Movies, TV, Novel - Messed Up Characters and Storylines

I've just finished reading The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt. There's much to recommend it. It won the Pulitzer Prize, which usually drives me away from reading something. They're so politically correct, so 'European', so pretentious, and not usually well written. They're usually supportive of the radical Left social and cultural mores. This was an exception. Just lovely writing. Craftsmanship. For as long as it was at over seven hundred pages, it had few lapses; kept the interest going. With a couple exceptions though, the characters, especially the protagonist, were severely messed up. Treating their most loved ones horribly, psychopathic behaviors and bad, horrible decisions with devastating results.

I thought about what some of the most popular shows have been, and what I experienced in The Goldfinch reminded me of them. The first that came to mind was the wildly popular "Dexter", exalting a serial killer that was okay because he only tortured other serial killers. Justified torture and murder. I watched much of the first season, couldn't take it, the horribleness of it, so stopped watching.  Then there was "Breaking Bad", a chemist using his knowledge to manufacture a seriously good product. It devolved, as it should have, into the most horrid storyline and monstrous people. I lasted through season one a couple more episodes. Had to stop, couldn't take it.

There was "Sons of Anarchy", so good. Even wrote about it here when it first started. It was brilliant. It too generated into horribleness. Bad people making worse decisions, bad treatment of loved ones, murder, betrayal. There were no good people, no good actions in the end, unless it was the worse of the worse getting murdered. I hung out to the end of this series, hoping some good resolution would happen. Based on "Hamlet" I knew all would die, but good grief, how they got there was appalling. Then in the end (spoiler alert), Jax, a torturer, betrayer, liar, the leader of the Sons, the worst kind of human being, is presented as a Christ archetype sacrificing himself for the group. Good grief.

"House of Cards" I gave up on after about two shows into season three. It devolved into the worst kinds of behavior, even for politicians. Every kind of human decency was violated. I just became disgusted by the whole thing. Speaking of which, "House" was the same. House was an amoral jerk that was a force of destruction. He hurt everyone, was a psychopath, plus the storyline of every episode was the same. Someone dying, someone lying, "everyone lies", and then the truth comes out and the patient (victim) is saved. Both horrible and predictable.

I came away from these shows wondering what the point was. (The Goldfinch wasn't pointless by the way.) "The Unforgiven" by Clint Eastwood at least had a point. All the bad things that happened there is what happens when there isn't forgiveness. Great point. That other stuff mentioned here is just dwelling on the dark heart of people just for the sake of the dwelling. Just can't stand it. These were hugely popular and celebrated shows. Just a reflection, I guess, of how much of our culture is dwelling on the worst, dark hearts of our spirit. A sad reflection of where we are. 

Do read though, if you're so inclined, The Goldfinch. Sad story, exquisitely told.

The Myth We've Moved From Homogenized to Multicultural Nation, When It's the Other Way Around

Some thoughts on diversity; some on tolerance, but mostly diversity. This is all a hat tip to the writings of Charles Murray (from the latest issue of “Commentary” magazine, see also his book Coming Apart).

There is, and has been, much miseducation from history teachers to the Media (who are usually misinformed and relay that, or willfully misinform to fit their ideology). The standard idea is that the beginning of America, the population was homogenous. White Europeans with the same beliefs and ideologies. But, first were the Puritans, a pretty strict group. Then came the Cavaliers, most seriously poor and came as indentured servants, not so strict. Then came the Quakers. Then came the Scots, who where pretty fee wheeling. They all had major different ideologies and practices. Subcultures that allowed each other, tolerated each other, and for the most part worked together. There were of course some conflicts.

They had serious differences, and one could say this was multicultural country. Religion, family, food, what behaviors were accepted or punished, and sex were all different. They were as different as any of the ethnic differences we experience in today’s society. Over the years millions of Irish and Germans came. Big cultural differences. Many of the early settlers were escaping religious persecution. Now there was an influx of Catholics into what had been exclusively a Protestant population. Then there were the Scandinavians. Then after the Civil War, Black culture began to emerge. Now we have a huge multicultural population. Then the influx of Italians, Eastern Europeans, and Russians. Yet more cultural diversity, multiculturalism.

