WISDOM OF THE
SAGES
EPISODE SIX –
SUMMER 2015
Hello People of the World;
Summer is finally here and we are still bitching
and moaning about how the weather does not do EXACTLY what we want it to do. Weather
changes. We always ask ‘why?’ Yet anyone who’s cracked a science book can tell
you. Man. So the weather is not what you want. Accept that.
Here we are almost halfway through the year.
Actually, July 2nd is the middle of the year, if you go by number of
days passed. Also, if we are in a leap year, it could either be noon or
midnight of July 2nd that would be right smackdab in the center of
our cherished calendar.
On that useless note, let’s get this month’s
edition started, shall we:
1 :[ The Thought Lost: Part Two
Once again, I had a thought about media, and now,
here I am trying to write out the situation in another attempt to get it back
because, like fool, I forgot it. I went to see “Citizen Kane” today and maybe
came up with another movie idea based on multiple perspectives, or, maybe it
was a contemporary remake, or a sci-fi take about a Northern Arapaho.
On the train north, I was reading Neil Postman’s
book “Amusing Ourselves to Death” in which he discusses televangelists and how
the medium of television makes no room for god, that it forsakes sacristy for
entertainment. Maybe, the idea sprang from that. What ever it was, I was
compelled to write it down on a notepad that I carry with me and was looking
for a place I could sit down and take the time to write it out in relative
un-disturbance before I forgot it. I think that maybe it was a short story,
maybe, Blue Woman.
I remember being on the CTA or waiting for a train
when I had the idea, after walking from the Music Box Theater to the Southport
Brown line station. Turns out, that it had nothing to do with anything writ
above, but about the very act of remembering, which I find very I ironic.
I have written before, on more than one occasion,
in more that one format of writing that we often remember, not by some form of
linear mapping, but by what emotions dictate us to remember. I then remember
what set off this line of thought. It was in response to writings of some
friends of mine and about their experience with a family illness, also, how
little we tend to remember the past in the face of the overwhelmingly emotional
present. The family is going through a lot, and for a very long time, both in
the past and in the foreseeable future.
I lost both my parents and my oldest brother to
long-term illnesses and went through similar things. But I know that it is only
ego to say that what I went through and what they are going through is anything
even resembling the same thing. They simply are not. But I believe that my
memories of those times are the only things that make them the same when they
are not. Ego.
It is about the power of emotions I want to write
about. Emotions are not rational. Emotions are not linear. My father, my
mother, and my brother had lived longer lives before they all fell ill. They were
sick for short spans in comparison to their overall lives. But I only remember
the times of their passing’s more strongly and frequently mainly due to the
fact that those where times of high emotion for me. I think I have gone through
something similar because I wish for some kind of connection to the authors, to
sort of endorse my own experience and approve my own ego. Which is fallacy.
I realize what I went through is a long way off for
them: the loss of a long-sick family member. This is something I do not wish
for them. It makes me see my own connection to their situation as shallow.
Those experiences mean something to my family and myself only. That is it. That
is all. But my ego wants its endorsements. So, as it turns out, what I wanted
to recall was not about media but about the very act of remembering. Also, the
mnemonic device of writing out the situation seems to have worked this time.
And it has shown me how shallow a person I can be….
2 :[ My job got an extension through November. Back
in March, it was announced that the foundation that funds my job would be
changing the way it interacts with the school population in the next fiscal
year, getting rid of face-to-face training and support, focusing more on an
online, digital interaction with students and schools. This was supposed to end
my time at CPS on the day the grant ends. Which would have been today, the day
I post this. But the foundation approved the transition request the boss wrote
and we are extended through November.
It has not been a great time for employment for me.
My teaching job at UWP was cut due to the budget cuts made by the governor to
Wisconsin’s university. So, between now and then, does any want to hire an
insufferable know-it-all?
3 :[ Here is a funny thing I notice, not only in my
own group of friends, but in society as well. You would think it would be
different now with the recent Supreme Court ruling. But I have noted that many
people are actually MIS-quoting Jake Gyllenhaal’s quote from “Brokeback
Mountain”: “I can’t quit you.”
It is actually “I wish I knew how to quit you but I
can’t.”
Which is really no big deal but what I have noticed
is that no one ever really corrects each other on it. Guys especially. You know
why? Because correcting the oft-misquoted “Brokeback Mountain” quote would mean
that big, tough manly-men have actually seen the movie enough times to know the
quote correctly.
And as you know, as big, tough, manly-men, we
cannot have that….
4 :[ So, there I was, sitting at my home computer,
watching something or other, probably this.
I had “Empire of Dreams” playing on the TV. The Making of Star Wars documentary
that came with the 2004 DVD boxed set of the Original Star Wars Trilogy that
everyone’s still mad about. Anyways. There comes a tapping at my door.
