The World Needs Another Mr. Rogers -- Wedges Driven Between Us All

reply to post by LiquidTheBrit0


I agree..

I mean, I don't know what else can be added to your post.

I am thinking right now that maybe Mr. Rogers was as much a product of the country at the time as the country was a product of his teaching. So while another Mr. Rogers would be good, it would be good because this would be a sign of the times.

I have been disgusted at the nation's seeming lack of community since I was old enough to realize. We haven't had much time to see how abundant personal computing and telecommunications will play out. From my perspective, we as a people dealt with television quite well - it became an escape but never replaced life.

Halloween is probably greatest example, as many of you have already cited it. Parents would rather buy their children bags of candy then let them go out. It's a vicious cycle, too. When there are fewer kids out, then it's not enough fun to go out, so even fewer decide to go trick-or-treating. One of my brothers, thirteen, did not go out this year. I guess there's no excitement in Halloween when he could lay on the couch, screwing around online. My friends and I went out until we were seventeen when we realized we were the only ones out past eight o'clock.

The same brother doesn't have a big group of friends like I did at that age. He doesn't go out for meaningless bike rides or tell my mom "just goofing around at so-and-so's house" when she asks where he's going. It's almost like the social aspect and enjoyment of each other's company is gone. It's all about the activity itself, be it tennis or seeing a movie.

On my old street, the wonderful people there would throw a block party. I had no idea who most were since I was very young. Even if they didn't have kids, the adults would show up and do stupid activities. On my "new" street (we've been here for 11 years), we had a little group of three or four houses with kids about our age who would play together. We would go trick-or-treating together, randomly ring the doorbell on sunny days, play pickup games of kickball, and retreat to someone's basement.

We have no block parties here. They tried it many years ago, and it was pretty worthless. There is no sense of community on my block. I have one friend whose neighborhood still throws a block party. There were a lot of kids his age growing up there. He would go out ding-dong-ditching, TPing people's houses, and sneak into a neighbor's pool at night. His dad, God bless his soul, would go out "trick-or-drinking" with the men in the neighborhood. The sense of fun and community did not stop with the kids.

This topic reminded me of the awful game "The Sims Online". I loved the original, so I signed up for the beta. The original Sims was fun because you had a tiny neighborhood, your neighbors would visit, you could focus on your cute little house. When it went online, there was nothing of the sort. There was no such thing as a neighborhood. The people who were most successful were the ones who pooled their money together and built a large, soulless building. There was no incentive to be creative or social. The game did not force players to be social, so they were not.

Life no longer forces us to be social. We can watch DVDs and YouTube and play games anonymously online. Everything comes from a super-store or through the mail from the internet.

I think we have hope, though. Some young adults certainly realize our flaws right now. I have at least a couple friends who insist they will not be like their parents, they will make sure he or she is "the one" before getting married. Our culture will end up balancing itself out in other ways too, particularly in relation to new media. New parents will regulate computer and internet usage. The internet will lose its new feeling and begin to be used appropriately.

We will learn from our mistakes and the mistakes of those before us. There will be future generations with their own problems, but hopefully we can keep from passing on our own.

Thanks for all of the kind words fellow members.

Seeing so many people agree on this actually gives me a bit of hope for the future.


Thanks again all!


Jasn

reply to post by SimiusDei




2:20+ I think reveals about how we view our fellow man. We're bombarded with what beauty and perfection is, and the only time we ever hear about the common man, it's always in a negative light.

This may or may not be relevant to people, but I hope you catch my drift.

reply to post by LiquidTheBrit0


Great post and I agree. We are failing in just about every facet of what America was built on.

While the Chinese children (for example) love to learn and see it as a privilege we find ways to make education easier on our youth. Funny how I personally know of kids who struggle to pass in school but can write computer code to hack something.

This thread is really exposing so much that is wrong in American society today and unfortunately it's not getting better. But hey! Plenty of girls gone wild making their parents proud!

Great clip DFB,

Commander Marcos is right, as you are, regarding the content and relevency to this thread of this video. I don't thing we need another person in a mask weilding an automatic rifle in our world but sometimes that is what it takes I guess.

Our Main stream media is controlled. Ted Turner and Conrad Black control large areas of print and television news outlets in the USA, Canada and the UK. Monopolies are the real villian here and they stroll down the aisle with the government and interest groups on their sides. As Walmart kills whole neighborhood merchant sectors these guys take it the rest of the way.

The lobsters are indeed in the pot.

LGF.

Here are a few of the things I've notice.

Not to long ago we had 24 hour all news channels. Now nothing happens after 7pm eastern I guess.

Rommney just held a news confrence to talk about his Mormon faith. George senior introduced him. Less then a year ago some grand Mormon leader was a most wanted fugitive for underaged sex, pedophilia and god nows what else. I thought the media would jump all over it which they did in the beginning. About two or three months ago they finnally catch the guy. Nothing more. No big trail coverage nothing. What happened ?

Mormon power I guess. Controlled media, Our next president !

LGF

The original post is excellent. I've felt for a long time that there is a concerted effort to cause as much division in this country as possible. Be it in politics, foriegn affairs, religion or whatever...pick a subject and you'll hear talking heads on the radio or television labeling the other side as crazy, kooks or even dangerous. If you really look it's visible everywhere. At the same time, just as the original poster said, we're being isolated from each other by trivial distractions. My opinion is that it weakens the American people's collective strength to the point that it is incapable of making a concerted effort in any meangingful way. Therefore, uncapable of deciding its own future.
In my mind, there is no way that this is a chance occurrence. Someone or some group is behind it. Why? Who?

reply to post by sjag9


Indeed!


We have enough troubles with things such as racism, sexism or any other "ism" to keep us divided.

We don't need to put the extra effort forth to divide ourselves.

Racism is NOWHERE NEAR the problem that it was several decades ago, yet, there are forces in this country (and this world) that simply WILL NOT ALLOW US to move past it.

Why?


Because it benefits them to drive the wedge as far in as they possibly can.



*sigh*


Jasn

reply to post by Papillion

Rommney just held a news confrence to talk about his Mormon faith. George senior introduced him. Less then a year ago some grand Mormon leader was a most wanted fugitive for underaged sex, pedophilia and god nows what else. I thought the media would jump all over it which they did in the beginning. About two or three months ago they finnally catch the guy. Nothing more. No big trail coverage nothing. What happened ?

On the debates the same thing happened. they mention somethings that are wrong with rommeny and gullianni and they act like its no big deal. rommeny wasnt even a practicing mormon until recently