Posted on 11/11/2021 4:01:15 AM PST by Kaslin
If our only shared experience comes from crappy passive entertainment then we are truly a culture that needs to die off.
I thought Squid Games was about navy sailors. And the follow-up was going to be Jarhead Games. Semper Fi.
Do you think our only shared experience comes from “crappy passive entertainment”?
Really?
The last TV I watched was Sarah Palin addressing the 2008 Republican National Convention.
I gave it up cold turkey and haven’t missed it a bit. And from what I read about such-and-such show (that I’ve never heard about before) getting a “gay” or “bi” character, apparently I haven’t missed much. Or so-and-so (who I’ve never heard about before) is having an affair with another so-and-so (ditto). Who cares? It’s an unreal make believe world.
I would also say that even silly things can have a cohesive effect.
Of course, for centuries in this country, church (which certainly isn’t silly) has had that effect and bound people together, but there have been a lot of things that are inconsequential to one person or group, but may be significant to others.
Christmas Caroling, going from house to house used to be a thing, and I am old enough and lucky enough to remember it. Sure, going out in cold weather and snowy ground to sing Christmas Carols in front of people’s houses does seem kind of silly, but to those who did it, the memory (and the societal “glue” associated with it) is likely just as magical to them as it feels to me.
And passive entertainment, like watching a football game has value.
Granted, there is nothing about sitting in front of a television and watching a game that is particularly valuable or magical.
But it isn’t that, really. It is the chance for interaction, and the actual interaction with other people that is what adheres us to others.
The destruction of football has been a painful thing for me. As a teenager, I played high school football. Our town has an ongoing Thanksgiving Day rivalry with a neighboring town that will be the 118th Thanksgiving Day game they have played against each other. I was fortunate enough to be on the team for one of them and actually get on the field for a play.
118 years of tradition. I went to the game for the heck of it a few years ago, and...even though I couldn’t give a hoot about that high school or high school football, there was something to it, a glue.
I was an avid football fan, and had pro season tickets, every Sunday at home games we would meet up with the same 10-20 people a the stadium in the same parking lot hours before the game. I traveled in caravans of people to go watch games in other states. It was rich, fun, and social. It was glue.
Does football really mean anything in the long run? Hell no. But those people, and those experiences damn well do. One of our fellow season ticket holders for decades died during the COVID lockdown, no funeral, no memorial, and that infuriated me.
Point is, don’t dismiss these kinds of things. These inconsequential things, from silly Saturday morning cartoons to church services every Sunday are meaningful things to people. We aren’t certain Puritans or certain Muslims who frown seeing others having a good time.
We are individual Americans who used to revel in our independent individual spirit.
Brandon cuts the gas.
That’s royal!
Number Six: Where am I?
Number Two: In the Village.
Number Six: What do you want?
Number Two: Information.
Number Six: Whose side are you on?
Number Two: That would be telling. We want information… information… information.
Number Six: You won't get it.
Number Two: By hook or by crook, we will.
Number Six: Who are you?
Number Two: The new Number Two.
Number Six: Who is Number One?
Number Two: You are Number Six.
Number Six: I am not a number! I am a free man!
Number Two: [laughs]
One word - football.
It was until that woke, washed up QB, started to politicize it.
The left has successfully destroyed the common experiences.
I remember that now. Had to think about it some.
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