Thursday, November 09, 2006

 

Trickle Down

David Byrne:
I sense this culture every day, on the streets and in the media. Every time a cop car from my local precinct runs a red light or speeds down a one way street the wrong way (just because they can, no other reason) and every time an SUV with darkened windows muscles other cars, bikers, old ladies and kids out of way — sometimes narrowly missing pedestrians as they run a red light — well, it’s all been sanctioned by Bush and Cheney and the senators and congressmen who allied themselves with these bastards. They reflect and encourage one another. Push in line, build your building right in front of someone else’s, destroy a neighborhood, be a winner, a survivor.
I'm not sure what to make of these little yet not so subtle changes. It reminds me of the scene in High Fidelity where the store owner shows off how easily he can manipulate the crowd's purchasing behavior by what songs he plays over the store's system.

Comments:
I am reading Thomas L. Friedman's book, From Beirut to Jerusalem. I think it should be a required text for 7th grade social studies courses... anyway, between what I have learned recently and from my world travels, I am reasonably confident that if our government doesn't turn things around, we will be facing a society much like parts of Mexico, Central America, SE Asia and the Middle East in about 30 years.

Those SUV drivers will probably be armed and ready to shoot people out of their way. In the future I envision, guys in lawnchairs armed with kalishnakovs and SKSs will set up checkpoints where toll booths exist today.

I hope I am wrong.
 
Speaking of Friedman...
 
Well, I do agree he is recently very gung-ho about globalization. But I have to admit, it's cheaper to get 15 minutes at an internet cafe than it is to access clean water in places like India, so......

But the book I am reading is probably the first one he wrote after living in the Middle East in the 1970s and early 80s. I think it's incredibly balanced and full of important historical facts that we never were exposed to in the public school system.
 
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