Boom (Concussed And Disgusted)
Jul. 19th, 2007 10:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jheti
I saw something today that tweaked my cynicism.
I am, it may please the readership to know, a very gullible and naieve person who can only SURVIVE by cultivating the illusion, not of skepticism, which I lack the same way most people lack forethought--but of sarcasm. You do not have to disbelieve a thing to be cynical or sarcastic about it.
In fact, cynicism by its nature is a function of disillusionment; you must embrace a thing to be disillusioned by it. Cynicism is the refuge of all people who do not possess skepticism--take, for example, the burnt stuff crusted along the bottom of what once was a perfectly good pot of coffee. You can't have the burnt stuff without the coffee, and you don't feel anything about the yucky stuff without having wanted the coffee.
The skeptic will tell you that of course, you get burnt stuff with your coffee; that's what happens when you overheat water and beans and let it sit grilling and fermenting in the tray, dumbass.
The cynic will say: Jesus! Isn't that the way it goes; them's the breaks.
Oh, skepticism can be "taught" and is "valued" at large, I suppose, but a great deal of "valued" things perplex me utterly and interest me not at all.
I can sit and wish to be more skeptical until global warming swallows my entire state. That won't make it happen.
But. Yes. Regardless.
The following headline, verbatim: "Survivors tell of NYC blast scare".
This is the same exact news source which, yesterday, published headlines to the effect of "More than a dozen seriously injured, ONE dead".
I believe it was fifteen notable victims and one dead, last I saw the count.
In other words, they're the same fourteen valid "survivors" and single dead person as they were yesterday. Not some new rain of all-encompassing slaughter with a lone champion wrestling back from the jaws of gruesome intractible death. It's just, now the ones who made it out have opinions instead of shock. (They're still in shock and will be for at least six months to over a year, but you didn't hear that from me.)
They really do wrangle headlines around just to make you look at them.
It's wrong to say astonished. It's also wrong to say it's not surprising, because it is surprising, like a fistful of cold water in the face. I have gone "to sleep" in my awareness, and now and then things wake me up.
It's all for the story. Even if they don't have a new one to tell. We've got to move those papers, bucko, so give me something good, and not that shit variety piece on world politics. I need a headline with some carnage to it, you read me? Get me a brand new body count by noon, or you can clean out your desk. Why are you still standing there?
It's an utter mystery why I waste my time with fantasy novels.
I am, it may please the readership to know, a very gullible and naieve person who can only SURVIVE by cultivating the illusion, not of skepticism, which I lack the same way most people lack forethought--but of sarcasm. You do not have to disbelieve a thing to be cynical or sarcastic about it.
In fact, cynicism by its nature is a function of disillusionment; you must embrace a thing to be disillusioned by it. Cynicism is the refuge of all people who do not possess skepticism--take, for example, the burnt stuff crusted along the bottom of what once was a perfectly good pot of coffee. You can't have the burnt stuff without the coffee, and you don't feel anything about the yucky stuff without having wanted the coffee.
The skeptic will tell you that of course, you get burnt stuff with your coffee; that's what happens when you overheat water and beans and let it sit grilling and fermenting in the tray, dumbass.
The cynic will say: Jesus! Isn't that the way it goes; them's the breaks.
Oh, skepticism can be "taught" and is "valued" at large, I suppose, but a great deal of "valued" things perplex me utterly and interest me not at all.
I can sit and wish to be more skeptical until global warming swallows my entire state. That won't make it happen.
But. Yes. Regardless.
The following headline, verbatim: "Survivors tell of NYC blast scare".
This is the same exact news source which, yesterday, published headlines to the effect of "More than a dozen seriously injured, ONE dead".
I believe it was fifteen notable victims and one dead, last I saw the count.
In other words, they're the same fourteen valid "survivors" and single dead person as they were yesterday. Not some new rain of all-encompassing slaughter with a lone champion wrestling back from the jaws of gruesome intractible death. It's just, now the ones who made it out have opinions instead of shock. (They're still in shock and will be for at least six months to over a year, but you didn't hear that from me.)
They really do wrangle headlines around just to make you look at them.
It's wrong to say astonished. It's also wrong to say it's not surprising, because it is surprising, like a fistful of cold water in the face. I have gone "to sleep" in my awareness, and now and then things wake me up.
It's all for the story. Even if they don't have a new one to tell. We've got to move those papers, bucko, so give me something good, and not that shit variety piece on world politics. I need a headline with some carnage to it, you read me? Get me a brand new body count by noon, or you can clean out your desk. Why are you still standing there?
It's an utter mystery why I waste my time with fantasy novels.
