I started this post earlier today, but think I lost it. Hopefully, I am not repeating myself. However, if I am, it won't be for the first time. As I am now in my newly-minted fiftieth year, I am blinkingly bemused by my effort to stay afloat in the flotsam and jetsam of popular culture. I frequently take on water. "The New Thirties" be damned, I am still trying to find my bifocals and they are on top of my highlighted head!
First, I wanted to give credit for my blog name. I only crib from the best: Aristotle, in this case. "Wit is educated insolence", the good Greek opined. I like that. I'm a big fan of both education and insolence.
After all, I'm a modern day liberal; a certain amount of smartipantsedness is expected. Consider Bill Maher, John Stewart, Lewis Black, Noam Chomsky, or Michael Moore? Smug bastards, all. Representing the conservatives, I can only think of the late, great, William F. Buckley, or maybe Dennis Leary as filling their intellectual tighty-whiteys with such potent aplomb.
Why don't I have any women in my list of smirking pundits? Dunno. It's not penis envy. The answer is simply, no one, particular, name rises in the soup of my Monday evening gray matter. I also seem to be lacking African Americans, Native Americans, Asian Americans, and other hybrids too. I know that there are intelligent, insolent representatives of those groups out there, but as with women, I can't pull any names out of my failing gray matter. My ignorance is deafening.
Oh well, back to the original rant. So if wit is educated insolence, as Aristotle claims, what then is ignorant insolence?
In my mind, it is the wholesale dumbing-down of our culture. Some examples are (but are not limited to): Hip Hop music, Cinco de Mayo, White Supremacy, Political Correctness, Reality Televison, Abridged bibles, Standardized testing in schools, Abortion art, The War on Drugs, text messaging, and finally: Rush, Anne, Howard, Oprah, Dr. Laura, Dr. Phil, and finally, Lou.
This last group particularly rankles as they prey on the segment of our population that hungers for "smart talk" like a coffee addict craves her morning cappuccino, while providing intellectual Nescafe in a fancy cardboard cup with an eco-friendly, quilted, heat wrapper.
In fact, I would place all celebrities who market themselves insolently under one name (Britney, Barbra, Tiger, Emerill, Madonna, Carrot Top, Sting, Hillary, Obama, Souldjaboy, Arnold, Bono, Nixon, Trump etc.) in a special category of insolent icons of popular culture. Their arrogance is astounding to me. One-name fame. The ultimate publicist's dream, and the marketing of pseudo-intelligence that has bankrupted our culture.
Why am I so pissed at seemingly benign American cultural phenomena like text messaging, Cinco de Mayo, and coffee? Because I am a teacher. Today most of my students walked out. They walked out to celebrate Cinco de Mayo. Of the students who walked out today, NONE knew that Cinco de Mayo is the celebration of Mexico's brave (and fleeting) victory over superior French forces (The Battle of Puebla). These students (2nd and 3rd generation Hispanic) just thought that walking out would support Brown Pride. I am all for Brown Pride. I teach cultural appreciation.
What burns me that not only is Cinco de Mayo mistaken for Mexico's Independence Day, but that it is used as a token nod to cultural awarenes to sell beer (Hello Corona) and burritos, and now as a dodge for being in school. Rufff.
Text messaging? will i don no. i ges i just 2 ol 4 it
Coffee? When a population willingly expects to pay $4.00 for a trendy cup of coffee, there is no surprise that we are teetering on a recession.
Whew. Ranted out. Bad day. Tomorrow better.
