Sunday, February 20, 2011

Spinning Yarns

How does one find the truth about anything?  For that matter how does one find the facts of a thing, when the facts do not even jibe from one source to the other.  Everything and I mean everything that even hints it may have an effect on public opinion in the slightest is spun out of home made yarns and knitted with cross stitches, step stitches, side stitches and stitches many of us never even knew existed.

When I look within the innards of the various political disciplines I notice that even there the spin breaks down into a multitude of colored threads that once spun into whole cloth remind me of Joseph's Technicolor Coat, the twisted and perverse version.

Right, Left, Liberal, Conservative.  It doesn't matter.  They all are intent on bending the truth to fit their slant on things.  One side claims the other spins false cloth and the other sticks out their tongues and say, "Nuh uh, you do."  Then it is off to the races and any kernel of truth there at the beginning is milled into useless meal beneath the heels of advocates and lackeys stomping their feet.

So if facts and the truth have failed, where do I turn?  If the sound of millions of fools speaking at once drown out any clear message I might latch onto, where do I turn?

I am told to seek guidance from the Higher Power that surely must exist, because hey, we exist, so must he.

Others council me to look inward to my core beliefs, my inner soul.  God cannot help me, but maybe someone inside can.

But most advice it would seem leans to  "my way or the highway", just cuz that's the way it should be.

And anxieties rise as my center flounders leaving me to try on one technicolor coat and then another.  When none of them fit, not even a little bit, I pull out a strap on and tell all of them to suck on it.  And not just a little bit.
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The previous has been brought to you by a very frustrated and angry citizen who knows we "all just can't get along", but wonders why the Hell not?  We used to sorta.  Now we don't even try.

14 comments:

The Blog Fodder said...

The answers to the questions "What is truth?" and "How do we know?"have puzzled humankind since we could first frame it in words, I expect.
I have been trying to formulate a check list for friends of mine in Russia so they can sort out government propaganda from actual history. No luck so far. Part of it depends on how widely read one is and how much you can check and double check. It is more intuitive than concrete for me but I hope someone else has done studies in this area and there really are some kind of guidelines.
As far as your Left and Right spinning things, Noam Chomsky would suggest getting behind the two positions and see to whose ultimate benefit it is that the split is constantly re-enforced, keeping people at each others throats instead of dealing with the real issues.

Commander Zaius said...

Part of the problem I feel deals with uneducated types who base their perspectives on ignorance and stupidity. Here are just a few examples.

One guy at work swears that Einstein developed his General theory of relativity on the Christian Bible. The guy has no idea Einstein was a Jew.

Another person cusses because he believes the massive deficits comes from foreign aid.

Now throw in those Beckian types who bend facts in the best of times and usually just outright lie and things just start to fall apart.

Tom Harper said...

Very good description:

"Right, Left, Liberal, Conservative. It doesn't matter. They all are intent on bending the truth to fit their slant on things. One side claims the other spins false cloth and the other sticks out their tongues and say, "Nuh uh, you do.""

Political viewpoints, religions, philosophies and general outlooks -- that describes all of them.

I keep thinking I'll get more detached from all the political venom out there, and just write about general topics, or things that cut across political lines.

Then I get outraged at something I just read in the news, and the next thing I know I'm back at the keyboard, ranting and spinning away.

jadedj said...

What Tom said. And, I keep telling myself, just do the right thing. There are a whole gaggle of people out there that have no idea, nor care what that means.

Mr. Charleston said...

Like to old saw goes... don't believe anything you hear and only half of what you see. These days, I'm not sure you can believe anything you see either. Digging through history doesn't help. The guys who wrote it were just a corrupt as any today. If you don't believe that, read the Bible.

No answer from me my friend, cept what JJ says.

Murr Brewster said...

I can tell the problem is worse than it used to be, because I'm an unabashed liberal with a few observations that go against current liberal dogma, and I'm loathe to admit to them because I don't want to EVEN REMOTELY appear to be on the "other side." It used to be we felt more able to discuss things rather than reiterate the party lines.

Snave said...

We won't be finding any of the answers to the mysteries of life in politics, as that is about as base as humans get.

But I do think George Lakoff has some good ideas. His writings have at least helped me to better understand the conservative mindset.

Sorry I don't know how to do working links in comments, so you'll have to cut and paste the following into your web browser... but I find this article very worthwhile:

http://www.truth-out.org/what-conservatives-really-want67907

I think it's great stuff, but I am one of this guy's disciples, so what can I say? 8-)

MRMacrum said...

The Blog Fodder - It is more intuitive than concrete for me

As I think it is for most of us. Each individual has to decide the truth of a matter. How we do it seems to be the problem.

Beach Bum - I knew the Theory of Relativity was just a Reader's Digest version of the Bible. I wonder if Mike Savage knows this?

I dunno, willful ignorance and stupidity has been part and parcel of every stage of human history. I just am surprised I guess at America's unwillingness to tolerate itself.

Tom Harper - Two peas in a pod, we two.

jadedj - What is the right thing? I am reminded of Buffalo Springfield's tune, "For What it's Worth" - ..."Nobody's right if everybody's wrong".....

Mr Charleston - And no answer from me either. I wish I had it in me to stop looking.

Murr Brewster - Well shit. Here you swing by and the place is a mess and the owner is all red faced and angry and hangin out in his under drawers. Ain't that just the way?

Defensive knee jerking or no response is understandable given the intense animosity being flung from the other side. I do it also.

Snave - No I guess we won't find Life's answers in Politics. But it would be nice if Life's answers stepped up some and helped find answers to politics. The answers are there, but folks tend to ignore them.

As far as putting working links in a comment, I used to have the same problem. I know there is standard html code for that, but what I did was set up a draft post at the top of the draft section and I use it to create the link for me and then cut n paste it to the comment. It would probably be smarter to learn the basic code, but what with all the back slash this forward slash that and brackets, spaces, it all gets jumbled up in my mind. I keep the draft at the top and ready to use all the time by scheduling the date to the year 2052.

jadedj said...

Well for myself, and I emphasize, myself, I try, TRY, to ascribe to Confucius' philosophy of what is the right thing..."Do not to others what you do not want done to yourself". That's right, Confucius had the idea first, not the other dude.

Pretty simple really.

PENolan said...

Y'all are too thoughtful for me this morning. Now I've got songs from Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat swirling around in my head.

Talk about "my way or the highway." Joseph's brothers were pretty fucking hard core. Look what they did to the Shechemites. I didn't read about them in the Bible, though - I read about them in The Red Tent. I've gone this long without reading the Bible and don't intend to start now.

MRMacrum said...

jadedj - It's been a motto I have tried to live myself for years. Who said it first really does not matter. I am sure logical humans had been thinking it for years.

PENolan - Thoughtful? I've been called a lot of things, but thoughtful is not usually at the top of the list. Rabid, crazed, off my nut, clueless, and commie pink bastard are more than a few rungs above it. I was once called sensitive. I almost punched that guy out.

ain't for city gals said...

What if the hokey pokey is really what it is all about?? My motto is now "I used to get angry...now I am merely amused". I read The New Earth...I loved it....mostly every thing that people say is about ego...mainly their ego. Most people don't even listen to what you are saying...they are thinking what they are going to say next!

MRMacrum said...

ain't for city gals - Interesting point. Maybe that is why I understand so much better when I read it. I force my focus to understanding rather than rebuttal.

I do wish I was a better listener.

yellowdoggranny said...

there is never going to be a time when we all get along..it's not in our nature.