Throughout my later years, I have come to ask young people in community college classes or those who work in call cetners, etc., “What do you want to be when you grow up?” I seem to get a myriad of answers. Most among them, especially people in call centers in their early twenties, say, “I’m already grown up.”
This seems to be a rational response as that, in fact, is what so many mentors program us to believe that once we cross the age of majority, we R all Grown-up. This could be no further from reality. At 73 years old, or to be polite, 73 years young, I find I am still learning. Perhaps if our Ayn Rand Raw Capitalist system contributed to a society that treasured old age, 73 years ‘old’ would be appropriate. Mostly, we don’t want to be around old people. We don’t need them for history anymore or do we since DeSantis. Those old guys are not so much fun simply because they often do not tell us what we want to hear. OK, Boomer!
I wonder if the respect level for older people took a big hit when the printing press was invented. We no longer needed old people to teach us history, at least for those who could. Now we have Gemini. This is my third paragraph. I’m still trying to convince you that we are not all grown-ups in our mid-twenties and may have more to learn than we already know. I did not know how to run a PC in my mid-twenties. They had yet to be invented.
The fact of the matter is our growth, which can be defined as learning, is a lifelong endeavor. I recently watched the movie, ‘A Man Called Otto,’ about an older man whose lifetime Soul Mate and child passed away. In his adjustment from the grief, he had to learn how to get along with people and enjoy life again. He did grow up to get along with people, but he is unsure about enjoying life again. This is a social redeeming flick about life’s adjustments to change. Otto also lost his job because he was too old, crabby, or perfect. This shows us that we as humans may never grow up.
The movie also shows how easy but foolish it is to put people in a box. Otto personified a guy who reminded me of my Mother. They were both big believers in following the rules. They had no qualms about approaching even strangers advising them of the rules. People generally respond knee-jerk negatively to this type of behavior. Not always, though. Most people in Walmart were typically nice when my Mother decided to re-train them on how kids should sit in the grocery carts. Perhaps those people had respect for age. They could have just told her to mind her own business, and some did, but generally, they were nice and listened with a look on their faces like, what the hell is wrong with this woman? But they did show some respect, perhaps, for her age.
Despite Otto’s strict, constructionist, compulsive personality, he had no problem befriending a trans person who had been kicked out of his home by his father for being trans. Perhaps Kid Rock should watch this movie before he shoots more than six packs of beer. Otto allowed the trans person to stay in his home until he found alternatives. What a surprise to Otto waking up in the morning, and his new guest had breakfast all made for him.
While complaining steadily along the way, Otto had no problem helping a Mexican family meet some of their needs. He trained a neighbor to drive an auto so they could obtain their license; he even had the patience to have them learn a stick shift. And, because he had the education, he had no problem helping a couple keep their home from unscrupulous mortgage lenders. Politics should never reign over doing the right thing. The problem is that not everyone agrees on what is the right thing.
Yes, Otto had some love left in his heart. It just got buried beneath the grief of his wife and his child getting killed in a bus accident. This begs the question; what percentage of people have had what love they had zapped from their hearts?
After watching ‘The Glass Castle’ movie, you begin to think a bit deeper. I guess it is a much larger percentage of zapped hearts than we would like. For many people, the love in their hearts is severely zapped by the time they reach the age of majority. We seem to be seeing all too often now guys filled with hate going to public places and shooting people at random. When you get right down to it, the biggest problem children have in America is not guns, education, what books they read, knowing about gay issues too early in life, or seeing any drag queen shows. Nope, it is not Wok either!
No, the biggest problem for Kids in America is Parents! Foreign countries are saying Americans don’t care about their children. It seems a percentage only cares about the unborn. They want to load us up with kids but nothing to care for them. Do any historical facts show we should allow parents to be in charge of the schools? Are enough of them really Grown-up enough?
Now, U might say the movie The Glass Castle was about poor kids. Yes, it was, and the only thing that kept that family together was love. You could make the case they should not have allowed that family to be together. Despite the neglect, love was there. Money alone will not solve all their problems as wealth alone can just make you a rich ignorant person. You don’t have all the issues a lack of money brings, but you often seem to have a severe lack of love. That is not a scientific conclusion; it is probably just too much Hollywood for me. It also depends on how you define wealth. There are probably better examples than Donald Trump, but he is the sore thumb of the time. You might lose a significant amount of love in your heart if you spend four years at a military school. They don’t send U to military school to acquire more love. Discipline without love =’s ???
