WHO'S VIEW WOULD YOU TAKE ON HEALTHCARE -- SHAKESPEARE OR FREUD?
As the 1968 Grant Park chant went, "All the world is watching." In 2009, they're watching American democracy in action. A messy system of government we often try to export. Question is, do we have our mess in order....?
The Founding Fathers created a system meant to be a messy, free-wheeling collision of knock-down arguments. Instead of a royal court with one voice, more like a neighborhood saloon with many voices. Right now we're once again doing what Lincoln said at Gettysburg: "Testing whether this nation or any other nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure...."
In 1863 the issue was slavery. In 2009 it's healthcare. Shelving aside the crazies from Alaska to Alabama, there are some legitimate issues at stake. It's just that this messiness involves so many gridlocked opinions, many of us will be waked before any plan is actuated in 2012.
So we and the watching world are left to wonder. Is all this here-today-forgotten-tomorrow messiness democracy at its best? Or at its worst? The answer is, it is what it is. It's pretty much how the Founding Fathers planned it in order to avoid the tyranny of another king.
However, that leaves us with a nagging concern. Have we avoided the tyranny of a king only to allow a tyranny of aristocrats....? When you peel back the sound and fury of these debates, it's really not so much the people who are in charge, but rather the aristocrats of special interests. They -- through their control of the concerned industries, networks, and punditry -- can usually be found puppeteering debates such as these. Now that is a kind of democracy, but a democracy of money more than morals.
If you're a pessimist you'll recall Shakespeare's view: "Life is a tale told by an idiot full of sound and fury signifying nothing!" If you're an optimist, you'll recall Freud's view: "The first human who hurled an insult instead of a stone was the founder of civilization!" If you're one of the special interests, you probably don't give a damn just so long as your bottom line is black!
WILL MOZART OR LITTLE RICHARD MAKE YOU MORE OPTIMISTIC....?
Here's the fun to statistics. They can usually mean anything you want them to....!
Consider the Pew Research Center's latest report. Today more than 35% of Americans say they listen to rock 'n roll, making it the most popular music in the nation. In 1966, rock was disliked by 44% of Americans, making it the most unpopular music in the nation.
These numbers leave you to wondering whether they spell cultural progress, regression or simply nothing more than the fact people's taste changes. While you muse over that, muse over another set of statistics. Hilary Tindle of the University of Pittsburgh surveyed nearly 100,000 women, ages 50 to 80, about their outlook on life. Her study reports that after eight years, the most optimistic women were 9% less likely to have heart disease and 30% less likely to have died from heart disease. Professor Tindle adds this warning: "Women who scored high in cynical hostility were at the greatest risk of dying from all causes."
Tindle suggests we teach people to "modify ingrained pessimistic attitudes." Very wise. So do we start by teaching them to modify their switch in musical tastes since 1966? OK, cheap shot! But then why are growing numbers of young mothers today exposing their children to the music of Mozart rather than Elvis? Here's a theory -- it's easier to be optimistic when listening to the music of the angels than the rockers.
I know, I know -- that makes me sound old. Ahh, but you see, a lot of us have lived to be old only because we listened to more Mozart than Little Richard....!
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Music is such a personal thing. It's whatever sounds good to YOUR ears. You may prefer Mozart to rock, and that works for you. If that helps you stay optimistic, DO IT!!! But there are all kinds of music out there besides just classical and rock. I think everybody has their preference. It's all relative. For some, music can be healing, cathartic.....and optmistic too. In our current times, whatever helps us stay positive, we should try and engage it.
ReplyDeleteCan't dispute that, Nicole. Gotta go with what works! Of course,you have to admit Mozart has lasted a very long time. The reason seems to be in the universality of his serene sounds. Rock can be great too, but experiments have shown that when people are locked in a room, the sounds of continuous rock are much harder to endure over the long term.
ReplyDeleteMaybe we can look at it this way -- rock is great in the short term, Mozart for the long term. And since we all want to live for the long term, then maybe Mozart will serve us better than Elvis.
Maybe.....