Butter Sandwiches

Drugs am I.
Sat Nov 28
tanya77:

spytap:

Really WSJ? My PATRIOTIC duty?!

Don’t make me laugh. Americans need to stop spending abover their means, for one.

 I don’t understand what’s so puzzling to you about seeing this. Today the most “patriotic” thing an American can do is to spend, because our roles changed from politically active citizens to active consumers post-WWI, and especially post-WWII. This is when the ideas of conspicuous consumption and huge shopping malls started popping up. This was not a mistake or a coincidence, this was a trend encouraged, emphasized and kindled by government leaders who realized that our post-war production levels were going to fall off and we needed a solution to keep our economy running. This is documented history. I mean, it even appeared in my conventional center-right American history textbook last year in my AP US course. There’s a whole documentary on it, 9 hours long, you can watch the whole thing online, it’s called “The Century of Self” and it’s about how Sigmund Freud’s new ideas (new in the 1920s) about unconscious psychological desires have been utilized by governments and advertisement agencies to manipulate the public will in peacetime. It’s fascinating, not at all a “conspiracy theory” film, very credible and well-made.
I highly suggest everyone check it out, especially if you’re at any way interested in psychology.
But seriously, in regards to the picture above…why are you surprised by that? I thought Americans at least accepted the fact that their primary use to their government is to keep the economy stimulated by buying things. I mean, politically, we do NOTHING. What do you expect our leaders use us for other than to keep funding their wars and stuff? Wow, I’m amazed.

tanya77:

spytap:

Really WSJ? My PATRIOTIC duty?!

Don’t make me laugh. Americans need to stop spending abover their means, for one.

 I don’t understand what’s so puzzling to you about seeing this. Today the most “patriotic” thing an American can do is to spend, because our roles changed from politically active citizens to active consumers post-WWI, and especially post-WWII. This is when the ideas of conspicuous consumption and huge shopping malls started popping up. This was not a mistake or a coincidence, this was a trend encouraged, emphasized and kindled by government leaders who realized that our post-war production levels were going to fall off and we needed a solution to keep our economy running. This is documented history. I mean, it even appeared in my conventional center-right American history textbook last year in my AP US course. There’s a whole documentary on it, 9 hours long, you can watch the whole thing online, it’s called “The Century of Self” and it’s about how Sigmund Freud’s new ideas (new in the 1920s) about unconscious psychological desires have been utilized by governments and advertisement agencies to manipulate the public will in peacetime. It’s fascinating, not at all a “conspiracy theory” film, very credible and well-made.

I highly suggest everyone check it out, especially if you’re at any way interested in psychology.

But seriously, in regards to the picture above…why are you surprised by that? I thought Americans at least accepted the fact that their primary use to their government is to keep the economy stimulated by buying things. I mean, politically, we do NOTHING. What do you expect our leaders use us for other than to keep funding their wars and stuff? Wow, I’m amazed.

Bookended by 9/11 at the start and a financial wipeout at the end, the first 10 years of this century will very likely go down as the most dispiriting and disillusioning decade Americans have lived through in the post–World War II era. We’re still weeks away from the end of ‘09, but it’s not too early to pass judgment. Call it the Decade from Hell, or the Reckoning, or the Decade of Broken Dreams, or the Lost Decade. Call it whatever you want — just give thanks that it is nearly over.

The 00’s: A Decade from Hell - TIME

Molly Lambert said this is “the Lost Generation” of bloggers and for what its worth i very much agree. i’ll be very glad for this decade to be over.

(via nedhepburn)

It is also the most creatively bankrupt decade in this century. There have been a few bright spots here and there, but the last ten years produced no “new movements” in the arts. 2000 was the dawn of America’s mind-boggling obsession with “celebrity” fueled by (or causing) the explosion of “celebrity” magazines, 24 hour “celebrity” channels, and ultimately a never-ending stream of “celebrity”-focused web-sites. These celebrities for the most part have no skills, no talents, nothing to offer society in the way of art, unless publicly conducting a cartoon version of a drama-laced life is considered “art” by anyone.

During this decade, the studios and networks saturated the market with reality shows and fell into a greed encouraged by the low cost of those productions. The public in turn committed themselves to not only watching the endless stream of shit that is “reality”, but to participating as contestants in any version of base and humiliating scenarios to achieve what most of them feel is the zenith of human existence: appearing on Television. At the same time, with our Government’s help, laws that insured independent production were relaxed and mergers of media giants took place destroying much of creative innovation on broadcast TV. Meanwhile, the studios dedicated themselves to filming sequel upon expensive sequel and movie versions of old TV shows while continuously lowering the total amount of films made.

