- Tune In: and I mean, tune in all the time to the radio playing non-stop if you blow the whistle on fraud in Iraq and the Americans decide to detain you for months without trial.
- Turn on: Eli Lilly is alleged to have promoted the use of their drug Zyprexa for seniors with dementia, when it is only indicated for schizophrenia. Did I mention it increases the risk of death for seniors with dementia?
- Drop out: Ten California yuppies/hippies decide not to buy new stuff for a year, dooming the capitalist system and freedom as we know it. Chamber of Commerce presidents attack these heathens for trying to undermine our very way of life.
Okay, maybe one of those things was not like the others...
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So... which group of people are you referring to as "the worst" in point three, the hippie/yuppies or the Chamber of Commerce? :-)
The hippie/yuppies' idea is a good one even if they are a bunch of spoiled upper-middle-class San Franciscans. What I didn't get was the person in the article who was criticizing them for getting massages and whatnot. The point was to reduce resource consumption, not stop participating in the economy altogether. Supporting a small business which does something that people like but doesn't require the consumption of anything but massage oil (if plant-based, quite renewable) seems like a win-win situation. Thoughts?
Hi Megan!
Yeah, I was kind of confused by some elements of that story as well. With regard to the nasty e-mails and hostile questions they've been getting, I don't really understand why so many people take issue with what other people want to do with their lives, especially when it's not hurting anyone. Look at politics here today, though, and even beyond hot topics like abortion and gay marriage, you have a non-trivial brigade trying to force their religion into the public sphere, their values onto allowed TV content (the chairman of the FCC wants to, but will not be allowed to, regulate pay cable), and apparently, their economic choices onto everyone as a duty, not a choice (apprently, in this case, it's either shop at the mall or go back to Russia).
As for massages, or any number of ways of testing the boundaries, why the heck not? I've never been fond of arbitrary manifestos (did I mention organized religion has always been a bit of a problem for me? reform Judaism doesn't count as it is a disorganized religion centered around baked goods), and in the end people will make their own choices. Better that the central principles (sustainability; reliance on self, not on stuff) have as broad an appeal as possible without worrying about kicking out the unworthy from the tribe. In a lot of ways, I think it is similar to religion, or more correctly, religion is like any other social compact: you set up rules that are overly rigid at first, in order to define yourself, but then have to relax them over time to allow them to adapt to the complications of day-to-day life. For a happier society, maybe we can conclude that The Medium is the Massage, or at least a massage.
"I don't really understand why so many people take issue with what other people want to do with their lives, especially when it's not hurting anyone."
Well, I suppose in this case it's the self-righteousness of it -- choosing not to buy stuff is a critique of our consumer culture, and a very valid one at that. They're sort of a model for others, and if everyone did what they were doing, well, it *would* affect the economy, and the environment.
I'm not a vegetarian anymore (that's what living in Russia can do to you), but when I was, the reaction I sometimes got from non-vegetarians was kind of similar to this. They took my choice as an implicit criticism of their own lifestyle (which it was, to be honest) and the typical result was defensiveness and hostility, even if the world wasn't in danger of a World Vegetarian Revolution.
I guess the point is, "what people want to do with their lives" is rarely just limited to the people in question, and our personal actions often have some implicit or explicit moral intentions or consequences, and I understand why people get upset about abortion even if I disagree with them (though I really can't fathom why gay marriage bothers people beyond simple bigotry).
I think that the people who are criticizing the hippie/yuppies are stupid, but if they're creating a controversy that makes it into the media, and maybe makes a few more people aware of unnecessary consumption, that's actually better than a live-and-let live attitude.
Interesting discussion but be careful of the McLuhan direction. The medium may be the massage, but in this world, with pointed opinions, the harms no innocent children, animals or adults (in descending assumed levels of intelligence) argument is destined to fail or at least be taken as an attack. And for some, often on the other side of that vast politico-philosophical spectrum the only massage is Shiatsu which quite literally means finger (shi) pressure (atsu). Or put differently, if you don't accede to their atsu, they'll give you the shi. And as to disorganized religion, I might suggest that while Reform Judaism may well be disorganized (isn't that the paradox of all organized religion, it either is wholly disorganized or ceases to be religion) it is as, or more, centered around fried food as baked goods (especially this time of year). Latkes and sufganiyot, anyone?
Megan, dad. Dad, Megan. Just to make it clear, I'm the only one here who has never been, or currently remains, a vegetarian. So, is Megan's implicit criticism of my lifestyle reason to get defensive or hostile? No, it's actually a fair criticism. There are moral implications to eating meat, and these can't be ignored. Society is constantly judging our actions, because that's what it does, and people who get reflexively defensive are no end of aggravating. Life is tough. Wear a helmet, and try to reduce red meat intake until your conscience is sufficiently clear. Explicit criticisms, on the other hand, are best saved for those cases where the wrong needs to be actively opposed. I'll grant factory farming into this category, but those who don't buy enough stuff should probably get spared the wrath of the masses.
I kind of like the bankshot approach to generating controversy, a technique that Howard Stern has parlayed into a career, but in the end even when I'm happy to see people in the right get their message spread more widely, I feel bad for the numerous people opposing them who feel compelled to prove to as broad an audience as possible that they are indeed jackasses.
Fried food, dear father, is so Conservative judaism (note you used the hebrew/yiddish term for doughnuts). Us youngun's are more health conscious, and try to avoid the saturated fats, to say nothing of the vast oceans of sour cream and schmaltz (yummy) that previously defined jewish cuisine. For good or for ill, frosted dreidel-shaped sugar cookies, made with a non-denominational winter holiday cookie cutter set, are much more quintessentially Reform.
How foolish of me. But to be accused by one's own son of being a Conservative? Oy, such pain a father shouldn't have to endure. I stand (okay sit most of the time) corrected. What does an old man know. And for that matter, what does the Union of American Hebrew Congregations (the Reform disorganizing body) know. I'm sure they didn't mean to populate their recipes with such dishes as:
# Sweet potato latkes
# Gingered Sweet Potato Latke
# Curried Sweet Potato Latke
# Green Latkes
# Colorful Veggie Latkes
# Cheese Latkes
and then there is Riso del Sabato where the directions are to "Warm the olive oil or chicken fat in a large deep sauté pan over medium heat." Oh, sorry, perhaps you meant the recipe for Debla where all you do is Keep rolling (or coiling) it around itself as it fries and fry until lightly browned. Remove from the oil and drain in paper-towel lined colander." But, hey, when I was young you could still buy a knish on the streets of New York and some of the best sales were right on the corner of 5th Ave. and E. 65th in NYC.
Ok, I give in. Thank you for failing to rub it in by mentioning the ubiquity of garlic in Jewish cooking, and how one tends to favor sautéing it over baking it in most kitchens. On a side note, the lovely edifice you describe might honestly be among the world's nicest spots to take a nap, as I learned during a trip to New York with the Etz Chaim youth group, during which G_d himself intervened on earth to give us a weekend of instantly found midtown Manhattan parking spots. Comfy seats, quiet music in a minor key, occasional chanting; I don't see how anyone manages to stay awake for an entire service (we certainly didn't).
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