Get Thee Behind Me, Leftie. And Stay Away from Ma Youngin's!

Right when the Obama Administration plans its overhaul of No Child Left Behind, 10 conservatives win a Texas Board of Education vote to change the way K-12 students learn social sciences, not only in Texas but across the nation. Since Texas is one of the largest buyers of textbooks and thus has an influence on the publishing industry, this vote--pushed through by nary a social science expert--could effect the way children in many other states learn history, economics, and social studies. Among the many disturbing changes--including the white-washing of history and the promotion of capitalism and blind patriotism--the main goal of the new indoctrination revised curriculum is to shift the tone from an alledgedly liberal bias to one that espouses more Christian conservative values. A more "fair and balanced" approach, if you will.
George W. Bush is from Texas (well, really from Connecticut but whatever) and he instated the No Child Left Behind law in the first place. Throughout his administration he presented himself as someone who identified strongly with the ideologies of the 10 Texan vigilantes board members. So I wonder what exactly was meant by his phrase "no child left behind." Did it mean more than the obvious: preparing each and every one of America's children to become knowledgeable, productive middle class citizens? Or did it also tap into a bit of wordplay?: "left-behind," as in "the politics of the left and the "liberal media" will cause our children to fall behind in morality and Christian values if we don't stamp out their influence soon. We must not allow our children to be left-behind."

Or was the phrasing meant to tap into the psyche of enthusiasts of the Left Behind series, which conjures up some of the same feelings for its readers: "the politics of the left and the "liberal media" will cause mankind to fall behind in morality and Christian values and we won't go to Heaven when the rapture comes if we don't stamp out their influence soon." Substitute "mankind" with "our children" and "we" with "they," and voila: no child Left Behind.

This may all seem far-fetched, but I wouldn't underestimate the power of suggestion, particularly when the same memetic phrasing is embedded throughout popular culture in various forms that seem unrelated on the surface, but are really quite similar once you delve deeper. Whatever the memetic trajectory of these ideas, the suggestive phrasing of Bush's initiative is finally being carried out by the Board of Education of his own home state in a way that will effect the entire nation. And not a moment too soon now that their enemy (the Anti-Christ Commie Leftie Liberal) is tampering with their "Savior's" original law. Mission accomplished?

Don't Be Happy--WORRY!

The other day I was driving behind this on the freeway:
Crossfire? Really? Why is this the first time I've seen this? Where have I been? Maybe it's a good thing I've never seen it before. It probably reflects the fact that the model had a short run that ended in 2007, which might be a sign that people weren't ready to spend their money on something whose name so blatantly conjures up violence. But then again, this is the same culture that embraced the likes of Grand Theft Auto, so that benefit of the doubt can only go so far.

What motivation could Chrysler have had for naming a car Crossfire? (I mean, really! They might as well have just called it "collateral damage" or "innocent bystander.") They--like so many segments of the PTB--are obviously infusing subliminal messages of violence into the culture and desensitizing us to the concept. What's more disturbing is that gun control is being laxed left and right nowadays. Add to this the PTB's constant rigging of the system to marginalize and enrage an increasing number of people and the likelihood of "getting caught in the crossfire" becomes more and more of a possibility.

Why so much promotion of violence? Are the PTB just thinning the herd? Or are they preparing us for a heightened militarized future? With military drones already in common use and military recruiters providing gaming facilities for adolescents to engage in virtual combat, the notion of crossfire will undoubtedly become a more natural concept for ordinary citizens. And if this doesn't do the trick, maybe we can just sexualize firearms and get 'em hard with videos like this one. Or this one. Or simply glamorize the idea of a police state like this performance.

I often worry that I worry to much. I try to relax, but then something like this snaps me right back into alert mode. This is an undeniable sign that we're on our way to Hades. And forget about that hand basket. We're plowing down a roller coaster full speed ahead, with no brakes (or breaks) in sight!

Disney's New Billboard

A new billboard has been posted near my job for more than 2 months and I still haven't gotten used to it. This Mad Hatter picture is nothing short of unsettling. It might even be more disturbing than Dr. Facilier. At least Facilier was a cartoon. This is something I could easily encounter walking near Hollywood and Vine. (No joke!) Dragging my reluctant butt to work every morning is hard enough without having the Ambassador of Disturbia greeting me in the parking lot.

