Why is it that so many Americans are stuck with using such empty and easy come by terms as liberal, Communist, etc.?
Now you too have got that Christian work ethic, Disneyland follow-your-dream, infection. Have you been sitting too close to Jamie?
Which part of Africa are you referring to?
Not too long ago, they were dodging nooses, right? Would you have written the same post as you did above back in 60s America?
Don’t give up. There’s a group of local guys I met at parties when I was in my 20s, and they were on the the typical, quixotic art school quest to make a feature film. We all sort of rolled our eyes, because we’d seen other people fail at it, and it was such a long shot, especially from Detroit. The weird thing, though, was these guys were good at it, and their first feature was a hit all over the US and Europe. In fact, you can still get it and its sequel on DVD, even in a “deluxe” edition. One of the guys has an autobiography available in most large bookstores called “If Chins Could Kill.” They’re huge in Hollywood now.
One approach that interests me is the marketing and distribution tactic now used by producers of “wholesome” movies. It’s hard to get a really squeaky clean family movie distributed by the Hollywood system, no matter how good it is. These people quit fighting it, and they started distributing through screenings at churches and similar places. Some of the mega-churches have massive auditoriums, and the effect is the same as in a commercial theater. The people claim there’s so much money to be made that way that they don’t need the ordinary distribution system. They go from these community screenings right to DVD.
A couple years ago, I also got to know some Indians who had assembled the financing to produce a Bollywood musical in Michigan. It sounded like a great story, and they were in the process of scouting locations, but then I lost contact with them.
So, it can be done.
How is it that so many people in Europe are ignorant of the historical sources of their beliefs? They spew discredited Marxist drivel, but if you point out that it’s Marxist at its source, they get angry and call us all kinds of names, just as you do.
It’s not an infection or delusion. It actually works in the US and Canada. Of course, since you’re more interested in radical leftist ideology than in empirical truth, you won’t accept what has been demonstrated again and again.
The delusional belief set is when people think you can control absolutely everything that happens to you by using positive thinking. Of course things can go wrong for everybody, but people who work harder, take risks, improve themselves and are frugal tend to get very “lucky”.
You act as if it all happens by some cosmic accident.
Maybe the compensation would have to be given out unfairly. I mean, who received most compensation after the WTC attack, the emergency responders and their families or civilians and their families?
And, regarding compenastion paid out by fed gov., would an American taxpayer be justified in saying “Why should I have to contribute? I didn’t have family or a business in the towers”.?
The lawyers.
No Jamie, that’s called fees (or “theft”, in some people’s eyes). Now, can you answer the question?
I see the American right going off at a tangent and one that reminds me of high-school politics or Disneyland follow-your-dream mentality. Go WASPs, go!
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I imagine those films are in black and white, right? LOL!
Stop assuming I’m a WASP. I’m not.
There you go again.
You do a pretty good imitation of one.
Sorry, but WASPs in the US usually think like you.
Not at all, but you act as if everyone who doesn’t “get there” is lazy, obese, slow-minded, politically misguided, etc. I never see you writing about the ones who didn’t get there, except to tell us all how most of them became panhandlers. There are many who have followed, and failed, at the “you can but try” mentality. Not all of them failed of their own account.
I used to like and love many things American, but now I’m disgusted by most Americans and their high-school, self-centred politics.
You play the easy game of asking us if people should pay for/feel guilty for the sins of their ancestors when you know that most people will agree with you that they shouldn’t, but can you open your remit to telling us whether people should feel guilt for the sins of their peers? Should, for example, Muslims feel guilt for the actions of a few of their fellow Muslims?
ROFL
Actually, Clerks was in b/w, and that was a pretty good movie.
I won’t assume anything, so just out of curiosity, what are your economic views?
Do you favor forced economic equality or economic freedom? Remember, we can’t have both.
If you’re a socialist, we’re not going to agree on much – at least not in terms of economic structure/policy. I can’t stand socialism – to me it’s the economics of defeatism/fatalism/pessimism… the chosen economic system of (sorry, but gotta say it) losers: “Give me your hard-earned money so I can continue to sit on my tail.”
“And no, you can’t succeed, so don’t even try!”
There you go again making weird claims about what I said. Most people who don’t become really successful in the US don’t become panhandlers, and I never said it. However, I have enough experience of street people to have seen that the majority of them are there because of something they did. (Sometimes what they did could even be avoiding government assistance programs!) Some of them shot heroin or smoked crack, some are drunks, and there are even a few of them who indulged their consumer appetites completely on credit, and refused to scale back, until they wound up having everything repossessed. People in that last category – if they ever wind up on the street at all – usually don’t stay there long, because they learn from their mistakes.
It’s been statistically shown that a combination of just a few simple things will keep people out of poverty in the US:
These are not hard to do.
Most of the people who wind up in a really bad situation do so because of laziness, an unwillingness to delay gratification, a false sense of defeatism (sometimes self-induced, but often instilled in them by social and political activists), bad impulse control, not saving money. These are all things that people can master, but some of them choose not to.
People with handicaps or serious mental disabilities are a different story, but they usually don’t end up on the street, and as Prezbucky said, many handicaps can be overcome. In fact, there are even people with Downs syndrome who are financially better off than their smart siblings, because someone trained them to save a certain percentage of their income, and the people don’t override this principle with “intelligent reason”.
Americans are generally more generous to the poor with their time and money than people generally are in Europe.
I used to think like you some years ago, but I was really blinding myself with phony intellectualism. Broader reading habits and suspending my leftist ideological blather while I observed the world changed my ideas.
Good question – if I knew someone who was going to blow up something, I’d like to think I’d try to stop him.
But would I?
That is a very good question!
Socialism is also a form of theft.
exactly why I hate it
On the political compass test, every time I see the “From each according to his ability, to each according to his need” statement I puke.
(figuratively)
…and hit the “Strongly Disagree” option.
we can’t go totally without welfare – some people can’t help themselves, or are laid off through no fault of their own. Those things happen, and there needs to be assistance for them.
But there’s plenty of opportunity here, and really no reason for an able-bodied/minded person not to be able to at least secure a job.
It might take effort, but guess what, so does breathing.