There followed a break in immigration due to law changes and the First World War. That slowed things down. With WWII, out of a population of 131 million, about 18 million served. All thrown together. All kinds of socio-economic diversity was combined. Radio and TV drew people together more as those developed and gained influence.

All that diversity, all the multiculturalism happening. Yet people did share some things in common. Beyond that folks just wanted to be left alone, and be part of the uniqueness of their specific subculture too. It’s been like that for a while. It looks like now we have four major subcultures in play; Latinos, Whites, Blacks, Asians. Demographic projections show Whites being a minority by 2050. Up until the last decade or so, each group and the more minor ones had let others live and let live.

There could be a continuation of the multiculturalism, diversity and tolerance that existed at the beginning. (No it was not pure and smooth sailing.) Each group has pretty much the same geographic areas as they’ve always had. Latinos are still mostly in the Southwest for example. It turns out where one lives is the primary determining factor of multiculturalism.

In a big city, most of your contacts are secondary, your life hassles, bills, trash pickup, police, fire, and courts are taken care of by faceless bureaucrats. In most of the county, which have smaller towns (500,000 and less [18% of towns are under 25,000]), people are known to each other, or they know of each other. That includes the politicians and bureaucrats. This last group of people in smaller towns and cities are reminded daily that they are in fact servants of the people. They live with them, see them, and are associated with them in many ways. So there’s some bending of rules and accommodations made. In metropolises there’s enforcement without flexibility by faceless people.

Now comes the sad part. The big city people have a mindset, and have gained the power, to enforce their political and cultural view on everybody across the fruited plain. [Mostly from the Northeast corridor and West Coast.] They think everyone should have the same worldview as them. It’s an inflexible view, and the people are secondary. Apparently there must be a lot of necessary supervision and oversight in these big urban populations. Not so much with smaller populations.

So we have everyone being forced to be pro-homosexual, pro-gay marriage, accepting of ‘climate change’ and intolerant of those who disagree that ‘climate change is happening because of humans', Liberal and intolerant of Conservatives, Secularist and intolerant of Christians, intolerant of traditional mores and values, and all in for “Progressivism”, or else. That or be hounded out of job, income, family destroyed.

This country was founded on the idea you could live the life you wanted, believe what you will, and allow others to do the same. That apparently is now longer allowed. You must obey the urban based values and principles, central government, and entertainment elites.

Thoughts On Natural Law, God, and Our Decaying Civilization

I've been thinking much lately about God as Natural Law and Love. I do this because I'm trying to find a way to communicate to atheists and secularists the importance of God, of Natural Law, that is necessary to the cohesion and survival of civilization, and importantly to me, Western Civilization and my country. Once that dialog is open, then we can discuss God; need to open the door. 

The move to remove God from our culture has been going strong, and successfully for nearly fifty years, having a strong launch in the 1960's. The strong Judeo-Christian culture that served so successfully for a couple centuries began to crumble. Whole books have been written about this, and the best I found so far is Bad Religion by Ross Douthat.

As a result, promiscuity and adultery are more and more rationalized and acceptable, overeating and drinking the same, being self-serving rather than serving others, being autonomous over family, the promotion of homosexuality above heterosexuality. We don't care much who one is poking or whatever, but the purpose of sex is procreation, which comes as natural law. I've got to say to intolerant homosexuals that bash hetero's, if it weren't for us, you wouldn't exist, so show some respect.

God's creation, containing it's beauty, it's love, it's bounty, good people wanting to do good is more and more being rejected. Marxist Materialism is on the rise, only the physical matters. The brain releases chemicals governing our behavior, the world exists to serve our needs, and nihilism is the philosophy of the time.

One can reject Natural law, men and women coming together, Love, God, Creation, Beauty, Justice (not what's fair to men in power, known as "social justice"), moral teachings found in the Ten Commandments and throughout Scripture that are not relative to what feels good at the moment. God thought us, all creation, into existence, and yet so many refuse to accept those God thoughts as right thoughts, natural law and Love thoughts, because it's inconvenient to their own desires.

