I'm not angry, I'm dissapointed 2: Dark clouds

Alright, here's a new idea: How's bout of thematic outrage. After finishing yesterday's post I realised that the problem is actually a lot broader than just end of the world enthusiasts, it's more a general vibe. The feeling I'm getting is our theme for the week. The kind of horrifying speech where a parent or another authority figure berates you in a passive aggressive manner about thinking about the future without giving you the option of being legitimately angry at them, even stupidly. When teenage rebellion seems unmanageable they suddenly discovered the best way of making it so much worse. If even the worst you can do, just gets a few tuts, what choice do you have? It's interesting finally realising why I hated school so much. Nothing I did wrong ever made anyone angry, nothing I did right ever got anything but damned with faint praise.

I'm not angry I'm disappointed: End of the world threat level: Beige

This song is probably seriously meant, but that doesn't make it's message any less ridiculous. All apocalypses are personal, first and foremost. And let's not forget the hundreds of thousands of Christians happily awaiting the end, as certain groups have since the invention of religion. But it's a common factor in secular thinking as well. As you grow older the idiotic idea takes hold that things are worse than they were, across the board. This especially absurd considering that we are now living in the most gilded of all golden ages. Prophets of doom tend to conveniently forget that at no point in human history as many people have had their basic needs taken care of as right now, except maybe last year. People tend to forget that though some things might have been better 20 years ago for you personally, lots of things weren't. People shocked at a tiny increase in crime rates compared to last year really ought to look up the average chance of dying due to violent street crime a hundred years ago. Or, for that matter, look up how statistics actually work before talking about increases between years that don't take any other factors in account, like the last ten years, or other components of the easily skewed numbers.

The men who stare at goats

I liked the film, but not as much as the documentary series by Jon Ronson. Mostly because of the oppressive acting. Maybe I shouldn't have watched it after the documentary, now the wacky hijinks of the US military seem a lot less fun and a lot more crazy. The one thing the film doesn't address and the documentary barely touches is the fact that the reason these things work so well in the military context. Any army is prone to these kinds of hysteric flights of fancy, it's in their nature. They spend so much time brainwashing people to become soldiers, what does it matter if you tack on a load of other ideas that don't really make any sense in that context? The unquestioning obedience of orders and other great ideas in service of a single goal make it an easy prey for profoundly stupid ideas. It's remarkably similar to religion that way.

Bitter and betrayed: The Cynthia Adler story

Compelling stuff. I always wondered where that slew of awful movies where women face terrible, unbelievable choices to reveal a secret that will tear their families apart, came from. It's a whole channel, with lovely entries like 'Why I wore lipstick to my mastectomy' 'Crimes of Passion: She woke Pregnant' and 'Cyber seduction: His secret life'. It also conveniently explains what happens to actresses that seem to disappear after their TV shows are canceled, they can't all be doing broad way. The film I watched a ten minuet segment of yesterday featured a women finding it difficult convincing her teenage daughter not to have sex with her boyfriend as she was pregnant with the child of a married man while delivering stupid anti-youth culture lectures drenched in hypocrisy her teenage daughter didn't detect! Hollywood magic, people.

Water

Another doctor's visit today and my doctor asked if I'd be interested in a homeopathic cure for gallstones. The sketch above immediately sprang to mind. I asked my doctor why he'd offer me this and apparently it's in my insurance package. I assured him I don't believe in it, and he concluded that that is the only reason he'd prescribe something homeopathic. I just checked, and apparently it is. I always sort of assumed that you had to pay for these things yourself, at least. It's pretty horrifying to realise I've been paying for this. But checking with my sister, whose studying medicine, the official position of doctors is not to say anything bad about homeopathy, unless it's about to kill you. There ought to be law, wasn't there one already?