Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Nothing but culture war

Everywhere, all the time, 24/7 - 365. Why? Why do so many people want to be in an argument all the time? It seems like everyone wants to tell someone off. Or beg someone to knock the chip off their shoulder.

Perhaps we seek trouble since direct danger is so remote. We need to invent confrontation. In short we are bored. I use kids as my experimental evidence. Kids with nothing to do get cranky. They lash out at each over the stupidest little things. They invent conflict and drama. If they are busy then the conflict really goes down. Too much free time is not a good thing.

I am sure I would get an argument from people about an assertion of Americans having too much spare time. I would even argue with myself on that count. But to back this up I would assert that, though we are running here and there all the time, we are not running for a real purpose. If we stopped we would not get eaten, or starve, or get shot, or die of disease. Our tasks are several times removed tasks required to live.

You could with total accuracy argue that the poor, starving, embattled masses also seek conflict. But that conflict is real. Fighting over a bag of rice might mean life or death for your family. Fighting over whether or not a cartoon character is gay or not is clearly not a life and death issue.

There must be a middle ground between the Somalia's of the world and the Americas. I am not talking nations either. I am talking about ways of living. Keeping your self busy is good (idle hands etc)