What a great post. I never knew Utah Phillips but I had several friends who did.
It’s been too long since I’ve heard his name. Just before they made him, they broke the mould.
Here’s one of his best: Phillips is at a bar with a friend, and says: “I’m supposed to plow up the back garden so we can plant, but it’s a lot of work.”
Then he gets up, calls his house and says to his wife: “Honey, did you remember to bury those rifles out back?”
Sitting back down his friend asks if he needs help with the plowing, and Phillips says, “No, I got the FBI to do it for me.”
Everyday I self destruct on the inside a little, breaking away at the thought of how we are upon the beginning stages of the 6th mass extinction and we just… go on business as casual. I’m losing my mind and I’m struggling to come up for air when I try to convey my feelings of the urgency and people just want to talk about new season of that, new products, pretty people in Hollywood, who they want to fuck, and so forth… Please, we desperately, as you say, need to “turn things around before it comes to that.”
Probably yeah. I’ve become involved in organizing past two ish years and it helps. I’ve became friends/comrades with people who care which is meaningful to me but the nuanced thing here is that most of them doesn’t sign or bother to learn therefore our communication is limited and I resort to my deaf friends (in an already limited pool by proximity) who are like that. I intentionally try to stay in touch with some deaf friends who aren’t like that but they live far away and it’s not always easy to reach them. I also want to try and help some of my deaf friends reach to the conclusion I have, educate them and encourage them to be more caring about this world and the people rather than abandon my hopes with them. It’s difficult indeed but I want to try. Ahh all we can do is to try and try our best isn’t it? I hope we all reach towards more caring feelings for each other and the planet and act accordingly in response to what’s going on. I wish you the best
Yes, let's. I find that the wealthier people are, the meaner they seem to be.
I actually like polite people, but there's nothing impolite about setting boundaries and making a lot of noise to protest things like genocide and policies based on greed.
The idea that the wealthier people are/get, the more selfish has been proven in scientific experiments. There is a question of which way causality runs, though. Maybe selfish people get wealthy because that's what matters to them.
My stepfather said parents should not sacrifice so that there is more to leave to offspring. His opinion was that they should start from scratch, earn their own keep and not have it handed to them, which made them in his opinion, to selfishly keep expecting the parents to bail them out of debts they built up because the parents had always failed them out. Fair enough, I think. If you have to work for your daily bread you sure appreciate it more, if it's handed to you, time after time, you learn to expect it and get angry when/if it is stopped. Best to start as you mean to go on.
I don't know about politeness, but think about the reaction if you say we can't afford billionaires anymore and need to take away the excess from everyone who has more than a few million dollars. Everybody gets nervous and worries about whether we can DO that, whether it would be robbery. Or if you say the US military budget should not expand, or be cut by ten percent, but should be cut in half the first year, then again the second year, then the third, and all foreign bases closed and turned over to the host countries. Everyone knows they're not needed for defense, that they're for a combination of intimidation to maintain an empire and to feed the MIC--ut somehow to forthrightly say NO seems--not rude, just impossible.
>>"...and need to take away the excess from everyone who has more than a few million dollars"
Wealth redistribution wouldn't matter or solve things unless the system that created such 'uneven' wealth distribution in the first place is eliminated or severely controlled (though preferably replaced). That's the problem with 'simply getting rid' of rich people (multimillionaires, billionaires, etc.). These millionaires/billionaires would simply game the system again (as they always have) to produce the same outcomes that we have currently.
True enough! But I don't see actions like taking away billionaires' wealth or cutting the US military down to size as occurring by themselves--they'd be part of other transformative actions. But I think they're the most controversial, the ones people are frightened to say aloud.
Saying no doesn't seem rude to me. Not even impossible. I think that when people get to the realization of how fucked up everything is and how close we are to wiping ourselves out they get scared which may prevent them from seriously opposing the oppressors. Other than that, many people seem to think that if they ignore it, it will go away.
I was told that I hate billionaires when someone was praising Bill Gates (a nauseating thing to do in my opinion). I don't necessarily hate billionaires as people, although I have never been in those circles (nor wanted to be there) but I do hate how they use other people to get their money, pay low wages, don't bother to build any affordable housing, try to make it seem that they are really great people when they just want to stay rich, when they (and too many others) fail to acknowledge that it is their consumption, their decisions to build pipelines, frack, test drugs on poor populations without their consent, that is causing the destruction of our earth and the humans and other creatures who live on this earth.
