Culture Shock

I am done with the south.

Not literally, of course, but more in line with the figurative 'i am SO done with this place.'

I went throught the initial novelty of being exasperated with the commercialization of what is already a struggling cultural powerhouse 'Mega-Church' demographic. i am not christian, but i respect the ideals set down by this Jesus fellah, but my animosity towards christianity as a social/political entity is unyeilding. Dogma and archaic ideology has been confused with 'morality' and the people who are trying to improve connectivity and broaden minds throughout the world are suffering because of the placement this monster has within our legislative body.

But that's not the point.

I suffered through what is a flagrant demonstration of how appallingly under-educated the lower/working/middle classes are in this country with the same grace you can expect from a nose-in-the-air snob subjected to the 9-5 grind of bottom rung theatre. it's good for us to broaden our understanding of what it is to be american and not simply assume that without a college education someone falls under the category of 'minimum wage surf.' the south is a brilliant crossection of this group, and i fear it flaunts it somewhat.

But this is not the point.

I have come to face my own distaste for obeisity in this country and have found myself surrounded on all sides by the causes and subjects of this epidemic. We are an omnivorous species and it has become that gastro-intestional truth that has allowed corperate science to merrily opportunize on our evolved desire for 'sweet' 'fatty' and 'salty.' Being unhealthy in your approach to diet and excercise one day and then going to abortion clinics to picket line the emotionally vulnerable young women who are making one of the most difficult decisions of their lives and doing so because you say that they 'disrespect the body and life god has given them' makes me want to light my own hair on fire and dance a jaunty jig.

Neither, nor, is this the point.

the point is, dear friends, that i am simply done. all and none of these things are the point because, when it comes right down to it, i feel as if i'm in the wrong damn country sometimes. we are scrambling at every second to find a conflict to win. not resolve, but win. we do not want the war in Afganistan/Iraq/Anydamnwhere to end because then we would have to work our asses off to find another contrived, amoral reason to start one eslewhere. we do not want Jesus or whomever to descend from the heavens to tell us that 'it's all ok, we're done here, let's go to heaven' because the actual reckoning of eternal accountability would call a good number of questionable 'moral truths' into a very stark, "christ, i've been a bit of a dick my whole life, haven't i" light.

i can't help it anymore! i'm ripping at the seams and i don't know what to do about it. all i want to do is pour this bile and disdain out of my head into a bound volume of unbleached, recycled paper, and then never have anyone read it and tuck it away forever(now dan, is that accurate? nobody read it, but then what's the blog for?) (...shutup). these are thoughts, i recognize, that serve only as futile ramblings of an elitist shmuck who doesn't know how to handle the conflict between what he wishes the world were like, and what it IS like.

It has been almost a week since i started writing the previous paragraphs and, returning to this, i am happy to report that i've been granted a full voiced, full bodied discourse with some friends from work and have, by and large, vented a good amount of my frustration that way. The previous tirade is still true to my perspective, i simply do not have the same fervor. give it time, it will come.

i suppose we could look at this as the hyper-sensualized ramblings of a sex-starved-someone looked back upon by his/her/their well laid future self. i have felt the passionate release of my energies and serve myself better for the lost bile...

Ew.