Faux Populism

Andy Sullivan has tickled my thinking spot. Nay not primarily about Rush Limbaugh, or the Drudge per se so much as what I perceive to be many peoples distorted view of populism in general: Be it the Tea Party on the right or the Occupy movement on the left. Implicit in this point of view seems to be an almost universal rejection of the "establishment" and/or "elites" being pitted against the wholesome, law abiding, baby making, mass consuming, insufferably boring, bourgeois boobs of mundanity apart of the great omegatropolis of suburbia also known as "the commoner". Everyone likes to think of themselves as "the commoner", including the elites. Rush Limbaugh, I'm sure if he is to be vetted for the ambassadorial position of the yokels, would hardly get the job. In fact, one can be so bold as to say that the man has far more in common with the bogymen(Mr. 64 Mill) than he gives himself credit for, understandably so. 

But hey, I don't mean to pick on poor old Rush. He's just another unfortunate demagogue, like so many media personalities out there, trying to scrounge a decent living with their slander.

What is it about the human psyche that fears minorities so much? That causes us to intuitively expect the odd few to be metaphysically "worse" than the commoner? Whether you're a 1%'er plutocratic member of the parasitic class or the only Asian guy in Salt Lake City, nobody wants to be the black sheep. Groups give insecure people the illusion of security. Nobody feels comfortable unless they're apart of some big dumb group. Teenagers are more honest than adults about this, and thus more open, to reveal their id in real-time. The way they divide themselves into jocks, nerds, mean girls, potheads, hookers, Ted Bundy enthusiasts... or whatever else Disney is to afraid to make a half-assed musical out of. Nobody has any problem with being a nerd as long as they have a big gang of dorks to coalesce into an interest group. Get enough dorks on campus, and pretty soon the class "president" will have to pander to their demands: mandatory science lectures, free wi-fi, ect.

People don't like being alone, which is probably one of the many reasons why religion still stubbornly exists to this day but that is another topic. I tend not to trust people who use the "establishment" meme against an opponent in a debate. It reveals more about the attacker than it does about the attacked. The petty, unimaginative, fear, irrational skepticism, and incredulity of the attackers implied logic only serves as a reminder for what they truly are: a stupendous bore.

Iowa results

So it turns out old (crazy eyes) Bachman has thrown in the towel. She had bet all her hopes on the one state known for giving the nod to the most socially conservative looney toon the party can muster and lost, miserably...

Hilariously. Now if only we can get Perry/Gingrich and company to come to their senses.

My Inaugural Post

So after a series of false attempts and creative cul-de-sacs, I finally figured out what I should be blogging about: Culture, with the art and politics that surround it.

My first attempt at blogging was almost, I think, a year ago with which I couldn't for the life of me settle on a single consistent theme. It's a little bit difficult to keep peoples interest in your blog if you jump from commenting on foreign policy in one post, to baking cookies in the next. There aren't too many avid foreign policy reading  pastry chefs- probably for good reason at that, do we need to hear souffle metaphors for the Wars in Afghanistan or Iraq? Although they probably wouldn't be wholly inaccurate, they would be insufferably cheesy, up with to an extent of which I shall not put- not exactly a pun but this one is a piece of cake. But I digress.

So what is culture? Culture is everything apart of our environment that entertains us, or at least me. Our customs, our norms, our silly superstitions. From the agrarian cattle ranching of the south west (Fried Coke), and north west (Brokeback Mountain), to the stoner inflicted west-most coastal states (the culture I identify with most), to the Bible Belt along the Gulf (Old Dixie), to the more progressive north eastern states (the cradle of the United States), to the heart of this nations dwindling industrial base in the mid-west (cheese and textiles), this country has a tremendous diversity of cultures probably in large part due to its size. No other country in the world takes up such a large geographic space of land than the good old U.S. of A, which can be good and problematic. This is truly one of the few countries in the world today whereby the multi-cultural experiment works for some odd reason, but I'll save that topic for another post.

Well I got off on a little tangent there, but the bottom line is my blog is back. The personal journal that everyone can read but doesn't. What a strange concept. The facebook age has definitely made social interdependency the norm on a global scale. It's both frightening and invigorating at the same time. Let's see where it takes us.