After completing the Farcry 5 adventure - because I have to mention a game before I start my rant. :slight_smile:
Just another night on road... I stopped in to a high-end steak house in South KC. I could not help but listen to a conversation a older group (AARP types) was having a loud discussion as I ordered my steak, mashed potatos and beer. The interesting conversation started about education. They discussed children being exposed to transgender doctrine, lack of standards for higher education, and other general issues. They reminded me of my grandparents and the issues they were interested in - God, family, education, hard work, honesty, and patriotism.
At that point I realized something I always knew but never really acknowledged. America pushing too hard trying to force people to change against their will. I have always been a live and let live person, just don't push yourself on me type person. So what has changed? In the past 20 years, it has been balls to the wall pushing the counter culture (by our grandparents definition) to mainstream and now is appears, that the actual counter culture is the culture of traditional values.
I was not shocked by their discussion but I looked around at the waiters and waitresses (young college student types) and I thought what are thinking about this conversation? I guess what really bothered me was that these young folks would be somehow offended. Have I really become more sensitive to that? My grandparents would tell me "those young folks should deal with it"... today's society frowns on the type of discussion these people were having. Did the older folks have a right to discuss their thoughts in the open? Why do I care about the thoughts of the old folks and the feelings of the younger ones?
That is the shift to thought today. In the old days if you did not like my thoughts, that was your problem. Today, its now about what some one says... its about how someone feels. Subjectivity, rules the day. Society is pushing people hard to adjust to the new norms (faster than a generation can pass away) or be labeled a social deviant. In the last 20 years, society has changed so much that people can't keep up. Especially rural America. In my opinion, that is why we live to two different countries in America and why America so divided. Cities are places where people subjected to progressive thought such as marketing and education. When we look at the election map... cities are blue (democrats) and rural America is red (republican). When you work on farm you interact with the same people for generations... when you work in the city you interact with different people everyday. Maybe if we just chilled as a society and stopped fighting so much we'd find more in common than different.
That said, there is a difference between right and wrong and in retrospect it seems the city folk are more intolerant of the rural folks... laying down a false narrative - they are stupid rednecks, black folk, and hispanics. The general stereotype is that if you live in the city you are more sophisticated, educated, tolerant, open to new ideas. In the city, by the definition, people are exposed to homeless people, drug addicts, art, culture, alternative lifestyles, punk rockers, gang members, etc. Rural people on the other hand are not. Rural communities have their bad apples in the community, but everyone knows who they are. Even though they may be hated, they are still part of the community and have been a part of that community a long time - which make them tolerant in their own way.
So the lesson I learned tonight is that there are two different countries in the United States. We have urban vs rural philosophies at odds and that society is changing faster than people can. This is troubling... I am concerned that the combination of technology and the flow of information from all parts of the world is pushing people too hard. My opinion is that that is what happened with slavery and eventually led to the civil war - I'm not saying that the civil war was unjustified by the North... just saying that people have their breaking point. The problem, is that there are so many opinions and ideas emerging so fast that society does not have time to adjust and therefore tears. Remember the enormous amount of change that has happened to the world in the past 20 years. The civil war festered since the beginning - before the United States was a country - 100 years or more. Technology and science are going to leap forward faster than we have ever seen in the next 10 years (Moore's Law). We need to manage this and be civil, patient, and mature. Progressive people need to slow down and let the more traditional people catch up.
Happy Tuesday!
CD
Just another night on road... I stopped in to a high-end steak house in South KC. I could not help but listen to a conversation a older group (AARP types) was having a loud discussion as I ordered my steak, mashed potatos and beer. The interesting conversation started about education. They discussed children being exposed to transgender doctrine, lack of standards for higher education, and other general issues. They reminded me of my grandparents and the issues they were interested in - God, family, education, hard work, honesty, and patriotism.
At that point I realized something I always knew but never really acknowledged. America pushing too hard trying to force people to change against their will. I have always been a live and let live person, just don't push yourself on me type person. So what has changed? In the past 20 years, it has been balls to the wall pushing the counter culture (by our grandparents definition) to mainstream and now is appears, that the actual counter culture is the culture of traditional values.
I was not shocked by their discussion but I looked around at the waiters and waitresses (young college student types) and I thought what are thinking about this conversation? I guess what really bothered me was that these young folks would be somehow offended. Have I really become more sensitive to that? My grandparents would tell me "those young folks should deal with it"... today's society frowns on the type of discussion these people were having. Did the older folks have a right to discuss their thoughts in the open? Why do I care about the thoughts of the old folks and the feelings of the younger ones?
That is the shift to thought today. In the old days if you did not like my thoughts, that was your problem. Today, its now about what some one says... its about how someone feels. Subjectivity, rules the day. Society is pushing people hard to adjust to the new norms (faster than a generation can pass away) or be labeled a social deviant. In the last 20 years, society has changed so much that people can't keep up. Especially rural America. In my opinion, that is why we live to two different countries in America and why America so divided. Cities are places where people subjected to progressive thought such as marketing and education. When we look at the election map... cities are blue (democrats) and rural America is red (republican). When you work on farm you interact with the same people for generations... when you work in the city you interact with different people everyday. Maybe if we just chilled as a society and stopped fighting so much we'd find more in common than different.
That said, there is a difference between right and wrong and in retrospect it seems the city folk are more intolerant of the rural folks... laying down a false narrative - they are stupid rednecks, black folk, and hispanics. The general stereotype is that if you live in the city you are more sophisticated, educated, tolerant, open to new ideas. In the city, by the definition, people are exposed to homeless people, drug addicts, art, culture, alternative lifestyles, punk rockers, gang members, etc. Rural people on the other hand are not. Rural communities have their bad apples in the community, but everyone knows who they are. Even though they may be hated, they are still part of the community and have been a part of that community a long time - which make them tolerant in their own way.
So the lesson I learned tonight is that there are two different countries in the United States. We have urban vs rural philosophies at odds and that society is changing faster than people can. This is troubling... I am concerned that the combination of technology and the flow of information from all parts of the world is pushing people too hard. My opinion is that that is what happened with slavery and eventually led to the civil war - I'm not saying that the civil war was unjustified by the North... just saying that people have their breaking point. The problem, is that there are so many opinions and ideas emerging so fast that society does not have time to adjust and therefore tears. Remember the enormous amount of change that has happened to the world in the past 20 years. The civil war festered since the beginning - before the United States was a country - 100 years or more. Technology and science are going to leap forward faster than we have ever seen in the next 10 years (Moore's Law). We need to manage this and be civil, patient, and mature. Progressive people need to slow down and let the more traditional people catch up.
Happy Tuesday!
CD
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