Culture and Media Watch: October 2005 Archives

There is a myth among Unitarian Universalists that our congregations are full of affluent, highly credentialed liberals. Once the myth is accepted and begins to shape our expectations; the carpenter, the store clerk, and the hospital worker sitting in our pews become abnormal, simply because we have constructed our norm on the basis of that myth. The myth also masks the economic insecurity of the middle class.

In my experience there quite a few blue collar workers in our congregations, and there many desperate middle class or "white color" workers. How will our congregations serve the real people in our pews: through the celebration of a myth of affluence, or by talking about the desperation that people face daily in their lives of failing to make it in America?

Barbara Ehrenreich who introduced many middle class readers to the plight of the working poor in her Nicked and Dimed; On (Not) Getting By In America has written a new book Bait and Switch : The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream. In this book Ehrenreich attempts to get a white color job, she goes to job coaches, vocational counselors and she was told to think positively. She writes; "there is a tremendous American theme about positive thinking. We have a hard time dealing with truly bad news and discouraging information. Throughout my experience trying to get a white-collar job, I was encouraged to think positively. You are supposed to see your job loss as some great break, your chance to move on to something bigger and better. The reality is that 70 percent of people who lose their jobs and do get rehired, are rehired at a lower pay. But to criticize the system, or to be negative is considered "un-American."

She was unsuccessful in her job search, a not unusual experience among many qualified and experienced members of the congregations I have served. Both of Ehrenreich's books are a must read for Unitarian Universalists who seek to understand the increasing desperation of our people. Here is a link to a great interview with Ehrenreich.

Florida is tense.  The media packages the news, and it is tempting to package a category five hurricane as a looming disaster.  The mathematical models that the meteorologists use to predict the path of tropical storms has had Wilma trapped in the Caribbean by a ridge of a high pressure system in the Gulf, when that high pressure system weakened according to the experts, Wilma would turn North and move into the prevailing Westerlies and smash into Florida.  That was Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.  Friday morning and the turn to the east is still to come

I write on Friday morning, and Wilma is just striking Mexico's Yucatan peninsula, with expectations of catastrophe, and the winds that will carry it toward Florida are now predicted to come later.  Wilma was to come to us on Saturday, now it may hit Florida on Monday maybe, and then there is always Tuesday.  Of course, it might hit Cuba.  The whole Caribbean and the much of the Gulf region becomes involved in watching when a hurricanes direction depends on winds and jet streams that are somewhere in Minnesota but expected to come and push the storm and bring us havoc and destruction.

I suppose it is important for the weather people to warn us of impending catastrophe, but I wish they could do that and be a little more tentative.  Can't we be properly scared with "Wilma may turn" and "it could slow down" and all the qualifications one reads in the actual reports being prepared in technical prose at the National Hurricane Center.

Church services are being cancelled in some of Florida's UU congregations for a hurricane that may still come but later than expected.  I will make the call for my congregation in a few hours.  I am involved in the uncertainty, because I am scheduled to fly to Boston for the Unitarian Universalist Minister's Association Executive meetings, and as a parish minister I am worried about my church and my people.  I can stay and worry, or go and worry.  The long range models see Wilma headed for Massachusetts,  which I hear needs the rain. 

For my soul, I pray for Mexico's people.  And I will refrain from listening to the weather reports on television.  (Checking out the Hurricane Center's web site is more like research, and less sensational sound bites.)

Al Gore has given a major address in which he laments the death of "the marketplace of ideas" as propaganda becomes the dominant form of mass discourse, and he argues that America has entered an "alternative universe" where politicians are no longer accountable to truth. While he has a more generous view of "the founding fathers" than I do his point that the leaders who wrote the constitution and sought out to create a new Republic were committed to a deep appreciation of a broad humanism is well taken. I only wish he had talked like this back when he was running for President.

Funny, same thing happened to Jimmy Carter.

It was a long time ago. Walter Lippman wrote, "the manufacture of consent...was supposed to have died out with the appearance of democracy...but it has not died out. It has, in fact, improved enormously in technique...under the impact of propaganda, it is no longer plausible to believe in the original dogma of democracy."

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This was originally going to be a post on the decline of intellectual discourse in America. I hadn't even begun to write when the post disappeared, and I found it here. I assume that I hit the publish button, but I also wonder about a bug in the software. At any rate the title is provocative, and since it has already been picked up by the feeds it is too late to delete. People would be punching the listing over a Kimba and getting zip.

I might complete the thought behind the post someday, and publish it under a new title.

But if Unitarian Universalism is maintain its intellectual discourse I think we need to discuss issues based on standards of evidence. It is important that my co-religionists know how I feel about all sorts of things, but my feelings don't constitute a sufficient basis for making policy decisions for Unitarian Universalism.

We need more people talking to each other, at a deeper level of depth and candor. I experience less willingness to exchange ideas and experiences, for fear that we might make our conversation partner feel challenged.

As I said, I have not finished this thought. The lesson is don't compose in Ecto, my handy editing and posting software. Write in a word processor and thenransfer. Makes sense, but here I am composing in Ecto.

A shareware provider of subway maps that download for installation on a IPod has received a cease and desist order from New York's Metropolitan Transit Authority.  Apparently they see their subway maps as intellectual property although they give them away for free at the toll booths.  Boston however has no problem with downloadable copies of its subway maps, nor does the District of Columbia.

Check out the story, and keep an extra nickel in your pocket just in case.  Read Charley's story below.

Woody said:  "I would like to see every single soldier on every single side, just take off your helmet, unbuckle your kit, lay down your rifle, and set down at the side of some shady lane, and say, nope, I aint a gonna kill nobody. Plenty of rich folks wants to fight. Give them the guns."

Woody Gutrie, songwriter, singer, poet, social critic, and model for a generation of other singers died on October 3, 1967 after a long struggle with Huntington's disease.  He was 55.  Woody called his songs "people's songs." His vision for spiritual and social justice embodied in his lyrics and music continue to shape and influence American society.  Coming of age in Oklahoma during the time of the "Dustbowl"  and Great Depression he traveled throughout America during the 1930s, 40s and 50s as one of the main spokespeople for the causes of labor, anti-facism, anti-racism, and democracy.