End of common experiences?
Wasn’t having “common experiences” the point of “we’re all in this togther”?
and
“Everybody mask up!”
and
“roll up your sleves??
Silly article, I thought this would be about Americans and liberals trying to at least live together in one country.
I have seen this coming for a long time.
Common experiences, a glue that keeps a society intact, have been removed.
Technology is partly to blame. Everything from people listening to the same music on the same radio stations or watching the same silly things on television, or...getting the same version of news from the same people on the same channels is gone.
For example, there were songs that people could sing together. Everyone knew the songs, and everyone knew the words.
I read a book recently "Breakout: The Chosin Reservoir Campaign, Korea 1950" and in the book, the author described the scene as their transport ship left San Francisco in those early, desperate days of the Korean War when the North Koreans had invaded the south and were running amok, WWII Marine Reservists from all over the country were being recalled and frantically thrown together, loaded on rusting troop transports, and sent across the Pacific to save what they could.
The ship pulled out at night, after dark. In those days, families and friends could go right down on the dock next to the ship as she got underway to wave tearful goodbyes to those Marines lining the rails. It was dark, and the lights of the city and habitations surrounding the pier were dotted with the lights of houses and buildings, and the sky above was filled with stars.
As the ship cast off with the men going to war, many of them to never return, the crowd of people on the pier, joined in unison with the Marines on the ship tearfully in singing a popular song of the time "Goodnight Irene":
Goodnight Irene
Written by Leadbelly, modified, performed and popularized by The Weavers
LINK: "Goodnight Irene" as performed by The Weavers
Irene, goodnight
Irene, goodnight
Goodnight, Irene
Goodnight, Irene
I'll see you in my dreams
Last Saturday night I got married
Me and my wife settle down
Now me and my wife are parted
I'm gonna take another stroll downtown
Irene, goodnight
Irene, goodnight
Goodnight, Irene
Goodnight, Irene
I'll see you in my dreams
Sometimes I live in the country
Sometimes I live in town
Sometimes I take a great notion
To jump in the river and drown
Irene, goodnight
Irene, goodnight
Goodnight, Irene
Goodnight, Irene
I'll see you in my dreams
Stop your rambling
Stop your gambling
Stop your staying out so late at night
Go home to your wife and family
Stay there by the fireside bright
Irene, goodnight
Irene, goodnight
Goodnight Irene, goodnight Irene
I'll see you in my dreams
Goodnight Irene, goodnight Irene
I'll see you in my dreams
I went to the effort to have the lyrics and music available, because I feel sure there are many people who will pooh-pooh the opinion I express here as just that: pure dog-eared sentiment.
But if one takes the time to read the lyrics, listen to the tune, and imagine this troop transport full of fated men going off to war, with the canopy of stars above, a mantle of light pinpoints on the hilly shore, all reflected in a dead calm sea with that song being sung in emotional tear-filled unison by the people of the day who all knew the popular song...well, none of them apparently forgot that for the rest of their lives, some being shorter than others on the shores of the Chosin Reservoir in Korea.
I wish I had the book in front of me so that I could do the author justice, I can only paraphrase the words and sentiments written in the book. When I read that, my own eyes, nearly fifty years after the event described for which I was not even born at the time, filled with tears and I felt the raw emotion in my heart. Imagine the superglue that must have been to tie all those people together. That is a glue, a societal glue, the kind of which we will never see again in this country due to a variety of factors. And this is just a single example. There are thousands of others, demonstrating things which no longer unify us as people.
The point of all this is that the lack of this glue means our commonality with those who are ostensibly our countrymen no longer exists. We are separate people, with separate experiences, and separate lives.
As I said above, technology is partly to blame, but ideology has had a powerful, intentional, and malignant hand in all of this.
There was a time when at least sporting events might bring people together, but that has been destroyed by the Left. It has been politicized to the point many of us have to make choices, principles or sports. With the primarily (though apparently, not universally) Leftist cudgel of COVID mandates and passports, we are being driven even further into estrangement from our fellow humans. As if that were not enough, we have had masks imposed on us to more deeply isolate us not only from our fellow citizens, but from our fellow humans.
This trend is an evil cancer, and I see it as being driven primarily by the Left, who seem intent on isolating people, Balkanizing them, pitting them against each other. I think it is a grave mistake, and we all make it, to think this is an accident or coincidence.
We could start having common experiences by having a strong border and actually defining ourselves as one great melting pot that is Americans. Then by teaching our kids about why this is a unique and great country, a place to be proud of. By building a culture that raises up contributing to society, getting an education, a good work ethic, the nuclear family, law and order... and putting God first above all.
The author is right about shared experiences, it’s a symptom of a something sickening our great country.
Anyone else remember from the 1970s the common experience of the new Saturday morning cartoon line up? Pretty much all kids in America were watching one of 3 channels every Saturday morning.
I must live under a rock. And I have to say I like it.
While I heard folks talk about TK once in a while, I never felt compelled in the least to join in.
Squid Game? Never heard of it.
Want to stream the best kept secret out there? The app is free!
It’s The Chosen Give it 3 episodes and you will be hooked. Use the captioning..the dialogue can be hard to follow at times.
#ComeAndSee
I knew I wasn’t cut out for the corporate world when I quickly got tired of the banal sh!t that passed for “water cooler conversation” in my office.
I thought Squid Games was about navy sailors. And the follow-up was going to be Jarhead Games. Semper Fi.
The last TV I watched was Sarah Palin addressing the 2008 Republican National Convention.
I gave it up cold turkey and haven’t missed it a bit. And from what I read about such-and-such show (that I’ve never heard about before) getting a “gay” or “bi” character, apparently I haven’t missed much. Or so-and-so (who I’ve never heard about before) is having an affair with another so-and-so (ditto). Who cares? It’s an unreal make believe world.