Book Review: A**holes: A Theory

Assholes: A Theory by Aaron James
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Philosopher Aaron James discusses the phenomenon of the asshole—a person with an entrenched sense of entitlement and feeling of superiority—and gives us, the more cooperative members of society, some hints at identifying and dealing with those who routinely inconvenience us while rarely giving us a second thought.

Has American culture with its emphasis on individualism produced an upsurge in assholes? James would argue that it certainly hasn’t helped. The “dampening effects” of family, religion, and a societal emphasis on working toward the collective good seem to be waning. The “Cable News Asshole” fans the flames of discord to create smokescreens of division (where none may actually exist) so that other assholes may flourish. A most telling example comes from the “Delusional Asshole Banker” who after taking billions of dollars in bail-out money due to his reckless behavior asks what his bonus will be. He then argues that the government bailed him out because he is “smart” and worthy of special treatment. Assholes in political office reinforce this dysfunctional mindset through legislation which rewards future asshole behaviors.

James cautions that no amount of discourse will change an asshole’s narcissistic outlook, so convinced he is of his moral superiority. At best, cooperative people can publicly state their objections concerning the asshole’s boorish behaviors to encourage their fellow sufferers that they aren’t alone in feeling incensed/slighted and hope for the best. Assholes: A Theory is the definitive survival guide for life in the twenty-first century.


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Happy Un-Thanksgiving to You!

It’s odd how a tune can get stuck in your head sometimes. Odder still, the choice of tune that gets stuck in your head and the exact timing of this phenomenon. Maybe the tune is an indication of what’s really going on in your subconscious? But maybe—just maybe—it’s more ominous than that. Maybe it’s a sign of what’s going on just beneath the surface of reality itself...

For the past couple of days, I’ve been humming the tune to A Very Merry Un-Birthday to You from Disney’s animated classic Alice in Wonderland. It was one of my oldest girl’s favorite movies as a kid, and she about wore out the tape in the VHS player. The more I thought about it, the more odd it seemed to me that I wasn’t humming Christmas carols (since the radio stations are already blasting them) or even thinking of a more traditional tune like the Thanksgiving hymn Come Ye Thankful People, Come. Why was I thinking about the Mad Hatter’s surrealist tea party and the idea of celebrating an un-anything?

It all began when I opened up the shopper paper lying on our front lawn the other day. In the colorful mass of recyclable materials I spied the big-box store flyers proudly proclaiming, “We’re open on Thanksgiving Day at 6 AM!” My heart sank. Now I know why that infuriatingly little tune from Alice in Wonderland had become stuck in my head. I've fallen down the rabbit hole like Alice, and the insanity surrounds me on all sides.

There are no sacred days, no official holidays, or special family gathering days anymore in America. There is only naked commercialism, overpaid CEOs, retail-slave-laborers, and poverty wages. Indeed, there is little to be thankful for in a culture openly based on greed and consumerism.

So, let’s stop fooling ourselves. The Thanksgiving holiday has been lovely for the past 300 odd years. (Only the last 150 years of it has been official as Abraham Lincoln declared it a federal holiday during the Civil War to promote unity). But, obviously, we’ve grown up as a society and grown past it. Why do we need to be thankful for anything, let alone express thanks to anyone or any deity? We got all the idols you could want, all the stuff we could ever need, and those with actual paying jobs (there are a few, but I don’t happen to have one) can go on wild buying sprees at 6 AM on Thanksgiving Day itself without regrets or recrimination. Why wait for Black Friday when we have a slightly dirty beige “Un-Thanksgiving Day” to go on a shopping expedition?

The Mad Hatter proclaimed every day that wasn’t your birthday was your “un-birthday” and worth celebrating. Since we’ve become a society of ingrates, every day—including the fourth Thursday of November—can be “Un-Thanksgiving Day”, right? Celebrate it by shopping during the wee small hours of the night! Celebrate by not paying your employees’ a living wage! Celebrate it by allowing 45,000 of your fellow Americans to die each year (that’s one every 12 minutes) from lack of health care! Celebrate it by glorifying the snarkiness, the insipid (reality TV works well here), the materialistic, and the capitalistic!

There is no one to give thanks to or for or about since it’s Un-Thanksgiving Day! Remember, it’s all about celebrating ME!

I want to “thank” you now, dear reader, for reading thus far and putting up with my attitude, but frankly I’m tired. I’m tired of the selfishness and mean-spiritedness of our culture. I’m ashamed to be American these past few years. We’ve become what we always prided ourselves for not being—self-absorbed and uncaring. We don’t care a rat’s behind for our own neighbors’ welfare, and our neighbor abroad is useful only if he has resources we want to take advantage of, be they animal, vegetable, mineral, or slave-labor. 

Abraham Lincoln is lucky to have lived in the 19^th century and not the 21^st. I’m sure if he were alive today, he would simply walk away and forget all about preserving the union. Why bother to save the self-centered lot which currently dwells here...

