The Opiate of the Masses.

     Okay, those of you who don't recognize the allusion in today's title...look it up. [Okay, I'm a softie: it's Karl Marx, and the full quote is discussed at some length on Wikipedia here.]

     Were Marx with us today, he'd recognize that religion is no longer much of a mass opiate, right? What's your vote for the cause of the great dumbing-down of the Western world? [Really. That's what the comment section is for! Still think religion is? Support your argument in complete ppghs that are properly punctuated using appropriate language. (I wonder if any modern schoolkid has ever heard that line?)]

     While I think the "smart-phone" may be an up-and-coming candidate for drugging the masses into a stupor, unaware of their own thoughts as well as the world around them...I'm still voting for the television. The "idiot box." My personal fav, with thanx to Stephen King, who not-so-affectionately calls it, "The Glass Teat."

     Oh, don't come back with, "Well, the History Channel..." does this, or, "PBS..." that; you know exactly what I'm talking about--sports and marketing, soap operas and advertising, sitcoms and selling, dramas and movies and comedians and blah-blah-blah and all those shows THAT KEEP YOU FROM GETTING OFF YOUR DUFF AND DOING SOMETHING Y-O-U-R-S-E-L-F!
   
     Pardon me for yelling, but the number of times people complain about being too busy to exercise, too busy to talk at any depth with their spouse or kids, to busy to read good books or to pray or to paint, write poems, make that fancy garden that you've been talking about for you-know-how-long...yet we are not too busy to watch idiots competing/back-biting/complaining/being "judged," to watch news and sports, shoot-em-up or kiss-em-up movies and "Desperate Suburbanites" and "Vengeful Beauty" and "We in the Entertainment Industry Award Ourselves Show," and to what end?

     I dare you, in fact I double-dog dare you to turn off some of the infernal electronics in your life. Stand up, and go make something. Got a passion? Pursue it! Craft it, carve it, cook it. Write it, draw it, paint it, sketch it, compose it through the lens of your camera. Sing, dance, walk, talk, bike, hike, hug, go, do, and be...be the one who decides what you will think about next, rather than letting some TV producer lull you into such a state of receptivity that you'll not change the channel...and you might even be favorably impressed by one or more of the advertisements!

     Dare ya!

     Sincerely,
     Egg N. Yuowon

PS: the inspiration for today's blog goes to Janine Jansen, violinist extraordinaire...here performing Ralph Vaugh Williams' A Lark Ascending. Passionate rendering of a poignant piece...and, here, a more playful piece by Beethoven. (Music to listen to while you DO SOMETHING CREATIVE!)