Posted
by Matt Armstrong
April 10, 2007 at 8:43 p.m.
Well, I guess it's only been 82 years... wait, what?
[
][1]You know, sometimes you get struck by the most unexpected things. But to explain this, I have to admit something to you. You see, in seventh grade, I was... was... a theatre nerd. Well, a blossoming one, at least. I lost the taste for it in a few years. I think it was when I discovered The Descendants, and realized I could be spending my time on stage doing better things. Like [Meat Spins][2] and singing love songs to coffee.Anyway, in the summer between 7th and 8th grade, the theatre group I was in (Little Theatre of West Monroe, Louisiana; finest company to ever put on a production of Binky Rudolph and the Attack of the Space Pandas) took a trip to Auburn, Alabama, to take in the local Shakespeare festival and a few other choice performances (And just in case you were wondering, Two Gentlemen of Verona IS better in the round). One of the others that we saw while there was Inherit The Wind. Afterwards, the company was nice (read: pompous) enough to sit down with us, a group of 13 year olds, and answer our questions about the spectacle we had just seen. As you would expect, questions were honest to a diamond hard point, probing the deepest reaches of the actor's mind. Questions like, "Is that suit hot?", and, "How do you remember to talk so loud?" A big one that stood out to me was when Heather, a fiery redhead that I was pretty sure would let me touch her boob back at the hotel, asked the actor playing Drummond about his bald head. Turns out the actor had shaved his head for his role. "This has got to be the best actor I have ever seen.", I stated out loud, twisting my collarbone length hair mindlessly around my index finger. The thing about us asking such mundane questions wasn't because we didn't enjoy the performance, or weren't interested. We weren't interested in, or aware of, the warning it laid out about the return of McCarthyism. We weren't struck by the culture clashes of the past, because A:) We hadn't learned of it yet, and B:) We had accepted the current way of life as how things were supposed to be, and the thought of evolution having to struggle to be accepted was foreign to us. Many of us were from Christian homes, though not Christian enough to stop us from getting wine coolers at the Sleep Inn, and were taught both ideas, and were cool with it. Watching a play about evolution's struggle was like watching a play about Copernicus. It was hard to get emotionally involved, because the persecutors were so painfully stupid. [
][1]Now I know, I know, the real Scopes trial was nothing like the play or movie, that it was an exercise by the ACLU, a tourist attraction, an experiment and Scopes never faced jail time, but God dammit it still happened. They held an expansionist and educator in court to see if he was right in teaching options, and it was considered fascinating. Like they had caught something strange, and wanted to tie it to a stick, just to watch how it twitched.But that's beside the point, that of what hit me this morning. On NPR around 8am, they were interviewing Doug Hughes on his latest production of the play, now 52 years old; about the trial, now 82 years old. They were going over all the ways that the play is still relevant to the latest siege by the Christian Right (nut) on the teaching of evolution. And I found myself thinking, as I sipped my morning coffee, "What. The. Fuck?"For real? Really? It's been 82 Years since evolution got into schools? How the hell can we still be fighting over it's right to be taught? By this time, our parents have been taught it, and our grandparents as well, in many cases. How can they make the case that we damage kids by teaching them about a couple of beneficial mutations? Wouldn't they be fucked up by it as well? Are they just worried that the impending cultural shift would take people away from their team? I don't think they have to worry about evolution doing that. The one recent study I could find shows that only 9% of Americans, including one congressman (finally!), consider themselves Atheists. That didn't come from any cultural realignment, teaching kids about optional origins of species. But then again, I guess there haven't been too many other cultural events in the past 82 years. Let me see if I can think of one or two...¢ Civil Rights ¢ Women's Rights ¢ Animal Marriage ¢ Same Sex Marriage ¢ The Great Depression ¢ The Great Recovery ¢ The Goonies ¢ The Great Recession ¢ Spanish Civil War I ends ¢ Spanish Civil War II ¢ World War II ¢ Korea ¢ Vietnam ¢ Panama ¢ Nuclear Weapons, all ¢ Rise of Iron Curtain ¢ Fall of Iron Curtain ¢ Reconstruction of Germany ¢ Twice. ¢ Electric Guitars and trap Drum kits ¢ JFK killed ¢ RFK killed ¢ All conspirators die of old age ¢ Empire State Building built ¢ Empire State Building cliched ¢ Sears Tower built ¢ Ferris Bueller's Day Off ¢ Sears Tower cliched ¢ World Trade Centers built ¢ World Trade Centers destroyed ¢ Pearl Harbor ¢ Parachute Pants ¢ Movies, all ¢ Labradoodles ¢ The Beatles ¢ Radiohead ¢ Computers, all ¢ Highways ¢ McDonald's ¢ Bob Dole born, now roams country side to feed ¢ Disco ¢ Gas Crisis ¢ Buddy Holly squished ¢ Reality Television ¢ American Gladiators ... to name a few. Play along at home!So I guess there hasn't been too much going on, huh? But, really, what counts more than the ability to learn and accept new, enlightening ideas? Ow, I think I sprained my sarcasm bone.I hope I'm not alone in thinking that our skill in expanding our own minds, right or wrong, just to have options, is part of what makes us human. And to think that that basic core of people, what allows us as a culture to truly move forward has been blocked up all this time, by mental, cultural, religious conservatives that just got done collecting [egg tithes for a zombie][3], it just makes me sick. Or am I mistaken about the whole thing? Lemme know, people.-m@PS: Sorry the last couple of posts haven't been about video games and geekery. I promise you, I'll send along plenty of crap on Puzzle Quest, Super Paper Mario XXVII, the new Halo release info, Guitar Hero clap trap, and flim flammery et. al. Word up, indeed. [1]: http://photobucket.com" target="_blank [2]: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Meat+Spin" target="_blank [3]: http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a127/matt1276/5394-noscale-zombiejesusjaredhindma.jpg
Comments
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Feents (Caterina Benalcazar) says…
I like that computers follow Radiohead. OK that.