I should digress here and talk about my walking
home earlier in the day, after meeting my friend Allen to do some ADR work for
HAMLET that same morning and I was walking home when I noticed two women,
well-dressed, business, walking up the street. I overhear their conversation as
I pass, “You can take that side of the street…” So I know immediately, they are
door-to-door people, and I wonder what they are selling; real estate, political
candidates, religion, maybe, the movement of the day? I don’t know. I forget
them right away because they were both heading in the opposite direction I was.
So, coming back to the tapping on my door. It takes
me three repetitions of knocking before I decide, “yeah, that is knocking on my
door.” Out of curiosity, (because: who comes to visit me?) I get up and peer
through the security, I don’t know, peephole (for the lack of a better term. I
only added “security” so it didn’t sound dirty) and who should I see but one of
the sales ladies from the street looking like she is thinking of trying the
doorknob. I recognize the shitty straw porkpie fedora she was wearing.
I open the door and before I can say “What?” she
launches into her spiel: “Hey I love your
haircut!IamsoandsofromthesuperextremeultramaxiawesomeenvironmentalcompanythatneversoldouttocomedandIamheretoshameyouintogivingupyourprivateinfoforreasonsIwillnotsayexceptthatyoucoudqualifyforanunnamedprizeofsomesort-”
The rundown is that my electric company is a
provider that uses outsourced energy companies to power my home. Now, does the
company my provider uses for my address environmentally sound? She then asks,
“Do you know if your energy company helps the environment?”
“I don’t know,” I reply. I am pretty sure it
doesn’t and I have been looking into switching to one that is but before I can
say that she cuts me off with:
“So… you do absolutely NOTHING for the
environment?”
Wow, what a judgmental jackass. First, if you are
going to sell something: be fucking nice.
“I do what I can.” I say, which is true. Forget
that all forms of energy production, no matter how environmental-friendly,
produce waste. Forget the Oregon University Study that states our increased
population will always be the key factor in environmental waste production;
that we produce more waste with every generation of humanity than we can
currently keep up with recycling at our peak. Forget that every climate
scientist says that WE ARE PASSED THE POINT OF NO RETURN and what we do know
can only stave off the inevitable but not prevent it. Sorry folks. We done
fucked up.
I know taking in your compost and reusing grocery
bags and switching the types of light bulbs you use makes you feel like you’re
doing something for the future generations but you’re doing nothing but making
yourself feel better about staying on a sinking ship. Like baling out the
Titanic with a sand pail.
I mean, if you really want to do something about
the environment, go hogtie yourself to all the construction equipment ready to
roll onto every Indian reservation to drill for oil, or roll into Possum Holler
to frack the shit out of those mountains to get that natural gas, or roll onto
national and state parks to strip the top off of those beautiful mountains you
want to save so they can strip mine that coal or uranium. Do that. Oh, wait,
that would be DOING SOMETHING. Don’t drum circle or march in support of people
who are really doing something to stop their lands from being torn up and then
pretend you had something to do with it because you shared a link. Don’t post
your stupid pictures of you composting or reusing paper bags like you are
humanity’s savior.
Don’t chastise me in your shitty hat pretending
your doing something great for the environment just so I can hand over my
private info to your faceless corporation just so they can send me mailers I
don’t need, which tears down trees anyway, just to advertise how
environmentally sound your energy-producing company is. In fact, I am doing
more for the environment say ‘no thank you” to all those mailers that will get
sent to me because you sold my address on. I am a Tree Jesus by saying get out
of my face with your buffoonery.
In the end, I told her “No thank you.”
She was all surprised, “You don’t want your reward
for helping the environment?”
No, I don’t need a reward. The reward should be
that the environment is still here in 100 years. Which it will. It’s just that,
WE won’t be. Sorry. Hate to spoil it for you….
5 :[ COFFEE SHOP TALES: The Infantile-ization of
the US:
Year after year, as US Citizens, we seem to become
bigger and bigger babies about almost everything. Just look at how we react to
everything, from late planes to marriage equality. We throw tantrums on the
level of an under-slept, four-year-old with a tummy ache in a loud, closed-in
environment.
What I have noticed in the coffee shops is how much
grown-ass adults have so much trouble cleaning up after themselves. I mean,
when I sit down and I have to wipe crumbs and cup rings off. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
“it’s the barisita’s job”, but even something as simple as tidying up after
ones self should have to be done by another grown-ass adult. Grow up.
6 :[ PLACING MEDIA IN CONTEXT
I recently finished reading Neil Postman's book
"Amusing Ourselves to Death" about how television altered not only
our public discourse on important issues, altered the way we think about
important information, but also how we take in, HOW WE LEARN such information.
Postman surmises that when we went from a print society, where print was the
main transmitter of our news and information, to that of a televisual one,
altered how we take in and learn information. The book itself was written in
1985 but I could see how many of his worries translated to this new Internet
Age we are in.
Television and the Internet shapes how we think,
and more importantly, how we learn. What we never learn in the new media of the
day is Context. TV and the Internet look at the world in a series of highly
entertaining present-moment clips, designed, not to inform on complexity, but
to entertain our short-term memory.