Aside from yet another well articulated insight , THANK YOU for quoting Utah Phillips so some people who might not know who he is will look him up .
I spent time in his company in the early 1980’s and he was such a wise & funny man .
The story of his that stuck with me was from his train riding hobo days - of a companion .. who described his wealth as his little black book of names & addresses across the country . With those connections he had a warm meal and a place to sleep in any town he might find himself in .
It was told more poetically than my summary , but it struck me as a basic truth that friendships and connections are the true wealth , not extra zeroes in a Swiss Bank Account as so many seem to believe .
Pure power motivates the richest in the world. They can buy what they want and make things happen the way they want them to happen. They can mete out life or death orders. Power is most intoxicating from what I've observed. The "ordinaries" are supposed to bow their heads and mumble "yes". It's usually the safest thing to do.
However, there are always a few that refuse to be bent. It takes one person. The key is when a second person joins them, making it feel safe for more in the crowd to stand up too. So while a true leader revolting is not polite and shouts out a challenge in defiance, the second person holds the most pivotal role. That's when everything can change.
Caitlin. I love your work, and I haven't read this piece in its entirety yet, but just based on the title, I'd wager you haven't spent substantial amounts of time in the US recently. (Though I do realize the title probably doesn't refer to US Americans only).
Many US Americans are one shopping mall misunderstanding or one parking lot confrontation away from a shouting match or fist fight, AT BEST (we all know that we are capable of much worse). We are far from polite, and most of us are not great at receiving insights about ourselves that contradict our own mind's hallucinatory first-person story. I would have agreed with this assessment about the US five years ago, but something has shifted since the COVID era. We're being led into self-destruction, and, in part, we are allowing it to happen. We are deeply, deeply entrenched in our own first-person hallucination, too often at the expense of cooperation. This claustrophobic adherence to what we take ourselves to be effectively leaves the back door of the mind wide open to manipulation.
High emotional reactivity and guns galore do not make for a great societal recipe, unless you're the one profiting off the complete downfall and consequent mayhem of said society.
Nice - But, you see, when yo say "put a stop to it" - that's easier said than done - BECAUSE, the Socialist Revolution has been flushed down the toilet - and for good reason - the Elites know, even if the mass does not - that Socialist Revolution is the ONLY solution to the Capitalist Class Dictatorship. So we are left to , to "follow the money", complain loudly ...
I am not familiar with the referenced authors or creators work. I am not getting the "politeness" point. We are still individuals, all with our insecurities or need to fit in some social tissue around us. We can think, talk and rage all we want, I am not sure in what context is there a choice of politeness to be had. Is that about protests not being a proper form of expression, not polite enough? or something else? It migth also depends on cultural difference between world regions (where cultural homogeneity exist but differ with one another about what is polite or not, in public space.... I mean norms more than homogeneity, or dominant society individual behavior of interaction in groups or in any interpersonal interactions, norms or upbringing expectations). But given one norm... so politeness here kind of escapes my clear understanding as you are using it. sorry for word salad (any text can be a word salad to some audience).
You hit the nail right on the head Caitlin. Politeness will get you nowhere. Just the other day I was attacked by a dog. I confronted the owner politely. and asked the chap.to keep his dog inside his property. His reply was" l will kill you,you are harrassing me". No more politeness from me. I know where you.live and I will bide my time. You cannot have a mature civilized conversation with a psychopath.
What a great post. I never knew Utah Phillips but I had several friends who did.
It’s been too long since I’ve heard his name. Just before they made him, they broke the mould.
Here’s one of his best: Phillips is at a bar with a friend, and says: “I’m supposed to plow up the back garden so we can plant, but it’s a lot of work.”
Then he gets up, calls his house and says to his wife: “Honey, did you remember to bury those rifles out back?”
Sitting back down his friend asks if he needs help with the plowing, and Phillips says, “No, I got the FBI to do it for me.”
Haha!
Dear Caitlin, There's a time to laugh and a time to weep.
I've heard versions of that joke. Had no idea who came up with it.