...When you can save all your money to hit the Thanksgiving Day 6 AM sales! Happy Un-Thanksgiving to you and yours—and may all your shallow self-indulgences empty your bank account and raise your cholesterol level.

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Movie Review: Modern Times

 

Read more about the film at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_Times_%28film%29

It always amazes me how the more things change, the more things remain the same. Usually for the worse, too. Catching a showing of Charlie Chaplin's classic film Modern Times this past week on AMC doubly emphasized this point to me. 

I had seen the film many years before in a film studies class and remembered the great slapstick moments in the factory gear wheels and the hysterical miming antics of Chaplin's Little Tramp character working as a singing waiter and playing "football" with a roast duck. What really struck me this time about the narrative was how "modern" Modern Times still is. Eighty years on and the US still has large numbers of unemployed workers, union busting, street violence, and children and adults going hungry and homeless... Chaplin wrote this story during the Great Depression, yet it easily could have been written within the past year. Modern Times is both timeless and touching.

Watching Modern Times made me pause and wonder: Have I "time warped" back to the 1930s? Or did Chaplin time travel to the early twenty-first century and back again before he penned his masterpiece? Either way, the film stands the test of time and continues to point out how little the heart of American society has changed since the film's 1936 premiere. The rich demand more and more and will throw a starving street urchin in jail for stealing a loaf of bread. Workers are to be manipulated and exploited and then cast aside all in the name of profits. The authorities exact heavy violence against striking workers who only want to call attention to their plight. I think we can all see the parallels between Chaplin's story and today's headlines.

History repeats itself if we do not learn from it. Modern Times really should become required viewing for all. Perhaps only then will we stop the cycle of poverty, income disparity, hunger and frustration felt by those struggling to survive day-to-day. The Little Tramp will do us all a good deed if we will only watch and learn from his antics.

Peace on Earth. Please?

Editor's note: I wanted to write a beautiful and inspiring blog to celebrate Christmas and send it to all my friends and family members in lieu of sending cards this year... But current circumstances in the world sort of eclipsed my earlier idea of writing about the holidays in Jolly Ol' England. How can anyone write about "jolly" when there is so much pain in the world?

I'm not talking about my own pain, although my personal journey this past year has been a very rough road by anyone's account. And I realize that my publishers recommend that authors of romantic fiction choose only optimistic and entertaining subjects for our blogs. But sometimes a topic comes to mind and there's no way to put it out of your mind unless you write about it and share your thoughts. So here goes.

Peace on earth. Goodwill to all mankind.

We read these sentiments on Christmas cards, but do we ever truly understand what they mean or the costs involved in acting upon them? Sure, it's nice to wish someone peace and other good things, but if you do nothing to provide a way for your fellow man to live in peace and experience happiness or goodwill, how are you helping the situation? Short answer: You're not. Your actions (or lack-of-action) could actually be part of the problem, too.

Some Americans cry and whine about their rights to bear arms being infringed if there is any talk of gun control. In the wake of recent events it's obvious the gun problem still remains. If you're not a hunter who uses your deer rifle to eat the game you shoot, why would you need to own semi-automatic assault weapons or thousands of hand guns unless you want to use them against your neighbors? Short answer: You don't need to own them. Weapons meant to mow down soldiers in short order are weapons of a potential mass murderer, not a tool to be used by a game hunter trying to feed his or her family. Deer and people are not one in the same.

How can you wish your neighbor "peace on earth and goodwill to all mankind" if you are secretly plotting to kill him or her by stockpiling weapons you don't need in the first place? Short answer: You can't.  Stop the whining about gun control and take a hard look in the mirror. Like what you see?

"Goodwill to all mankind" includes wanting what is best for our neighbor. When we allow our neighbors to go without proper health care--up to and including mental health care--how are we showing them we wish them all things "good"? Short answer: We're not. If we deny good things to our neighbors, then we really don't want to wish them "peace and goodwill" do we? We're telling them that we don't care about their plight. It's plain and simple. We're lying. Look in the mirror again. Do you trust this person?

At Christmas, a season known for its emphasis on compassion, how would you describe people who hoard all the good things in life, up to allowing their neighbors to go without proper health care? How would you describe those who are willing to "protect" their material possessions through extreme measures that include possibly using assault weapons against their neighbors? Selfish maybe?

Peace on earth. Goodwill to all mankind.

This Christmas I pray that everyone will think hard about what those words mean. Stop thinking that you exist in a vacuum. Start practicing compassion and stop thinking your neighbor's well-being doesn't matter. It does. Because if we don't start making some changes in our society, it could be you or your beloved child or grandchild who is lying in a coffin with a bullet hole come next year. That is, if a serious illness or accident without access to health care doesn't put you or your loved one in the grave first.

Even the most selfish of us should be able to see that compassion for all benefits us all in the grand scheme of things, right?

Merry Christmas! And as the angels at Bethlehem sang on that special night long ago, "Peace on earth... goodwill to all mankind."

Thanks for reading this far. May your new year be blessed, healthy and happy. Cindy :)