Like I said, there have been a few bright spots, but overall, this decade will go down as the most creatively-depressed decade of the century.

(via tanya77)

Completely agreed, tanya77. American culture as it stands is dead. There is no more production, we are entirely a culture of consumption. We demand instant entertainment at our fingertips and we’re so satiated by it we’ve stopped producing new things. There is nothing new anymore because all we do is consume information and media. There has been little mainstream interaction with our media environment because everything we could possibly want is spoon-fed to us with no work required on our part. Just turn on the tube or look it up on the internet. Production of new and interesting media has stopped. We’re all just consumers of information now. It’s sickening to see the death of creativity. That being said, the internet community itself, with the rise of personal blogs and stuff, has both fostered personal creativity and interaction with media but at the same time made everyone even more narcissistic. The internet, with its ease and customisability to the user, is both a blessing and a curse—because it allows us to create whatever we want, but provides us with no outside impetus to create. And surrounded by all this information, we simply soak it all up like a sponge and produce little back. Culture is dead. Long live culture! I declare the 2000s as the death of culture, and likewise, the freedom from all prior constraints. Death in that way is refreshing. So now I feel more ultimately free and able to produce whatever I want myself. For example, this decade, I’ve written music, short stories, essays, I just started journaling this past week, artworks, etc. And I’m only 18. I promise myself never to stop producing art and creating and experiencing new ways to mold my environment and the world around me. And fuck everyone else, they’re dead, right?

Fri Nov 27
Intellectual giftedness is an intellectual ability significantly higher than average. Gifted children often develop asynchronously; their minds are often ahead of their physical growth, and specific cognitive and emotional functions are often developed differently (or to differing extents) at different stages of development.

Intellectual giftedness - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Today, someone (a semi-expert in this field) told me I probably have “intellectual giftedness” or “Hoogbegaafdheid” in Dutch. I was a little taken aback by this now I’m not sure if I should actually get tested or not…

(via qisto)

I was told I was intellectually gifted at the age of six.  Probably not the right time of my life for that.

(via k-troll)

“There is often a stark gap between the abilities of the gifted individual and his or her actual accomplishments. Many gifted students will perform extremely well on standardized or reasoningtests, only to fail a class exam. This disparity can result from various factors, such as loss of interest in too-easy classes or negative social consequences of being perceived as smart.[18]Underachievement can also result from emotional or psychological factors, including depression, anxiety, perfectionism, or self-sabotage.”

Story of my life.

(via adamquinn)

I was ID’d as gifted at age 4 by my sister’s gifted teacher, who tested me at the behest of my parents, who were getting complaints from my pre-school that I had autism and ADD. It’s funny how they thought I was autistic before I was ID’d as “gifted.” Either way, in 9th grade, I decided I didn’t want an IED anymore so I requested that the school drop mine. They did.

I’ve always had a hard time relating to my peers and stuff. I’ve always been very different. I found out last weekend that I’ve been living with pretty significant OCD for most of my life, as well as OCPD. I used to have mild ADD when I was younger but that’s receded—currently, the severity of my OCPD has increased a lot. It’s given me a lot to think about psychologically and I’m discovering new things about myself and how incredibly different and weird I am. Sometimes I think I’m crazy, because everything I do seems perfectly normal but I know to other people it’s not. I don’t expect anyone to respond to this post or even understand it, and I’m not going to attempt to explain it further. Either way, I’m going through a lot right now emotionally, psychologically, philosophically, personally, etc. etc. and it’s all very new and quite scary at times. I saw this post and it struck me and I felt compelled to write this little bit right here and if you don’t understand it that’s fine with me. Have a good day.

(via peyotecoyote)
kill me before i get this old.
seniors.
“bowling, wii bowling tournament today!!!!!!!!!!!! i gotta get my hair done before lawrence welk’s television program comes on! he had on tommy dorsey last night…oh my god, that man is an angel!”

(via peyotecoyote)

kill me before i get this old.

seniors.

“bowling, wii bowling tournament today!!!!!!!!!!!! i gotta get my hair done before lawrence welk’s television program comes on! he had on tommy dorsey last night…oh my god, that man is an angel!”

Thu Nov 26