Bubbie has noticed a disturbing trend that has been slowly eroding the American society; the white trashing of America. He is not one to throw stones but he does know what he stands for; he puts women on a pedestal, loves and feels a responsibility to children, and honors the manly hierarchy. He fondly remembers having to take a freshman English class in summer school due to some marginal behavioral issues. The teacher was a big gruff authoritarian and at first the young Bubbie thought he found delight in torturing the maligned summer students, but remembers a statement that the behemoth bellowed one afternoon. He doesn’t recall the context of the lesson or the wording leading up to it, but he remembers the teacher saying emphatically, “No one owes you nothing but basic human respect!” And of course that’s what we owe others. That is what makes a healthy civilized society.
There was a time when the rube was a running joke. It was Junior Samples, Gomer Pile. It was a joke and everybody knew it. It’s the premise behind Hee Haw and the Blue Collar Comedy tour. But anymore it seems that Jeff Foxworthy and Larry the Cable Guy have become heroes instead of humorists and everyone else is a tattooed, beer drinkin’ badass (Yea, even the women). You can’t go anywhere anymore without being interrupted by tobacco chewing Nextel conversations, the F-bombings are rampant and aren’t we continually rudely cut off or tail gated in traffic by an oversized pickup with a Bush/Cheney bumper sticker. I can’t stand in line at the department store without out a thick necked, beer bellied, fishin’ shirt wearing oaf glancing fiercely at me as if he wants to spit a little beechnut in my eye. Never a smile or friendly hello; always a look up and down and a turning away of one’s oversized head. No one seems to know that you should politely hold a door open, or step aside and yield if a person approaches with their arms full. Have you noticed few people say “excuse me” anymore; I often get brushed by as though I don’t exist.
Is this our fate America? We can’t even be nice our respectful to one another anymore? Can’t I be an individual with my own thoughts and style? If you don’t get the joke because you’ve become it; it just not funny. I challenge you to pay attention to the state of our country and her volatile position in the world. We need to pull together and raise our standards to be the best country in the world. White trash is not chic, it’s trash, so let’s dispose of it and move ahead to a superior civilization. It starts within each of us.
2 comments:
Anti-intellectualism seems to have peaked in America. There seems to be a developing trend towards being skeptical against anyone with education. It's amazing to me. You can see it in the way that politicians run on an "everyman" platform instead of an educated one. And who can blame the people for distrusting intellectuals, I mean there's the whole envy issue (of course they can't be bothered to "get smart" themselves) but, in addition, scientists and other professional thinkers are saying scary stuff, stuff that implicates us in global climate change, economic and international responsibility, and social dynamics. What do you say we don't think about that stuff and just have a beer and watch TV, it's the American Way (tm).
Thanks for the comments Joshua. Here in Florida, we are seeing a double dose of the dumbing down of America by the Bush brothers. They're premise is to lower the bar of our educational institutions to increase faux statistical data to use, I suspect, to use politically to keep those in power on the top of the heap. In the end we have produced citizens no smarter than cattle, too obtuse to revolt through the use of a voting machine, and too ignorant to realize they can.
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