People basically don't talk.
They say whatever they can think of to convince the other person that they're the one that's right.
People basically don't listen either.
They hold their tongue as well as they can while the other person is speaking, and instead of listening; use that time to think of what they'll say next to convince the other person that they're the one that's right.
This adversarial slant to communication is why I don't like to talk to anyone. It used to not be this bad. I used to not want to fight. I remember being a kid in Westgate of all places and some bigger kid tripped me on purpose on the way home from school. I was distraught when I dropped my books but proud of myself that I walked away without giving him any satisfaction of confrontation and didn't encourage the situation to escalate. I knew he didn't have a good reason to trip me. He wanted to be mean. And I knew that I didn't have any good reason to try to hurt him or to get more hurt myself. I was proud to walk away from a fight. And real happy not to have any type of injury or additional pain.
Now I see and feel the fight in every conversation so I don't want to do that anymore.
Remember Beefaroni/Beef-O-getti?
I always thought the 1970s commercial said "Beefaroni, Beefasketti, Beefaroni, Beefasketti. Do you want to fight?
No, I want to siiiiiiing!"
And that's what I want to do.
We have entire tv channels devoted to getting us to vote in one direction or the other. Objectivity was never anyone's goal in mass communication but we used to pretend that it was. We used to pretend that other people were the ones with propaganda and we were just telling it like it is.
And so it was with the desire to find a narrative to escape into rather than to be sold anything that I approached viewing the film Promised Land (2012).
It's a movie about fracking.
It's not really a movie about fracking, but rather what one does with what one thinks. But let's just say it's about fracking.
Is a movie about fracking a place one might go to find respite from being told what to think?
I don't know anything about fracking. But I know that I've heard much about it that could convince me that I know something about it. It has to be evil, right? It sounds evil. I wonder who made up that word; someone who espoused the process or someone who crusades against the process?
Let me guess. It sounds fracking horrible, doesn't it?
Whoever coined the term was probably a fracking genius and that word itself will probably be enough to determine the fate of its namesake.
Between Pro-Life and Pro-Choice which term was used the most? Surprise, that side won!
Between Marriage Equality and Marriage Integrity which one was used the most? Surprise, that side won!
Have you ever noticed the difference between the generic name for drugs and the name that they're sold under? It seems to me that the marketable name is used by the company. That's understandable. They want to open and close the commercial with some name that sounds nice before and after the 10 minute listing of side effects. Some of these drug names have such a nice ring to them and if you didn't know what they were you might think they'd make a good nick-name or a name for your next puppy.
If you didn't know what it is, Chlamydia sounds like the name of the cute check-out girl down at the corner grocery. I think her sister's name is Phyllis something. Oh no, it's Si-Phyllis. That's it. Right. Yup, that's her. We know her.
Those companies- I guess it's those companies, I don't know- use longer harder to pronounce names for the generic version that they won't make any money from. Who would buy Grotsingraphitimininideperoxican if they could buy a bottle of the same thing in a pretty package called something nice?
Maybe these are the scientific names. I don't know. But if they're trying to get you to buy something, they go to the trouble of making it look and sound real nice.
That's what we're sick of. Being told that every choice we make is either real nice or the worst choice ever that will end life on this planet.
Take fracking.
When I saw who made the film I assumed that they were some liberal Hollywood types who never had a real job who left their coasts to come to Middle America and make fun of the locals and tell the whole world how evil fracking is.
Then I realized that I don't really know the politics of these Hollywood types. Maybe they're part of the vocal Conservative Hollywood minority wanting to save the movie industry from the devil. Maybe they're trying to tell me that fracking isn't that bad. You either like fracking or you like the devil, right?
Maybe they're trying to make a good movie. I'm so jaded I couldn't tell.
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