"The people who have conquered the world now have two interests- bread and circuses. "
-Juvenal, Roman satirist.
What if our society wasn't hell bent on convincing us to adore professional sports, movies, TV, fast food and driving everywhere with a cellphone clamped to our heads?
Sometimes when I go to the bar, there is not one dern television on, but FOUR.
The principles of The Declaration Of Independence, and The Constitution, were first discussed in taverns throughout the American colonial era. Shit, I bet ya The Magna Carta came straight outta meadhalls!
This is not a post to proclaim alcohol as championing social change. Actually, it is. I will contend - intellegent people gathering for drinks can and does and did change the world. I mean, beer thirst isn't denominational, right?
The blood in my veins runs melancholic with this- discourse at the modern tavern drowned by the din of Taco Bell commercials.
we all talk to each other less. and less. and less.
added: this was not mine.
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3 comments:
Thomas Jefferson was a marijuana farmer. So was George Washington. Alcohol was the rage in New England, but the good southerners smoked pot.
Little food for thought here. Pygalgia, I see you at the bar all the time and yet I know more about you from your blog than from sitting next to you. If there were no televisions in the bar, but we all had our laptops, would we email the person sitting next to us? My point is yes, as a society we are talking less but still communicating in a big way. When I was a teenager, I vegged in front of the television. Teenagers today are watching You Tube and My Space, but they are interacting with each other virtually through blogs and comments while watching which, in my humble opinion, is an improvement. Worry not, discourse lives, just not in a Magna Carta in meadhalls sort of way.
Hey, wait a minute. I did not post this. Who is using my handle?
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