coffee thoughts

Thoughts over coffee:

Throughout history there have always been people obsessed with power and hierarchy, who’s top dog, who gets to be a scapegoat, etc.

Smart, caring people addressed the problem with science, the arts, and rule of law. But why have we not been able to overcome this medieval mindset in the long run? How can we create a society that is just and rational?

I still believe democracy is the answer but am trying to understand why others can’t see that. I had hopes we were on the forward path but…

This problem must somehow be rooted in basic human psychology. Do concrete, short term thinkers outnumber abstract/analytical, long view thinkers?

Technological progress outran our psychological progress. Things got too complex for our Neolithic brains and many do not have the patience or willingness to try to learn. And apparently we're stuck in these loops until some future date when we actually learn.

How frustrating.

movies

I like Christmas music but Christmas movies, not as much.

Here I will demonstrate my coolness by insisting that Die Hard is a Christmas movie. *folds arms, nods, yippee ki yay*

The only holiday movies I can stand anymore are Elf, versions of the Christmas Carol, and Charlie Brown. The others…

It’s a Wonderful Life is grim and A Christmas Story is too nostalgic. Both come out of the Great Depression/WW2 era, a profoundly unfun time.

While It’s a Wonderful Life is grim, it imparts an important message about the value of human life over greed and profit. (Too bad we didn’t keep that message.)

I have more complex feelings about A Christmas Story. When I first saw it, I thought okay, odd little story, but has its moments.

I was around when TBS started running that movie over and over and over for 24 hours like some awful science experiment. 😞 And man, over time, I realized it’s bleak AF.

The writings and radio shows by author Jean Shepard are quite acerbic. He’s looking back, but with a bite. To see A Christmas Story as pure nostalgia is missing the point: it’s a satire on how dreary and small life could be during that era. 

Not the vibe I need right now in this dreary era.