My cultural anthropology class is converting me to tinfoil-hatism. Most of my friends have been tinfoil hats for years and have done their fair share of evangelizing, but the particular synthesis of information I'm getting from the class is something I've been after for years. Specifically, the broad working model of American culture. White and Non-White, Male and Non-Male.
The trouble that arises now is the anxiety. My religion used to make me extremely anxious because I wasn't very good at it. I worried that I'd never be able to do it right.
In the last year, my general anxiety about life has diminshed significantly. There are several factors at work, but I think the most important one is the realization that I cannot undo what's already been done, and though there are infinite choices available to me, I know that there are only a few certain choices I'm likely to make.
Tinfoil Hatism, like any new grand scheme of thought, makes me incredibly nervous. When I realize that my government is very possibly testing bacterial movement for biological warfare in urban areas of the US or trying to strip people of their citizenship so they can be held incommunicado for an unspecified amount of time and that there isn't all that much I can do about it, I FIRST: Freak out and SECOND: shut down. I mean, what if they snap me up and take away my rights and attatch electrodes to my genitals and pound a dowell into my ear until it penetrates my brain and I die?! They do that to people! I should be shot for being an American!
But then I remember that feeling guilty about the past is wasteful and a cop out, and that there are certain choices I'm ultimately going to make. I can't change the system all by myself, but there are certain choices I'm capable of making that may be better than the ones I've made in the past. I probably won't choose to quit my job and become an official whistle blower, but I probably will choose to write letters and make phone calls, and to get new information, even if it's information I can't do anything about.
Tinfoil hatists unite!
Posted by: flamingbanjo at November 10, 2004 09:39 AMMaybe that should be tinfoil hatistas....
Posted by: flamingbanjo at November 10, 2004 01:02 PMHey. You know how I used to get all mad when I'd rant about politics and you'd tell me that I couldn't get mad at other people for not being interested in the same stuff I'm interested in and that everybody has their own interests and that all interests are equal?
Is it just me, or are we on the same side of that argument now?
Posted by: Joshua at November 10, 2004 01:15 PMI don't think we are, but I am more interested in what you're interested in than I was before. I don't like the details so much as the big reliable patterns.
Posted by: sonya at November 10, 2004 01:29 PMYou've found an area which bothered me mightily years ago and I'm still trying to get my balance. It sounds like you are assimilating the information much better than I did. I'm pleased.
Posted by: nathaniel at November 10, 2004 06:19 PM
people have a lot more individual power than they think they do. while a consumer based society causes control to effectively be out of democratic hands, it also allows consumers a great amount of power and infinite options for how to shift the system. we just have to keep reminding ourselves of that, and do the best we can for our own little worlds. thinking globally hurts too much.