Now, I'm not naive. There are legitimate concerns. But compare what we're doing today from 50 years ago? It's not even a fair comparison!
Mark Morford of the San Francisco Chronicle writes such a compelling article, I'd thought I'd share it:
What happened to my bonus? What happened to my job? What happened to my country? Why can't it all go the way it's supposed to go? You mean having a kid won't solve my marriage problems? Why don't these drugs make me feel better? Where's that goddamn waiter with my salad? Have you seen the stupid weather today? Is this really all there is?
These are, from what I can glean, the most important questions of the day, of the month, of modern life itself. Hell, what with the economy and job situation, the housing market and the overall feel and texture of the nation right now, it's no wonder Americans are, by and large, a goddamn miserable bunch. We don't like anything right now. No politician, no decision, no situation, no inhale, no exhale. We are sick to death of all of it, including ourselves.
Can you blame us? Have you seen how many things there to be disappointed about these days? Love. Sex. Marriage. Stock market. God. Gas mileage. Death. Air travel. 5/9ths of the Supreme Court. It's all just a big goddamn letdown. The list is endless. And getting endlesser.
The evidence is everywhere. I calculate it took about seven minutes, give or take, after Steve Jobs finished introducing the shinypretty iPad before the whiny attacks on the wondergizmo began flooding in, how it didn't have this or that expected feature, how it can't do live video chat, doesn't have Flash, the bezel is too big and it won't double as a meat thermometer, how it doesn't really revolutionize much of anything despite how it's, you know, this gorgeous 1.5-pound slab of aluminum and glass that works flawlessly and can perform roughly one thousand tasks in a more fluid and astonishing way than any device of its kind in history.
Read the rest of it here.
First of all, for an article about how whiney and annoying everyone has become, he sure picked a really whiney and annoying way of writing it. Second, I cant help but feel both you and him are splitting hairs here. It seems like he is trying to make the assumption that because people complain about something, we have all become a bunch of spineless whiners who need to grow up. Now I understand that our society has adopted the tendency to complain about everything. If you are sick of complaints about small things like your waitress not bringing your salad, or your ipad not being perfect enough, or your spouse not cooking you dinner, then you probably need better things to do. I understand the trivial nature of complaining about every detail of life. HOWEVER...to suggest that because people like to complain about trivial details somehow that means that everything we complain about has no merit, is a dangerous and ignorant view of society. Sure, people are pissed off at Obama because he never became "our personal superjesus", but people should be angry at a failing government and the vast political and economic woes we face, people should be furious and should fight like hell to get things back on track. To suggest that homosexuals complaining about their lack of equality is whiney, is to demean and slander really important and serious issues of rights, fairness, and human equality. The fact that people view global warming as the apocalypse that never came illustrates the prevailing ignorance our society has on this issue, so should we whine and complain about how stupid they are? Maybe it should call us to action to try to help spread truth about the extreme importance of the destruction of our environment.
ReplyDeleteMy opinion? sure, we need to let go of trivial things. But if there is something you feel strongly about, something you see needs change, then by all means you need to go out and voice your opinion and fight as hard as you can for it, no matter who thinks you are just part of "a goddamn miserable bunch".
Mark Morford, if you want to help, I recommend you stop whining about the whiners and go out and do something productive.
I think everyone needs to buck up and take responsibility for their own actions :-)
ReplyDeletePerhaps I didn't type on my keyboard hard enough: there are legitimate concerns--concerns that need to be studied, debated, and dealt with. This wasn't a commentary about hardline issues at all, and to be mistaken as one, epitomizes our society's ever-growing desire to find something to complain about. Morford's irony isn't lost on me.
ReplyDeleteI actually agree, and I admit I was probably a little hasty in my scorn of his article (which I still really dont like). However, I think that often we overlook the importance of small details when debating big issues. We assume that if you are talking small, you arent dealing with big things. So when people do bring up small details about big issues, sometimes they are misinterpreted as pointless, which is a mistake, and I simply wish Morford had recognized this. Also, I do understand Morford's point of view and recognize his use of irony to (very bluntly) illustrate his point, I just found his approach to be irritating.
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