Timed 031408

liberal fascism
still reeling from this. my thoughts are that everyone craves a strong leader, we "pretend"
in various ways that we don't. We kill kings, and eschew royalty, but we turn around and make "new" royalty -- celebrities, musicians, sports figures, a few creatives...
We LIKE (enjoy, are used to... ) the feeling of being not required to make it to the top. Others are already there. We pretend we don't even WANT to be there (but play the lottery, in hopes... that we will).
We are full of contradictions.
If you really believed that you could (pull yourself up from your bootstaps into the meritocracy) it would be daunting. That's why we make fun of (japanese parents trying to their kids into the right preschool) we don't really BELIEVE "we" could make it. we like the idea that there are a ton of reasons we can't.
When a reporter asked Keith Richards what he thought about the Vietnam War, he said
"What the fuck are you asking ME for?"
He knew his place. He was a rocker, a musician, he was NOT EDUCATED as a policy wonk.
Today, does anyone do this?
No, every celeb (think F.A.G. from Team America)
has an opinion
they MIGHT BE slightly more sophisticated than "War is bad for children and other living things" but probably not.



INTO THE WILD... though i watched the movie on fastforward, it seemed that it was more
forgiving of the kid than the book. sure he lost some weight, but he "accomplished" his mission to live in the wild. IF IT HADN'T BEEN FOR A MINOR MISCALCULATION THAT THE RIVER WOULD BECOME IMPASSABLE he would have sauntered out, thin, but "changed", sure to be "happier" than his (stupid rich) parents.
I remember in the book there was more of a tone that this kid was arrogant to think he could go into the wildnerness unprepared. it was disrespectful of the people that lived there. sure, there was some of this in the movie (the trucker, his last ride, takes pity on him and hands him a pair of rubber boots) but i think Monsieur Penn was more on the side of the kid's nobility than Junger who seemed to be saying look what kind of kids we've made -- angry and stupid.
Maybe it's different for Penn, he had to deal with the family (obviously they had to be grieving their loss) and casting the kid as heroic but making "one critical mistake" was the kinder way to go.
I thought it didn't have the bite of the book.