Want to know more about wealthy people and kids? I suggest you read ‘Mommie Dearest’ by Christina Crawford. “Mommie Dearest is a memoir and expose written by Christina Crawford, the adopted daughter of actress Joan Crawford.” Amazon Link to “Mommie Dearest”
How Grown-up could you be if you adopted kids and then abused them? Money alone will not solve character flaws unless you identify them and use your wealth to overcome them. I don’t think I have ever heard a person who won the lottery say, “This is so wonderful! Now I can return to school and finish my education to be a better person.” Some days, you get the idea so many Florida residents do not want their children to be better persons. If you keep them dumb, you can control them, keep them racist, and keep yourselves in power. DeSantis’s real problem just might be too many kids have already taken African American History.
No, I have never heard a lottery winner say that, but what you might hear if it was asked is, well, I don’t need that now; I have plenty of money. They’re all grown up with plenty of cash and no character flaws. Education is only to make more money in life, no mind to being a better person with knowledge for critical thinking to make you a better citizen and parent.
We can change that. Instead of wealthy parents trying to bribe their kids into a good university, they will tell their kids they did not perform well enough, take a year or two in community college, and improve their performance. Then, they will reapply to that University.
This is doable, but we must start with the elementary school kids. Whole generations from the Reagan Administration have been schooled in the Ayn Rand School of Thought, Individual Man. Education is about getting a better job than our parents was taught to us.
The collective man ended when the Reagan Administration took over. I’m the government, and I am here to reward wealthy people with school choices even though they mess up kids just as well as poor people. Nor are there kids necessarily smarter than poor kids. I think Robert Kennedy is probably rolling over in his grave see Robert Kennedy Jr’s antics. Hell, let’s even give them tax dollars to start non-wok religious schools for profit.
Are we entering a period of Collective Man? Future elections will determine that. Hopefully so, as we are entering a period of choice right now. Will we have the Democratic Republic, or will the private sector continue to take more control of our government to the point where the private sector is more powerful than the Democratic State itself?
That is called Fascism. You decide. It does seem we have crossed that Rubicon with guns. It certainly seems the gun manufacturers are in control through the NRA and our campaign finance system. The problem is not coming to a consensus; it is coming to a consensus when we have this unlimited amount of money in campaign finance. It seems this is basically a legal bribery system. Too much money is supporting profits over common sense. This is not new. Among other issues, you can research the history of ‘Lead in Paint’ in the United States.
Partisanship and extremism are elevated as you add more dollars to the equation. Only one party wants to change the campaign finance system, at least the part about money. The other party wants to change the rules so they are automatically re-elected. If not, the State legislature can overturn the election results. About seven States have already passed laws banning no-label voting in their state. Not all political parties have fared well in California and Alaska; their fear is justified.
Ask yourself: Which party does not want the campaign finance system reformed? Which party benefits the most from the current system? A better question might be: Which party sells the most influence? If you think Trump is the problem, you don’t see the forest for the trees. There are plenty of Trumps.
Hint: It is the party that took the campaign finance laws to SCOTUS and got them to change the rules to allow unlimited funds into the campaigns. SCOTUS identified money as free speech, giving corporations and wealth citizenship status. The Ayn Rand Raw Capitalists and religious fundamentalists that brought the Citizens United lawsuit are, without doubt, people who want to buy and influence our government. They have done pretty well with SCOTUS, and one more of their guys in the White House with enough majority numbers in Congress could bankrupt the US Government. More tax cuts and more spending are not an accident. See; “He who owns the Gold.”
Are we really so naive to think the textualist Scalia figured they would not coordinate? He had to know that this system would be almost impossible to prove coordinated. No, I don’t think so. Scalia was an intelligent man, but I do believe Scalia had the ethics of Bill Barr. It also seems too many of the colleagues he left behind come from the same school of ethics. Oh, perhaps I am mistaken. It seems once they get to SCOTUS, there will be no ethical standards.
Just robes symbolize a clean and honest group. Hmm… Wonder about the Ghosts of Christmas past? I’m told they used to brag at the Arizona Room about SCOTUS Judge Rehnquist when he was a sprout learning Jurist ways. They seemed to think he used to spend his time on elections, running black people away from the polls in Arizona. I guess you have to Hustle and hide your past if you want to be a Supreme Court Judge.
I think we need a new way of appointing them. It sounds like structural change or reform was what Liz Warren was talking about. There is a lot of sauce to get those constitutional amendments. Nonetheless, we need much higher qualifications for all office holders, both top-down, state and federal. The proof is in the pudding. Do you really think Marjorie Taylor Green and Lauren Bobbitt are ‘All Grown-Up?’ Reports show Bobbitt took 7 times to pass the GED! How much would qualifications matter if the system was flowing with money? Suppose the leading elite Universities that fill the seats of Congress are almost half legacy students who under perform academically. Would the government not also under perform over time?
Tom Flash