What exactly is Disney trying to accomplish with these disturbing posters? Both movies (The Princess and the Frog and Alice in Wonderland) have psychologically-balanced female leads, so why are they luring viewers in with these off-beat or sinister male characters? Are we supposed to identify with them from the outset so that we'll embrace their eccentric or manipulative ways? Or are we just being programmed to gravitate towards cringe-inducing characters for the sheer thrill and sensation of it all?

What kind of mindf*ck is Disney trying to teach our children with these billboards? And would it kill them to advertise a movie about a cute little bunny, friendly moose, or talking truck every once in a while? Can we please lay off the creeptastic posters for just a couple of months? For the love of God!

Is It Really Any Wonder?

I came across an NPR segment that featured three authors discussing the current state of black relationships in 2010. The panel included Jimi Izrael who schizophrenically blamed black women for having standards that were both too low and too high, Helena Andrews who admitted to having a self-described "bitchy," defensive behavior during failing relationships, and Hill Harper who promoted the importance of communication and understanding within black relationships. So basically, there was a male perspective, a female perspective, and a consensus-building perspective.

The conversation got contentious, particularly when Izrael called for black women to "get it together" and later dismissed Harper's book as being "too conciliatory." Another notable moment in the show came when a statistic was mentioned, claiming that in 1966, 84% of black children were born into two-parent households while in 2006, that number dropped to 31%. But what caught my attention most was the moderator's (unanswered) question revisited throughout the program: why do black men and women have difficulty forming intimate relationships?

Gee I wonder. Could it have been the media environment they were exposed to during their formative years? The panelists were in their late 20's and early-to-mid 30's. So perhaps the low standards promoted in lyrics like "Ain't no n*gga like the one I got... Sleeps around but he gives me a lot" played a part. Or maybe half-assed attempts at romance like "Meet me at the altar in your white dress. We ain't gettin' no younger, we might as well do it" had an influence. Perhaps the trivialization of marriage and parenthood in songs like "Wifey" and "Half on a Baby" jaded a few people. Maybe both men and women grew fearful of having unfaithful partners when they heard "Friend of Mine," "Say My Name," "Get It on Tonite," and "Stutter" flooding the airwaves. Or maybe the blatant acceptance of adultery in songs like "Creep," "Down Low," "Yeah," and "You're the One for Me" were to blame. Of course, the stupidity of denying infidelity while being caught red-handed ("It Wasn't Me") would crystallize anyone's hesitance to take a chance on love.

Perhaps incendiary songs like "No Scrubs" which discouraged low standards coupled with songs like "Gangsta Lovin'" which embraced low standards sent mixed signals as to what black women (should) want. Songs that promoted distrust of women ("Poison") or that spewed the tried and true "men are dogs" sentiment ("G.H.E.T.T.O.U.T.") may also have fanned the flames of discord between the sexes. If so, contentious songs like "Be Careful" would only make matters worse.

Sure there were a few positive songs like "Brotha" and "Brown Sugar" that extolled the virtues of the opposite sex, but those were few and far in between. For the most part, there were songs like Mary J. Blige's gloomy "Not Gon' Cry" as well as Toni Braxton's perennial songs about heartache, which likely put a damper on the excitement towards romance in general. Relationships would seem even less appealing if one expected to have to put up with the competition depicted in "He's Mine" and "Where My Girls At."

And that's just R&B. Add to that the countless rap songs and videos that objectified women and communicated the message that black men are thugs with only sex and violence on their minds and black women are sexual objects, bitches, hoes, and gold diggers--and you have a lot of mistrust and weariness on both sides.

Then consider all the romantic songs that predominated the airwaves like "Forever My Lady" and the unrealistic "Soon as I Get Home" and you have the primary reason why black women developed such high expectations in the first place. This, along with Disney's relentless "someday-my-prince-will-come" brainwashing and the "soul mate" mentality permeating throughout American popular culture, have most likely engineered a group of black women with high expectations who--probably from personal experiences reinforced by the themes in the aforementioned songs--sense a dearth of good black men, are pissed off about it, and thus develop the defensive "bitchy" posture that Andrews admits to.

