"A terrorist just attacked two mosques in New Zealand and killed 49 people and all I'm hearing in the news is Kylie Jenner's new Adidas collection has a matching lip kit. Fuck Kylie Jenner."
~ James Franco
Usually, I am not one to make a big deal out of what a celebrity did or said. But it seemed that one celebrity at least got our collective, albeit unofficial, national response dead on. And since he is a celebrity, maybe a quote as piercing as this one might have an impact. At the very least, it has a better chance than most other things might, specifically because this is a celebrity saying it.
This is a topic that I felt needed to be discussed, because frankly, something struck me about what happened in New Zealand on Friday, and what I saw here in the United States, as a response. I worked two jobs, and the reaction seemed largely...well, indifferent.
This is a topic that I felt needed to be discussed, because frankly, something struck me about what happened in New Zealand on Friday, and what I saw here in the United States, as a response. I worked two jobs, and the reaction seemed largely...well, indifferent.
Sorry, I hate to say that, or use that word, because it seems quite shocking to suggest that there was wide indifference to such a tragedy, but there you have it. That was what I saw, at both jobs, and even with the media coverage.
Think about it: some psycho with access to assault weapons that he should never have had access to goes to two mosques and brutally, mercilessly ends the lives of almost 50 people, and he live streams it on the internet. Most people at my first job acted shocked as the new broke, but that was about it. Mostly, it was a muffled response.
At my second job, at a high school, some of the kids were morbidly fascinated. They had somehow found the video with the actual shootings in it, and were commenting on how "messed up" this was. But again, that was about it. No real shock or horror.
Even worse, most of the teachers seemed almost indifferent. I usually sit away from everyone, usually using the time to work on available computers in another part of the faculty room. I heard one guy mention it to the women who were present (it was all women, other than this one guy and myself), and they gave the standard answers that you are supposed to give under those circumstances. They claimed that it was terrible, and acted shocked that some of the kids had acquired the video, and then quickly moved onto more interesting subjects. What they were doing over the weekend, what this or that teacher or student had said or done, and so on.
Just another day in America.
And that's the problem, really. Because for Americans, it really was just another day. There is this horrific hate crime, the worst mass shooting in New Zealand's history. And regardless of some obvious similarities between the United States and New Zealand - both are wealthy, developed, western nations that predominately speak English - there was a sense that this was halfway around the world, and thus did not pertain to us. It was irrelevant.
As if the United States does not have a far worse problem with mass shootings.
This indifference is yet one more aspect of the "ugly American" that the rest of the world is increasingly seeing, because it is becoming more glaringly obvious all of the time. That is another very revealing aspect - a sad one or not - that the internet reveals. And I stress that this is not all about Donald Trump. Yes, we elected the most pathetic man possible, the one man who should never have been trusted with such incredible power. But this goes well beyond him, because this is a problem peculiar to Americans, more than any other advanced nation in the world. Because we have easy and ready access to information and news from around the world, only we choose not to care about it. And like James Franco points out here, what we choose to pay attention to is unbelievably shallow, narcissistic and self-absorbed. I am saying this of Americans, even though these words often are used to describe our current president.
Americans act shocked - Shocked! - that such a man, who truly reflects all of our worst excesses as a nation. Yet, we go back to our usual business of following jackasses like the Kardashians just as quickly as we can. Like those teachers in the staff room, who gave their standard platitudes, before quickly transitioning to what was truly on their minds. Unfortunately, that seems to be our de facto, if unofficial, national response. There are certainly some people who cared, and who wanted to examine what happened, who understand that this just happened to take place in New Zealand, but could just as easily - hell, much more easily - happened here in the United States. Usually, it does happen in the United States, and that is something that most of the rest of the world has gotten used to, as well. And at least part of the problem, part of the reason why the biggest shock about what happened in New Zealand is that it happened there and not here, is a direct result of that level of indifference.
This indifference is yet one more aspect of the "ugly American" that the rest of the world is increasingly seeing, because it is becoming more glaringly obvious all of the time. That is another very revealing aspect - a sad one or not - that the internet reveals. And I stress that this is not all about Donald Trump. Yes, we elected the most pathetic man possible, the one man who should never have been trusted with such incredible power. But this goes well beyond him, because this is a problem peculiar to Americans, more than any other advanced nation in the world. Because we have easy and ready access to information and news from around the world, only we choose not to care about it. And like James Franco points out here, what we choose to pay attention to is unbelievably shallow, narcissistic and self-absorbed. I am saying this of Americans, even though these words often are used to describe our current president.