🤣🤣🤣
Everyday I self destruct on the inside a little, breaking away at the thought of how we are upon the beginning stages of the 6th mass extinction and we just… go on business as casual. I’m losing my mind and I’m struggling to come up for air when I try to convey my feelings of the urgency and people just want to talk about new season of that, new products, pretty people in Hollywood, who they want to fuck, and so forth… Please, we desperately, as you say, need to “turn things around before it comes to that.”
Probably yeah. I’ve become involved in organizing past two ish years and it helps. I’ve became friends/comrades with people who care which is meaningful to me but the nuanced thing here is that most of them doesn’t sign or bother to learn therefore our communication is limited and I resort to my deaf friends (in an already limited pool by proximity) who are like that. I intentionally try to stay in touch with some deaf friends who aren’t like that but they live far away and it’s not always easy to reach them. I also want to try and help some of my deaf friends reach to the conclusion I have, educate them and encourage them to be more caring about this world and the people rather than abandon my hopes with them. It’s difficult indeed but I want to try. Ahh all we can do is to try and try our best isn’t it? I hope we all reach towards more caring feelings for each other and the planet and act accordingly in response to what’s going on. I wish you the best
Sounds like you need a change of venue, a new set of friends.
Yes, let's. I find that the wealthier people are, the meaner they seem to be.
I actually like polite people, but there's nothing impolite about setting boundaries and making a lot of noise to protest things like genocide and policies based on greed.
The idea that the wealthier people are/get, the more selfish has been proven in scientific experiments. There is a question of which way causality runs, though. Maybe selfish people get wealthy because that's what matters to them.
My stepfather said parents should not sacrifice so that there is more to leave to offspring. His opinion was that they should start from scratch, earn their own keep and not have it handed to them, which made them in his opinion, to selfishly keep expecting the parents to bail them out of debts they built up because the parents had always failed them out. Fair enough, I think. If you have to work for your daily bread you sure appreciate it more, if it's handed to you, time after time, you learn to expect it and get angry when/if it is stopped. Best to start as you mean to go on.
I don't know about politeness, but think about the reaction if you say we can't afford billionaires anymore and need to take away the excess from everyone who has more than a few million dollars. Everybody gets nervous and worries about whether we can DO that, whether it would be robbery. Or if you say the US military budget should not expand, or be cut by ten percent, but should be cut in half the first year, then again the second year, then the third, and all foreign bases closed and turned over to the host countries. Everyone knows they're not needed for defense, that they're for a combination of intimidation to maintain an empire and to feed the MIC--ut somehow to forthrightly say NO seems--not rude, just impossible.
>>"...and need to take away the excess from everyone who has more than a few million dollars"
Wealth redistribution wouldn't matter or solve things unless the system that created such 'uneven' wealth distribution in the first place is eliminated or severely controlled (though preferably replaced). That's the problem with 'simply getting rid' of rich people (multimillionaires, billionaires, etc.). These millionaires/billionaires would simply game the system again (as they always have) to produce the same outcomes that we have currently.
True enough! But I don't see actions like taking away billionaires' wealth or cutting the US military down to size as occurring by themselves--they'd be part of other transformative actions. But I think they're the most controversial, the ones people are frightened to say aloud.
Saying no doesn't seem rude to me. Not even impossible. I think that when people get to the realization of how fucked up everything is and how close we are to wiping ourselves out they get scared which may prevent them from seriously opposing the oppressors. Other than that, many people seem to think that if they ignore it, it will go away.
everytime i say let's just kill all the rich people, i get looked at like a monster. im just suggesting a solution but nooooo im the problem instead 😒
I was told that I hate billionaires when someone was praising Bill Gates (a nauseating thing to do in my opinion). I don't necessarily hate billionaires as people, although I have never been in those circles (nor wanted to be there) but I do hate how they use other people to get their money, pay low wages, don't bother to build any affordable housing, try to make it seem that they are really great people when they just want to stay rich, when they (and too many others) fail to acknowledge that it is their consumption, their decisions to build pipelines, frack, test drugs on poor populations without their consent, that is causing the destruction of our earth and the humans and other creatures who live on this earth.
Susan T, You can, not only hate billionaires but can do away with them altogether if we have a revolution to get rid of Capitalism.
a like for the fresh thinking.
Sorta think we have some things in common, Cheese! Wanna chat?