At the other end of the spectrum, you have women with low expectations who'll put up with anything, giving the lower-achieving men little incentive to do better. The men that are hard-working and put forth their best effort have to deal with a mix of jilted and jaded women whose expectations are too low, excessively selective women whose expectations are too high, and, yes, even some of those infamous gold diggers. These men will often adopt Izrael's schizophrenic assessment of black women and either stay single or date/marry outside of the race. And no matter which camp you're in, everyone's complaining, pointing the finger at someone else, and amplifying the feelings of discord on all sides.

To be sure, we did have sitcoms like The Cosby Show that featured positive, healthy black relationships. But those were comedies whose depictions of black life would, arguably, be taken less seriously than in a dramatic context. Most of the dramas that were perceived as authentic depictions black life were played out in movies, few of which depicted healthy black relationships (e.g. "Waiting to Exhale," the various "In-the-Hood" movies, etc.). Relegating the positive black relationships to the less realistic sitcom context would only reinforce the notion that it is unrealistic--if not outright comical--to expect be in a good black relationship. And don't get me started on the droves of Jerry Springer and Maury Povich panelists who "represented" the most dysfunctional examples of black relationships that could be found (or contrived).

People often downplay the influence of the media, but you have to wonder if we'd be in a different place today had the messages been more positive and constructive. It doesn't help that polarizing conversations like the one in this NPR program--guised as "conversation starters"--only add fuel to the fire and widen the divide between the two camps. But hey, this program is part of the media too, so I guess they're just doing they're job, right? Keep feeding contention and discord into the minds of black men and women so that over the next 40 years we can reduce the aforementioned statistic from 31% to zero. That way, more black children can grow up in single-parent households with all the inherent social ramifications, including lower academic scores, higher incarceration rates, and lower overall health and wealth. Then we'll be even more susceptible to exploitation and subjugation, right? Right!

Carry on, media puppets. Carry on...

New Directions

Personal circumstances have forced me to take a hiatus from blogging, but in my silence I've been able to reflect on things a bit. During my absence, I've come across some revelations that have led me to think of the world in an even more alarming light than before. It may affect the direction and overall tone of this blog. I guess time will tell.

The theme that presently captures my interest is the media's role in "informing" and shaping society. Though, admittedly, I first got the idea from a YouTube video, the ideas put forth there were still quite intriguing. The narrator made an analogy between the meanings of "culture" and "media" in the traditional sense and their meanings in the biological sense. To paraphrase, a culture is an artificial environment where an organism is exposed to a set of conditions within a media, which is altered and manipulated to yield a specific outcome. Thus culture in the societal sense entails the molding and shaping of people by feeding them artificial (i.e. "contrived") values, ideas, and beliefs through the media. My question is: what is the ultimate outcome and how will we, the organisms, be affected?

Social engineering and predictive programming are themes that I will likely revisit in future posts. Their premises lie in the belief that the "powers that be" (PTB) are using the media to herd us into manifesting certain behaviors that will benefit them to our detriment. I'm speaking in vague terms right now, but I'll go into more specifics when the time comes. For now, suffice it to say that my eyes have been opened--WIDE! I can now longer passively accept information that is spoon-fed to me. I now realize the importance of questioning the true purpose behind media-fed information and of asking who will benefit from the way it's being spun. Hopefully these future entries won't come off as paranoid or excessively skeptical. If so, then so be it. If more people questioned what they were told and were more critical of the information they were provided, perhaps this Titanic will have a chance of steering clear of that iceberg before it's too late. Again, time will tell....

"Good Mourning" by India.Arie

Richard Corliss of Time Magzine once wrote: "Mourning is usually a song of celebration in a minor key." He was referring to Michael Jackson's death and actually described the world's reaction as being the opposite of this, more like a "jubilant revival meeting." Well, I like the "song of celebration in a minor key" idea because, as he said, in most cases it's true. Mourning someone's loss is a way of expressing how much they meant to us, which is really a way of celebrating their life and the time we spent with them. I'm in this frame of mind right now, so I've moved on from "Le Gibet" and am now ruminating over India.Arie's "Good Mourning."