matt (Matt Armstrong) says…
Indeed. I wasn't kidding about play along at home. List the things that you think are cultural shift points from the 20th century. Anything, as long as it impacted you. I'd love to see want others think.
matt (Matt Armstrong) says…
Ahem. "what" other's think.
thetomdotdot (anonymous) says…
Chess Records (includes descendants (zep))
Media explosion (includes internet and bogosphere)
Digital recording, MIDI, dsps (the good (any dumbass can record)and the bad (any dumbass can record))
Referring to piano players as keyboard players (equates to journalists are typists)
8' hoops ("My Documents")
Armageddon (Microsoft)
Microsoft (Armageddon)
Mr_A (Bryan Anderson) says…
-Star Wars (The Movie)
-Star Wars (The retarded missle defense thingie)
-Tight rolled jeans
-Intelligent Design
I'll take guesses as to which one of these things I am in favor of.
monkeywrench (Tim vonHolten) says…
guns 'n' roses - appetite for destruction
front-clasp bras
the hemi (apparently these kick ass)
the McDLT (first occurrence of keeping the hot hot and the cold cold)
freon (accept no substitutes)
DDT (no relation to McDLT - as far as i know)
trickle-down theory
blogs (still no known benefits)
gas grills
battery-powered lollipop spinners
icicle-style christmas lights
bratz
countless varieties of "cool" bibles
budweiser frogs
spuds mckenzie
the wheel (first invented by jesus in 1956)
pinky and the brain
switcheroo comedies (tom hanks, dudley moore/kirk cameron, judge reinhold/fred savage, lindsay lohan/jamie lee curtis, barbara harris/jodie foster, shelley long/gaby hoffman, etc.)
al bundy
ted bundy
bun e. carlos
billy (Billy Keefe) says…
Have you guys heard the Scopes Monkey Trial songs from the national archives? Here is one by Vernon Dalhart:
http://www.authentichistory.com/1920s...
bloozman (anonymous) says…
Monkeywrench: Blogs (still no known benefits)
You may be on to something:
http://tech.msn.com/news/articlecnet....
AlAlvin (anonymous) says…
Cell Phones
blaxpotation films
Ronco Showtime Rotisserie
Th porn industry
jay_holley (Jay Holley) says…
"The one recent study I could find shows that only 9% of Americans, including one congressman (finally!), consider themselves Atheists"
"How the hell can we still be fighting over [evolution's] right to be taught?"
The side of rationality is not fighting very effectively, it seems.
OnShakedown (Chris Tackett) says…
re your mention of 9% of Americans labeling themselves athiests, i thought of this, which i saw on digg recently: http://m4th.com/Articles/Why-are-geek...
turns out on nearly half of all digg users and most geeks call themselves Atheists. it's an interesting read no matter where you fall on the spectrum.
jay_holley: "The side of rationality is not fighting very effectively, it seems."
i've heard this point answered in the following way...the 'rationalists' think it is so obvious that they are right, that logical people should and will naturally come to realize they are right, so there is less energy (and money) put into converting people to their way of thinking.
unfortunately for the 'rationalists', it doesn't always work that way.
thetomdotdot (anonymous) says…
The democratization of rationality
Wondering if LB will bother
Piza delivery (fall back for actors, rock stars, and MFAs)
matt (Matt Armstrong) says…
I didn't realize that the tag didn't copy over. So, it should be pointed out that this is courtesy Sean at the fantastic mp3 blog, Said The Gramophone. It's at http://www.saidthegramophone.com. He's a fantastic writer, and puts my criticism of pop music to shame. Check him out and get yourself some free music.