It has also altered how we educate. These days, we
would rather have our students staring at flashing screens than reading a thick
book learning the context of the quotes we continually post to Facebook.
Reading is proactive, cognitive while staring at the Internet is inactive, even
subconscious.
I interact with school-age students on a regular
basis and their main complaint is that they will never use what they are being
taught in everyday life. Due to the loss of context, they are missing the
point. Math, Reading, Science are all active-learning activities; these train
your brain HOW to learn, take in information, how to think.
Television, movies, and the Internet are all docile
learning activities where complexity is simplified and spoon fed, while
subconsciously being subjected to the subtle messaging of flashy, entertaining
ads. Audiences never realize they are being advertised to, they even defend the
simplification of the media and the loss of context in exchange for
entertainment.
You can see this in what audiences consider the new
public discourse, namely "The Daily Show" where comedy is exchanged
for responsibility and our most important news is segmented into entertaining
junkets dressed as satire. "Satire" has become the new High
Intelligence. No, RECOGNIZING satire has become the new High Intelligence.
Because To Recognize is docile, non-active function. Which is why nostalgic
recognition in films (i.e. "Transformers", "Star Wars",
Tarantino) supersedes any deeper analysis of issues and becomes Film Intellect.
Which is why we all cry that movies should not make us want to join the Peace
Corps. but that the are ONLY ENTERTAINMENT.
What this does is make the practice of filmmaking a
lazy intellectual exercise. Films, which are the United States' biggest export
to the world and, judging from the way we sanctify movies, movies stars and
directors, are the biggest, most immediate way we take in and pass on cultural
information. Some would argue that for television except for the fact that
television is edited into smaller bits. Even "The Daily Show" is 23
minutes in between all the loud, noisy, entertaining ads.
As a Media Mentor that helps student produce media
that speaks with their voice, I had the habit of trying to get the students to
"think in shots". The reasoning being, you can create a Shot List,
making the process easier. But kids, being kids would always want to shoot a
video in a skit format, playing out the whole movie in one continuous shot and
being done with that. I used to think this as amateurish. But after reading
Postman's book, have come to realize that these students just want to see the
whole thing in context and here I was trying to "teach them out of
that." We tend to lose context as we get older because of how big and how
subtle an influence both television editing and the piecemeal of the Internet
are.
What we are losing is the ability to process
context. That information is not just for tests and games shows, that we have
to build better societies from the long-term processing of information. Looking
at how much of our learning has changed with the introduction of the Internet
and Smartphones. We all gasped like that was something from our promised chrome
and shiny futurama. That learning and schooling would become easier.
But easier is not always better. Not when
technology like a cellphone is only used to find the answer, but not the
meaning of or context of the information provided in the answer. There is no
context provided in snapshots of info that we can swipe off the desktop and
forget once we penciled in the circle. Which is why I never took to Nooks or
other digital reading devices, because it makes the dismissal of a book too
easy to do. But a book on a shelf, demands to be read again, to be explored,
and to be thought about again with it presence.
So, what are we really losing when we are using
entertainment to drive our social discourse? We just end up patting ourselves
on the back over our Facebook school shooting posts and rainbow profile
pictures because that allows us to feel like we take part in something
important without having to do any kind of work towards. That is how television
has affected us, how the Internet is affecting us now.
I am recommending everyone read this book, even if
you disagree with it, because it will grant some context to your own arguments.
7 :[ STAR WARS: DISNEY is not using the sequel
treatments that George Lucas supposedly offered. This is a good thing according
to the many that believe that Lucas ruined his legacy with the three Prequel
movies. Many think that the Saga is in good hands thanks to JJ Abrams’ handling
of STAR TREK.
However, it look Lucas those three films, that a
lot of people paid to see and had an influence on, by the way, to ruin Star
Wars.
It took JJ only one to ruin Star Trek….
8 :[ Seinfeld, Rock and others who are not playing
college campuses are cowards that do not want to take personal responsibility
for their jokes, are too afraid of criticism, and seem to think that only they
are entitled to First Amendment rights….
Everyone, including me, you, and everyone else, has
this ridiculous idea that First Amendment Free Speech rights go only ONE WAY:
My Way!
If I say something that people find offensive, they
have every right to say so. If enough people say I offend them then I would
stop offending them and try to make my points in other ways. That is what
responsible people do. They don’t jump behind the idea of “it’s comedy so I can
call people nigger”. Grow a pair and face that. You fucking babies….
So that is it for this month. Looks like I am
getting my cranky back. I really have not been sharing these or making them
public. If you are reading this after looking for it, or you came upon it by
chance, thank you! Feel free to comment, correct, or contradict anything you
read here. I am a grown up, I can take it. I take responsibility for what I
write. Unlike some….
Until next month, remember “I try to show the
schemers how pathetic their attempts to control everything really are.”
2015 Ernest M Whiteman III
