Tag Archives: change

November 13, 2016

A Side of Feelings

SMH…

When it comes to feelings (nothing more than feelings), there are two strongly reactive — yet very separate — feelings clubs on my mind these days. The one that surprises me is personal and seems to have only myself as a member. The unsurprising one, the angry, depressed, shocked one, contains nearly all the liberals these days.

A more on-the-nose term might be ‘city folk.’ (Or my personal favorite: “polis people.”) Some see this — I fully agree — as a divide between rural and city sensibilities, between local old-fashioned and global modern tech, between yesterday and tomorrow.

One side is stunned the other won, while the winners are holding their breath wondering what they’ve won…

23 Comments | tags: change, changes, democracy, democratic society, dialectic, election 2016, emotional mind, emotions, feelings, human mind, Leon Wieseltier, opinions, politicians, rational mind, rational thought, social change, social issues, social mores, thoughts | posted in Society

November 9, 2016

Seriously? Seriously?

By Wyrd Smythe

I hope you know what you’re doing. I get the part about voting for him. What I don’t get is being fooled by him. And I’m not sure who’s getting fooled. Is he what he appears to be, or is it all just an act?

He’s a real estate salesman. He doesn’t design buildings. He doesn’t actually build them. He just puts his name on them. He “gets it done” but what about how he gets it done?

What is his word worth? Is he an honorable man? A decent one? A kind one? Do we have any fucking idea who this guy really is?

14 Comments | tags: change, changes, Chris Matthews, conservative, Donald Trump, fear, GOP, government, House of Representatives, politicians, polls, pollsters, POTUS, President Elect Trump, President Trump, Republican Party, Senate, social change, social issues, social media, WTF | posted in Politics

March 1, 2016

It Was Ever Thus

By Wyrd Smythe

I’ve written about this before, the idea that there’s nothing new under the sun — that it was ever thus. The claim is usually made in the face of complaints about how “things are going to hell these days, and how much better it was back then.”

Some cite the ancient Greek⁽¹⁾ who said something about how things never really change (except he was just commenting about kids not respecting their elders). Others cite the famous passage in Ecclesiastes⁽²⁾ (which also gave us a favorite tune by The Byrds⁽³⁾).

So, what do I think is new under the sun?

17 Comments | tags: change, Earth population, Ecclesiastes 1, Ecclesiastes 3, information, John Naisbitt, moral compass, morality, Pete Seeger, Plato, relative morality, scientism, social change, social mores, Socrates, technology, The Byrds, The Republic, Turn! Turn! Turn! | posted in Opinion

July 7, 2014

BB #37: Generation Gaps

By Wyrd Smythe

Every generation “can’t imagine what it was like” with regard to something. Various generations have recently gone through not knowing what it was like before automobiles, before flight, before black and white TV, before space travel, before CDs, and — increasingly —before social media.

The thing about being plugged into the interweb is that you’re plugged into something very, very big. Not just big, big and fast. Lots of information rushes by very fast all the time. Drinking from the interweb — as those they that say things say — is like trying to sip from a firehose.

So what about a generation that’s never known the quiet?

12 Comments | tags: advertising, change, internet, interweb, loud, modern life, noise | posted in Brain Bubble

April 18, 2014

Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes

By Wyrd Smythe

Coins I’m surprised that, despite writing in a lot of comments about how — and if — the world is changing, I’ve never actually written a post about it. I suppose it’s implicit in some of the things I’ve explored, but I’ve never focused on it directly. That’s odd because it’s a key topic of interest, and I’ve always intended to get into it here.

Maybe I tend to avoid it because, as a misanthropic aging curmudgeon, I basically think the world is going seriously downhill, and that’s not a point of view most people want to hear about. And, to be honest, it can be hard to separate out stuff I don’t like from stuff I think isn’t good. This is, in part, a search for objective criteria (and comment).

Premise: The world has changed, in many ways for the worse.

19 Comments | tags: change, changes, changing world, communications, Ecclesiastes 1, global village, Marshall McLuhan, movie violence, TV violence | posted in Life, Opinion

August 16, 2012

Reflections: Work & Change

By Wyrd Smythe

This is a piece I started almost a year ago, set aside for polishing and never returned to. It started as a rant and morphed into a looking back at what, now, might be the fullness of a career.