Athanasius:

 By his own wisdom and Word, who is our Lord and Savior Christ, the all-holy Father (whose excellence far exceeds that of any creature), like a skillful steersman guides to safety all creation, regulating and keeping it in being, as he judges right. It is right that creation should exist as he has made it and as we see it happening, because this is his will, which no one would deny. For if the movement of the universe were irrational, and the world rolled on in random fashion, one would be justified in disbelieving what we say. But if the world is founded on reason, wisdom and science, and is filled with orderly beauty, then it must owe its origin and order to none other than the Word of God. 

 He is God, the living and creative God of the universe, the Word of the good God, who is God in his own right…. the Word that created this whole world and enlightens it by his loving wisdom….produced the order in all creation….and gives order, direction and unity to creation.
 By his eternal Word the Father created all things and implanted a nature in his creatures. He…in his goodness he governs and sustains the whole of nature by his Word (who is himself also God), so that under the guidance, providence and ordering of that Word, the whole of nature might remain stable and coherent in his light. ~~From a Discourse Against the Pagans by Saint Athanasius

 If one studies pagan society, there was no justice, women were treated worse than slaves, there was no charity, no compassion, it was all selfish and hurtful. It rejected everything that even secularists claim to want; love, compassion, justice, charity. Those don't come from brain chemistry, firing synapses, government, or Marxist philosophy that denies men's souls.  It comes from natural law, from Christianity, from God.

Burning Down the House of Morality and Culture

Probably Not Conservative or Religious

There’s been a lot of focus on jobs and the economy recently, combined with attacks on people of Faith, primarily Christians and Jews. It’s a deadly combination, because even if our material world is righted and the number of employed increase, there’s a bigger problem.

There has been a successful campaign against religion, especially Christianity and Judaism since the beginning of the 20^th century, and now we’re seeing the results. There are riots in Greece because they’ve spent and borrowed all they can and don’t produce then expect Germany and the EU to keep bailing them out so they can keep laying about without working and getting subsidies for non production from the government. The same can be said about the recent riots in London. Thugs running about, breaking into businesses and stealing; I suppose one could call it anarchic consumerism. 'Let others work and produce and let me take.'

'Let me take in and spend the tax money and not work; it’s my due for breathing.' Of course the world wide Jurassic Press blames Conservatives for this. Denying the little darlings all that money and goodies without having to work for it. How uncaring and mean! Must be tough. I have no idea where they think government gets money. The Leftist mantra of take more from the rich shows they don’t understand if all the wealth of all the rich all over the world were confiscated and redistributed, it would only last a few days. Then everyone would be poor. Apparently they don’t know the tale of the goose and the golden eggs.

This thinking is the result of embracing Marxist Materialism and rejecting the traditions of Judeo-Christianity. The principle of deferred gratification to benefit self and following generations, of the nuclear family, diminishing the importance of men as role models for boys, attacking the Church (Protestant and Catholic) which provided generational and social cohesion; in general undercutting the foundations of a fiscal and socially successful society.

Study after study, year after year, show children raised in nuclear families, with a married man and woman, are less likely by a wide margin, to become criminals, to adhere to social norms and contribute to society when they grow up. Religious people are more productive, happy, contribute more, volunteer more, are more charitable, earn more, rarely use drugs, in short become good citizens. Good, not perfect, but they make an attempt despite all our human weaknesses.

In all the protests we see, the destruction of cities and towns, the thieving mobs, I’d bet (gentleman’s bet) one would be hard pressed to find a church-going Christian, or synagogue-attending Jew in the mix. I think one would be hard pressed to find a teenage gang banger that has a stable family life with a traditional family participating.

Recently FEMA used the term “federal family”. That says a lot about Leftists' social mentality. The State replaces the nuclear family (and the State becomes the religion), and now we have children in adult bodies expecting mom and dad (the government) to take care of them forever. There’s even a mindset in my generation (baby boomers) that we should be able to retire at 65 years old and have the government take care of us for the next 20 or so we live. An example recently is the hissy fit Leftist employees of Wisconsin had when they were asked to pay a little more into their retirement. When people were adults they expected to work and contribute until they died.

