Year of the Rat #9: Assburgers for EVERYBODY!

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Back in my days as an industrial mechanic, lo these many years ago, I worked on a chemical refining system.  Now, this system worked very well, when it was run correctly, and nothing that didn't belong got into the works.  When something DID get in, the system would slowly degrade and become more quirky, until it finally went totally haywire and had to be shut down.  Before it finally failed though, you could add certain chemicals to the mix, and it would behave almost normally, while you frantically tried to finish a production run.  The chemicals didn't remove the problem, they just covered up the symptoms, while you got a little more work out of the system.

Does that sound familiar? 

We keep hearing about "Aspergers Syndrome" and "Attention Deficit Disorder" and "Bipolar Disorder" these days.  Everyone and their damn DOG has one of the above, and they all need their meds to get through just one more day.  It wasn't like that when I was a kid, back in the dim dark days when Elvis was alive and Puffinstuff was still on the air.  No, you had well behaved kids, and you had the rest of us, and no excuses were made or even asked for.  Everyone understood their roles, and everyone got along fine (except for Chris Curr, who got a "swirley" every Friday at last recess, because he was a teacher's pet, and we all hated him).

So it occurs to me that there isn't just a fad for diagnosing these problems (Well, there is, but only to a degree; take a bipolar person off his meds, and you'll see what I mean).  And I kind of doubt that the human race has changed.  You can't even blame toxicity, because the problem is all over the damn place, not just in one region.  No, I think what's happened here is that we've buggered up the system.  We've added something that doesn't belong, and things are breaking down.  So we add some chemicals to the system, to get just a little more work out of the broken people around us, before we chuck them in the dumpster.  Or until they wander off down an alleyway after some meth, or kill themselves.

So the obvious solution, from a maintenance perspective, is to find what we've added to the system to cause the problem, and remove it.  But what is it?  Personally, I think it's the TV.  I could be mistaken.  I didn't exactly make a scientific study of it, with control groups and all, but the general degradation of our culture can be traced directly to the immediate post-war era in America.

Problem is, with the price of gas right now, nobody wants to go out to do anything else.  Coincidence?  HAR HAR!  Of COURSE it's a coincidence, you sap!  I mean, otherwise I'd be suggesting some sort of conspiracy, and that's just CRAZY TALK.  You should go get a tinfoil beanie.

Or kill me.

[Cainad (dec.)]

1. Television. Totally agree with you on that.
2. Hydrogenated fats
3. High-fructose corn syrup
4. Lack of IRL Fight Club

^These are the things that done buggered everything up.

Oh, and for yuo.

[Dr. Paes]

4. Lack of IRL Fight Club

IRL Fight Clubs FTW!!!

[Jenne]

WIN! 

[BADGE OF HONOR]

The thing that we've added to the system is more people.  I've said this before:  people drive other people crazy.  We're not physically equipped to deal with hundreds of people, especially strangers, every day.

[Richter]

Apt rant! 

The thing that we've added to the system is more people.  I've said this before:  people drive other people crazy.  We're not physically equipped to deal with hundreds of people, especially strangers, every day.

Interesting idea, I always wonder how this tweaks us long - term.  Especially the way we can start dismissing people in large crowds.

[Jenne]

Sure we are--it's called "suburbia."  Why know your neighbors when the assholes on Desperate Housewives are so much more "interesting"?

No, we're equipped, we just got lazy.  B00b t00b feeds the lazetrain.  If you know who you're living next to, you might have to care.  Caring means sharing.  And if it's all for me and none for you...that equation doesn't work right.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

The thing that we've added to the system is more people.  I've said this before:  people drive other people crazy.  We're not physically equipped to deal with hundreds of people, especially strangers, every day.

GENERIC ADAPTATIVE SYNDROME FTW.

[BADGE OF HONOR]

Sure we are--it's called "suburbia."  Why know your neighbors when the assholes on Desperate Housewives are so much more "interesting"?

No, we're equipped, we just got lazy.  B00b t00b feeds the lazetrain.  If you know who you're living next to, you might have to care.  Caring means sharing.  And if it's all for me and none for you...that equation doesn't work right.

When you start dismissing everyone you meet on the street, how long does it take before you start dismissing people you might get to know, but don't have the energy to?  To keep to yourself, stay within your own circle of friends, never offer to help anyone out.  Alienation piled on alienation.

Plus the internet means people get the simulation of human contact and never have to learn to deal wtih face to face social interaction.

[Daruko]

i love this thread and i agree.   that's why i stopped watching tv years ago.  just games and movies, but no fucking advertisements, news, reality shows, game shows, sitcoms, etc.  it's very nice.   

[Golden Applesauce]

A lot of these disorders are associated with physical, structural differences from 'healthy' people.  So while the current era is certainly unique, I'm not prepared to claim it is actually causing any of them.

As for television... I think something can be blamed on television, although I'm not sure what.  Play is something that is shared by all semi-intelligent social animals, at least as children, so it isn't a big leap to say that lack of play as a child could potentially screw things up later, or at least push an at risk kid over the edge.  I also doubt that sitting in front of a television provides all the benefits of play.  The American Academy of Pediatrics agrees with this, and there are studies linking ADHD/ADD with television at a young age.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

A lot of these disorders are associated with physical, structural differences from 'healthy' people.  So while the current era is certainly unique, I'm not prepared to claim it is actually causing any of them.

WHAT CAUSED THE STRUCTURAL CHANGE?  MUTAGENIC OOZE?

[BADGE OF HONOR]

It's a normal variation, the reason it's "more common" is that there are more people.  Also that sort of mental illness is no longer attached with the kind of social stigma that prevents people from blabbing about their problems all over the place. 

[Cainad (dec.)]

A lot of these disorders are associated with physical, structural differences from 'healthy' people.  So while the current era is certainly unique, I'm not prepared to claim it is actually causing any of them.

WHAT CAUSED THE STRUCTURAL CHANGE?  MUTAGENIC OOZE?

HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP. Mark my words.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

It's a normal variation, the reason it's "more common" is that there are more people.  Also that sort of mental illness is no longer attached with the kind of social stigma that prevents people from blabbing about their problems all over the place. 

WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THAT?

BRING BACK THE FUCKING STIGMA!