again, at least to listen to them. Sports are paramount activities, only giving way to anti-intellectualism in between seasons. Finally, the lofty haven of love is reserved for their guns, not their spouses or children. They are gun lovers and freedom fearers. The temptation to analogize them to Neanderthals is an insult to a species unable to defend itself.
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