Worse than having our financial capital exhausted by non producers and other rejecters of the traditional things that work, is our moral and cultural capital. Now it’s okay to have kids out of wedlock and leave the mother to raise them single handedly, it’s okay to steal, it’s okay to cheat, it’s okay to riot and do millions of dollars of damage if you don’t get your way. It’s okay to be irresponsible and not pay for the consequences of irresponsible behavior.

Because, you see, the traditional, hardworking, caring, loving, happy contributing people they so despise, will pay. They’re running into a problem now, and having temper tantrums like the children they are, because the people that have been tolerating their bad behavior, and paying the financial and social costs, are saying enough. If the good people stick to their guns, there may be hope for us. If not, we’ll continue down the Marxist Materialist hellhole.  

    

Time, Culture and Perception

http://youtu.be/A3oIiH7BLmg

Article: "Random Thoughts" by Thomas Sowell

Random thoughts on the passing scene: Link here.

Upon learning that the Constitution requires a president to be a natural born citizen, a college student said: "What makes a natural born citizen any more qualified than one born by C-section?"

Airlines that keep passengers trapped for hours in planes sitting on the runway should be prosecuted for unlawful imprisonment.

When politicians propose some hugely expensive new program and are asked how the government is going to pay for it, a standard ploy over the years has been to claim that they will pay for it by eliminating "waste, fraud and abuse." At a recent town hall meeting, a citizen raised the obvious question: If you can do that, why haven't you done it already?

Marxism is an ism that has become a wasm.

What is called "universal health care" can turn out to be universal "don't care" medical treatment, when Washington bureaucrats can over-rule what you and your doctor want to do.

Whatever happened to Samantha Brown on the Travel Channel? Could she have met with foul play? Where is the FBI when we need them?

The older I get, the more I learn to tolerate human shortcomings-- and the less I tolerate bad attitudes.

After political crusades for "affordable housing" ended up ruining the housing market and much of the economy with it, many of the same politicians are now carrying on a crusade for "affordable health care." But what you can afford has absolutely nothing to do with the cost of producing anything. Refusing to pay those costs means that you are just not going to continue getting the same quantity and quality-- regardless of what any politician says or how well he says it.

Want to win an easy bet? Bet someone that Babe Ruth had a lower lifetime earned run average than Cy Young, Whitey Ford or Sandy Koufax. During his early years with the Red Sox, Ruth pitched nine shutouts in a season, which is still the American League record for a left-handed pitcher. He would have made the baseball hall of fame, even if he had never hit a home run.

Congressman Joe Wilson got into more trouble for telling the truth than President Barack Obama got into by telling a demonstrable lie about adding millions of people to the insurance rolls without adding a dime to the deficit. As regards providing medical insurance for illegal immigrants, I doubt that the president will do that. More likely, he will legalize them first and then give them medical insurance.

The way Hollywood elites have sprung to the defense of Roman Polanski to keep him from being extradited to the United States, despite the heinous crime he is accused of, suggests that-- like other egalitarians-- they consider those who are "one of us" to be more equal than others.

When I contemplate the direction in which this government and this society are moving, my biggest consolation is that economists' predictions are often wrong. I can only hope that my expectations are wrong by miles.

What is most frightening about the political left is that they seem to have no sense of the tragedy of the human condition. All problems seem to them to be due to other people not being as wise or as noble as they are.

Oliver Wendell Holmes said, "Think things, not words." In words, many see a need for "social justice" to override "the dictates of the market." In reality, what is called "the market" consists of human beings making their own choices at their own cost. What is called "social justice" is government imposition of the notions of third parties, who pay no price for being wrong.

Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, Muammar Qaddafi and Vladimir Putin have all praised Barack Obama. When enemies of freedom and democracy praise your president, what are you to think? When you add to this Barack Obama's many previous years of associations and alliances with people who hate America-- Jeremiah Wright, Bill Ayers, Father Pfleger, etc.-- at what point do you stop denying the obvious and start to connect the dots?