Americans act shocked - Shocked! - that such a man, who truly reflects all of our worst excesses as a nation. Yet, we go back to our usual business of following jackasses like the Kardashians just as quickly as we can. Like those teachers in the staff room, who gave their standard platitudes, before quickly transitioning to what was truly on their minds. Unfortunately, that seems to be our de facto, if unofficial, national response. There are certainly some people who cared, and who wanted to examine what happened, who understand that this just happened to take place in New Zealand, but could just as easily - hell, much more easily - happened here in the United States. Usually, it does happen in the United States, and that is something that most of the rest of the world has gotten used to, as well. And at least part of the problem, part of the reason why the biggest shock about what happened in New Zealand is that it happened there and not here, is a direct result of that level of indifference.
It is an incredibly depressing quote, even if it is simultaneously revealing. Indeed, sometimes ignorance truly is bliss.
Of course, ignorance is also irresponsible, and it is the major problem that this world, and particularly the United States among advanced nations, is dealing with. For entirely too long, Americans have not only been allowed to believe whatever they want to believe, but have been actively encouraged to do so. The results speak for themselves, and we are now dealing with the consequences of believing only what we want to believe for decades now.
No single nation is powerful enough to keep the United States in check, and the United States has done more to empower these nameless, faceless major corporations to effectively destroy this planet and plunder all of our limited natural resources, all in the name of short-term profits. And the cost is growing ever more apparent and unavoidable.
The planet is getting hotter, and climate change is real, even if, once again, we find that Americans in particular often elect leaders who are skeptical of the science behind it - often without even a clue about what scientists actually have predicted. There are creatures the world over that are dying off, to the point that scientists care calling it a mass extinction around the globe. Half of the Great Barrier Reef along the coast of Australia is dead, and there is a psychopath in the mode of Trump now in power in Brazil, set to try and hasten the process of destroying the Amazon.
Yet, Americans are thinking about the Kardashians and the Jenners, and what cute consumer products they are offering us.
No wonder so much of the world hates us, and even friendly nations tend to shake their heads and look at Americans as some kind of basket cases.
There may be idiots all around the world, but here, we elect selfish, narcissistic, blatantly corrupt idiots, who have subverted our democracy to become a de facto oligarchy. Other nations might not have an adequate response to all of their problems, and the problems of the world, but at least they are not outright denying them. Here in the United States, the "responsible" way of thinking is apparently to worry about yourself first, and then, only think about larger issues if you are either directly impacted, or if the story gets so huge as to be unavoidable, like a 9/11 attack, or a Las Vegas shooting that sets all sorts of records, or if we go to war again, or if we elect a blatantly corrupt and clearly out of touch, overgrown child into our highest office. Only then do some people - and I stress some people - finally wake up a bit, and recognize that something is seriously, deeply flawed in our way of doing things, and in our lifestyles.
And here's something that Americans in particular should have paid attention to, but did not. The nutcase who shot up those two mosques in New Zealand looked at Donald Trump as a symbol of white nationalism. He made no bones about it, even though, to be fair, he also did not agree with Trump's policies. But he felt that the rise of Donald Trump to the White House signified something that white nationalists should feel emboldened about.
To me, that means that Americans in particular, more than any other nation outside of New Zealand itself, should have been paying close attention to these events, to this unbelievable mass shooting. Because this guy called us out by name, by virtue of identifying, on some level, with our popularly elected leader.
Clearly this means something. I cannot claim to have all of the answers about what it all means, because I am one person, and only have my one perspective.