This song is so fitting for what I need at this moment. Both through the orchestration and the lyrics, "Good Mourning" acknowledges the pain of loss as well as the optimism that healing and growth will surely ensue. The alternation between major and minor chords expertly captures the "loss is sorrowful, but redemptive" message of the song. This theme is also manifest in some of her wording, particularly when she says:

It's crazy how much I miss a simple good morning kiss.

It's crazy how much I've missed. Now it's time for me to live.

Here she connects the sentiments by initiating the lines with the same words, then places them in opposition with a simple inflection of the tense. This wordplay brilliantly captures the conflicting emotions permeating throughout the song.

"Good Mourning's" overall mood suggests the state one feels immediately after a catharsis: although the feeling is raw, there's assurance that the worst is over and that healing will now begin. Such a wonderful balm to soothe my ears as I pick up the pieces from my recent family loss.

Good mourning indeed.

Learning Patience and Understanding from "Le Gibet's" B-Flat

Lately, Maurice Ravel's "Le Gibet" has been playing in my mind incessantly. I've always liked that song, mainly for its poignancy and its quiet beauty. What marvels me most about the piece is how Ravel managed to repeat the B-flat note--allegedly 153 times--yet make it fit in with the rest of the melody no matter which direction the latter went. I never saw the song as a sad composition, but more as a reflective piece. But recently I lost my grandmother, and now I can't get the song out of my head as I reminisce about her.

I, regrettably, didn't visit my grandmother often during her final year of life. My grandmother had her good moments, but she was mostly a difficult person whose personality only worsened with age as she increasingly lashed out at those closest to her. I now realize that she was simply in pain, but at the time we didn't know the gravity of her illness so her vitriols seemed random and unjustified. My reaction, unfortunately, was to distance myself from her. Now that she's gone, I find myself reflecting only on the good times and wishing I had spent more time with her--an exercise I always engage in when it's too late.

These thoughts have been playing on an endless loop in my mind along with the B-flat in "Le Gibet." Considering the morbid themes that inspired the song, it's fitting that it would play repeatedly in my mind as I think about my grandmother. However, the song's quiet and pensive quality is the more likely explanation for its recurrence in the backdrop of my reflections on death and remorse. The pangs of regret seem to be especially hammered in by that repetitious B-flat note.

As a much needed distraction, I decided to research the eponymous poem that inspired the song. "Le Gibet" comes from the collection of poems entitled Gaspard de la Nuit. According to one source, the poem is about a person in his transition from life to death as he hangs from a gibbet while the world--personified by 4 insects--reacts in various ways, ranging from indifference and pity to exploitation and derision. The repetition of Ravel's B-flat is supposed to represent the bell that tolls in the distance while the poem's protagonist observes the entire scene.

Interestingly, the poem's author, Aloysius Bertrand, himself experienced exploitation and mercilessness at the hands of his own mother and sister. They, reportedly, would respond to his letters of affection with rabid demands for money. They even showed him little sympathy during his battle with tuberculosis which ultimately took his life at the age of 34. It's uncertain whether these experiences motivated Bertrand to write the tragic themes seen in "Le Gibet," but it's very likely.

After learning some of the background behind the song's inspiration, I now find myself reflecting, in general, on the loved ones that I (and others) have lost as well as the posthumous desire to treat them better the second time around, if only given the chance. If Bertrand's relatives had foreseen his premature death, would they have been more sympathetic towards him? It's highly doubtful. But would I have been more patient and less defensive with my grandmother had I known the extent of her anguish and her impending death? I honestly think so. Will I take this lesson forward and practice patience and understanding the next time someone--particularly an elderly person--lashes out at me? I really hope so.

Whenever a person died during medieval times, a bell was rung to ward off evil spirits. Perhaps, on a subconscious level, that's what's happening when "Le Gibet" plays in my mind: warding off the inner demons of guilt and regret as its repetitive B-flat tolls in the background. I can't really say for sure. All I can do is listen, reflect, cry, and learn.

I love you, Grandma. Thanks for teaching me, in death, a much needed lesson about life. Rest forever in peace.