How has it been a month since I last posted? Time slips away when you're enjoying zero responsibility of being unemployed and living at home. (Though I have been working on job applications so that I can no longer be living at home and visiting friends in the vicinity.)
For the past few weeks I have been enamoured with show business, both in front, and behind, the scenes. I'm the type of person who becomes very interested and moves from topic to topic, though they come in political/current event, culture/entertainment, and sometimes fashion blocks. Right now I'm in an entertainment block, mostly television, so take that what you will.
I started this post as a second-part to my last post about meeting celebrities (but really, what does one say, even at an event specifically created for meeting said celebrity) because I find our (me included) fascination with the entertainment (and athletic for some) world takes from the productivity of the overall globe. You can say that productivity is a loaded term that only makes sense in a consumption-based mentality that is not natural or healthy, however there is more to the world than art and sports.
The majority of us are anonymous beings, bringing whatever our skills are, to the world, one bit at a time (no pun intended, computer people). Mostly, the people outside our localities we see are actors, maybe musicians or athletes, and lately they've been reality television stars or the new royal couple. We see prodigies, and feel a sense of failure for the lack of accomplishment at such a young age. We're enticed by snippets of a life we've conjured up from half-truths of interviews and scenes.
I am part of the problem, but I do think we should aspire to value academic achievement in more than just words. I understand why our cumulative attention is focused on entertainment and athletics. Evolutionarily speaking, we aren't built for so much knowledge about people outside the community circle. Now the community is global, and the people we see on a regular basis, whether it be on television, film, or at the game, become part of our mental community. They become our heroes.
The topic has gotten away from me, which is what I get for sitting on this post for a month.
We know because of our culture's negative attitude toward nerds, our kids are discouraged from being bookish from an early age. We also know that there is a high drop out rate for college students in nerdy subjects such as science and math, which in turn affects how the country competes globally in fields such as medicine and engineering. So to me, there can be no innovation and job creation talks without talking about education.
They see the loudest applause is for the kids on the field. They know teachers are paid poorly and don't drive fancy cars. They know people plan Super Bowl parties but mock the National Spelling Bee.
Links.
I adore this show, and this four-part interview has only solidified by love. Mike talks about how he researches the political aspects of this half-hour comedy, remaining true to the characters instead of 'selling out' for ratings, and other breeds of politics and tv writing that makes me want to walk a day in his brain.
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