But I strongly suspect that this is a conversation that we, as Americans, should be having. Yet, we are not. Because, like Franco made mention of, we are too busy obsessing over our fluff celebrity culture, and the consumer products that they offer us, to bother worrying about more substantive issues that should, in fact, demand our attention. Personally, I feel that many Americans are skeptical about climate change in the same way that a school kid who does not want to bother studying for the big test tomorrow: sheer laziness and an unwillingness to put in real effort to understand something a bit more complex and nuanced. So that kid keeps playing his video games, because that's what he feels like doing. And American culture is a bit like that. Whether it's following celebrity culture, or tuning into the equivalent of shock jocks on FOX News and/or Breitbart, these self-absorbed, insular "news" stations give American adults a childlike understanding of the news, one that only promotes an increasingly narrow and self-absorbed American perspective. We do not even take the rest of the world seriously enough to seriously consider what they feel or believe. After all, we are the only country in the world with a major political party (the Republicans) who officially deny the existence of climate change. Not surprisingly, many of the same people who deny climate change, also reject any notion that the United States has engaged in wars of aggression, or that there is a problem with the nation being a de facto empire, or that it promotes a corporate supremacy that passes as capitalism which is creating a new form of feudalism based on debt, or that white nationalism is on the rise. Perhaps more than that lazy high schooler, it is more like the young child who plugs his ears and claims not to be able to hear whenever he or shoe does not want to hear. It is irresponsible and immature, and it is now reflected in the man who occupied our highest office, a former reality television star who's narcissism is at staggering levels. He merely reflects our larger American society as a whole.
And this in and of itself is perhaps the biggest problem that we Americans have.
Yet, Americans are thinking about the Kardashians and the Jenners, and what cute consumer products they are offering us.
No wonder so much of the world hates us, and even friendly nations tend to shake their heads and look at Americans as some kind of basket cases.
There may be idiots all around the world, but here, we elect selfish, narcissistic, blatantly corrupt idiots, who have subverted our democracy to become a de facto oligarchy. Other nations might not have an adequate response to all of their problems, and the problems of the world, but at least they are not outright denying them. Here in the United States, the "responsible" way of thinking is apparently to worry about yourself first, and then, only think about larger issues if you are either directly impacted, or if the story gets so huge as to be unavoidable, like a 9/11 attack, or a Las Vegas shooting that sets all sorts of records, or if we go to war again, or if we elect a blatantly corrupt and clearly out of touch, overgrown child into our highest office. Only then do some people - and I stress some people - finally wake up a bit, and recognize that something is seriously, deeply flawed in our way of doing things, and in our lifestyles.
And here's something that Americans in particular should have paid attention to, but did not. The nutcase who shot up those two mosques in New Zealand looked at Donald Trump as a symbol of white nationalism. He made no bones about it, even though, to be fair, he also did not agree with Trump's policies. But he felt that the rise of Donald Trump to the White House signified something that white nationalists should feel emboldened about.
To me, that means that Americans in particular, more than any other nation outside of New Zealand itself, should have been paying close attention to these events, to this unbelievable mass shooting. Because this guy called us out by name, by virtue of identifying, on some level, with our popularly elected leader.
Clearly this means something. I cannot claim to have all of the answers about what it all means, because I am one person, and only have my one perspective.
But I strongly suspect that this is a conversation that we, as Americans, should be having. Yet, we are not. Because, like Franco made mention of, we are too busy obsessing over our fluff celebrity culture, and the consumer products that they offer us, to bother worrying about more substantive issues that should, in fact, demand our attention. Personally, I feel that many Americans are skeptical about climate change in the same way that a school kid who does not want to bother studying for the big test tomorrow: sheer laziness and an unwillingness to put in real effort to understand something a bit more complex and nuanced. So that kid keeps playing his video games, because that's what he feels like doing. And American culture is a bit like that. Whether it's following celebrity culture, or tuning into the equivalent of shock jocks on FOX News and/or Breitbart, these self-absorbed, insular "news" stations give American adults a childlike understanding of the news, one that only promotes an increasingly narrow and self-absorbed American perspective. We do not even take the rest of the world seriously enough to seriously consider what they feel or believe. After all, we are the only country in the world with a major political party (the Republicans) who officially deny the existence of climate change. Not surprisingly, many of the same people who deny climate change, also reject any notion that the United States has engaged in wars of aggression, or that there is a problem with the nation being a de facto empire, or that it promotes a corporate supremacy that passes as capitalism which is creating a new form of feudalism based on debt, or that white nationalism is on the rise. Perhaps more than that lazy high schooler, it is more like the young child who plugs his ears and claims not to be able to hear whenever he or shoe does not want to hear. It is irresponsible and immature, and it is now reflected in the man who occupied our highest office, a former reality television star who's narcissism is at staggering levels. He merely reflects our larger American society as a whole.
And this in and of itself is perhaps the biggest problem that we Americans have.
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