Note that the empire managers are only polite, when it serves their interests at the moment.
Aside from yet another well articulated insight , THANK YOU for quoting Utah Phillips so some people who might not know who he is will look him up .
I spent time in his company in the early 1980’s and he was such a wise & funny man .
The story of his that stuck with me was from his train riding hobo days - of a companion .. who described his wealth as his little black book of names & addresses across the country . With those connections he had a warm meal and a place to sleep in any town he might find himself in .
It was told more poetically than my summary , but it struck me as a basic truth that friendships and connections are the true wealth , not extra zeroes in a Swiss Bank Account as so many seem to believe .
The HUMAN Race does NOT NEED so-called 'AI'!!
SO WHAT, if China (or anyone else) is 'beating us' with 'AI'!
SO WHAT!!!!
We can all sit back and watch China (or 'whoever') SELF-DESTRUCT!
People!!......LEARN the difference between NEED vs. WANT!
*I*, as a HUMAN, do NOT **NEED** 'AI' for anything!
It's ANTI-HUMAN/ANTI-LIFE.
The road to hell is paved, not with good intentions, we now know, it's paved with convenience.
>>"...it's paved with convenience"
Well said Joy! It certainly seems so, more and more.
Pure power motivates the richest in the world. They can buy what they want and make things happen the way they want them to happen. They can mete out life or death orders. Power is most intoxicating from what I've observed. The "ordinaries" are supposed to bow their heads and mumble "yes". It's usually the safest thing to do.
However, there are always a few that refuse to be bent. It takes one person. The key is when a second person joins them, making it feel safe for more in the crowd to stand up too. So while a true leader revolting is not polite and shouts out a challenge in defiance, the second person holds the most pivotal role. That's when everything can change.
Dis-Obey. Turn it around.
Caitlin. I love your work, and I haven't read this piece in its entirety yet, but just based on the title, I'd wager you haven't spent substantial amounts of time in the US recently. (Though I do realize the title probably doesn't refer to US Americans only).
Many US Americans are one shopping mall misunderstanding or one parking lot confrontation away from a shouting match or fist fight, AT BEST (we all know that we are capable of much worse). We are far from polite, and most of us are not great at receiving insights about ourselves that contradict our own mind's hallucinatory first-person story. I would have agreed with this assessment about the US five years ago, but something has shifted since the COVID era. We're being led into self-destruction, and, in part, we are allowing it to happen. We are deeply, deeply entrenched in our own first-person hallucination, too often at the expense of cooperation. This claustrophobic adherence to what we take ourselves to be effectively leaves the back door of the mind wide open to manipulation.
High emotional reactivity and guns galore do not make for a great societal recipe, unless you're the one profiting off the complete downfall and consequent mayhem of said society.
Nice - But, you see, when yo say "put a stop to it" - that's easier said than done - BECAUSE, the Socialist Revolution has been flushed down the toilet - and for good reason - the Elites know, even if the mass does not - that Socialist Revolution is the ONLY solution to the Capitalist Class Dictatorship. So we are left to , to "follow the money", complain loudly ...
I am not familiar with the referenced authors or creators work. I am not getting the "politeness" point. We are still individuals, all with our insecurities or need to fit in some social tissue around us. We can think, talk and rage all we want, I am not sure in what context is there a choice of politeness to be had. Is that about protests not being a proper form of expression, not polite enough? or something else? It migth also depends on cultural difference between world regions (where cultural homogeneity exist but differ with one another about what is polite or not, in public space.... I mean norms more than homogeneity, or dominant society individual behavior of interaction in groups or in any interpersonal interactions, norms or upbringing expectations). But given one norm... so politeness here kind of escapes my clear understanding as you are using it. sorry for word salad (any text can be a word salad to some audience).
It's all so...British. Stiff upper lip and all that. Mustn't make a fuss.
We can't expect any complaints from this country. I think our best hope lies with the Houthis - now they are ballsy.
You hit the nail right on the head Caitlin. Politeness will get you nowhere. Just the other day I was attacked by a dog. I confronted the owner politely. and asked the chap.to keep his dog inside his property. His reply was" l will kill you,you are harrassing me". No more politeness from me. I know where you.live and I will bide my time. You cannot have a mature civilized conversation with a psychopath.