Kevin Tarr wrote:
>K.Feete (wrote a bunch of stuff)
>
>I was trying to write a reply but there was so much I didn't agree with I
>couldn't tie it together. First, religion is as high as it's ever been in
>America:
>
>http://usinfo.state.gov/journals/itsv/0397/ijse/gallup.htm#bf2
I was going to say that proved my point, but I'm having trouble
remembering what my point is in this particular thread. (Post overload!
Post overload!) Let me just say, instead, that I'm not particularly
surprised. I've run into a number of people in my generation who were
converting back to Christianity, or to Wiccanism, or becoming New Agers,
or whatever- because they felt unsatisfied with who they were, and where
they were, and wanted more.
However, I don't think religious *feeling* is at all strong in America
these days. Going to church doth not a Christian make; these people, at
least in my experience, have not found something to believe in but
something else to hide behind.
>
>You said the of the people who believe the American Dream it fails for 90%.
>I know that's not a real number but how can you even think it's more then
>40%? (I think it's more like 10%, under her assumptions). Now I think if you
>ask people if they are happy with this or that you probably get a 50 - 60%
>responce of unhappiness but when you SERIOUSLY ask people you would get
>better results. Like after asking a person if they have an unhappy marriage
>you ask why they don't leave, none of the reasons have to do with their
>happiness.
Hum. That's odd. My admittedly "out-of-the-air" figure of 90% was based
on almost the opposite set of observations- namely, that most people,
when asked, will say that they're perfectly happy, but when they're
*seriously* asked they'll admit that, well, no, they're not. I'm not
really talking about happy with politicians, happy with environmental
policy, ect- I'm talking about a general sense of happiness. A great many
of the people I know are not happy. People in my grandparents' generation
(including my grandparents) are unhappy because they feel unloved,
unwanted, useless, and absolutely hopelessly out of date; their kids
don't have time to visit; they're retired and have no jobs; they
themselves can't find anything or any way in which they can contribute to
the world. People of my parent's generation and slightly older seem
unhappy as well- they aren't getting what was "coming to them." Their
kids are messed up and they don't know why; they can't talk to them;
they're on their second or third marriage and things still aren't going
right; or maybe still their first marriage, and they can't remember why
they married in the first place. (How many kids my age have honestly told
me they didn't believe their parents had had sex since they were
concieved? Sex isn't a measure of happiness, but still, there's something
wrong there.) They have the house, they have the car, they have the
lifestyle, but still something's wrong. People of my generation aren't
happy. They feel like their entire life has been planned out for them and
they've only got one direction to go. Worrying about the government is
pointless: there's nothing they can do to change it. Worrying about the
environment is pointless: it's all going to shit anyway, no way to stop
it. All you can possibly do is worry about your self, and therefore I'm
going to college, even though I don't want to, because then I'll get a
good job. I'll be happy. Tomorrow.
In general, people- the people I've been around, at least- don't seem to
be very happy. They're not *content*: they always want more than they've
got. They're not self-assured: they feel inadaquate, uncertain. They're
not enjoying what they do: they're just sort of... living through it. All
of these things are necessary and even good, in small doses, but deadly
as a steady diet.
People feel *trapped*. Trapped is not happy.
>
>You blame 'markets' of making people unhappy. It's just as easy, an as
>reasonable, to blame the sunrise.
Dumb sun, leave us alone! <grin> Well, no, I don't think so. And I don't
exactly blame markets. Markets are things. You can't really blame things.
I don't blame guns for killing people. But I can say that guns, because
they are so common, are being misused; and I will say that markets, as
the prevailing meme of our culture, are doing a certain amount of harm to
our happiness. It's still in essence the fault of the people involved.
But- in the same way that guns have a certain symbology and set of
emotions around them that are disasterous- markets have picked up a set
of quasi-religious beliefs centering on them that need questioning.
Kat Feete
------------------------------
There was a horrible, bloodcurdling scream.
"It came from downstairs somewhere," said the Chair of
Indefinite Studies, heading for the staircase.
"So why are you going *upstairs*?"
"Because I'm not daft!"
-Terry Pratchett
