simplicity is beautiful
The most recent issue of my beloved The Sun features a great interview with Studs Terkel. I’ve never known much about him other than that he’s a writer and a legend for various reasons. But it’s great to read some of his comments/opinions, especially considering his perspective as a ninety-three year old. He’s seen and lived through a lot, obviously, so I think his take on modern society is pretty compelling...
(You may want to skip this for now, Wendy, as I don’t want this to be a spoiler for you...)
“You wonder: How stupid are the American people? Are my books a hoax? Because the books say there’s a basic decency in the American people, and a basic honesty, and a basic intelligence. Am I wrong? No, because the cards have been stacked against the people from the beginning.
“We talk about ‘assaults’ these days. We talk about the ‘9/11 assault.’ The most egregious assault right now is on our intelligence. Public TV is a big offender – look who’s been on there the longest: (conservative commentator) Bill Buckley. And who else has been on? John McLaughlin and Robert Novak and Mort Kondracke (all conservatives).
(And meanwhile the liberal Bill Moyers…) “...was forced out of public TV. They say he’s too biased. And so you have to think the American people can be pretty stupid. Or is it that we’re suffering from a national Alzheimer’s disease? We cannot remember yesterday, let alone what happened fifty years ago…
“...Social Security – privatize it, and half my friends would be buried in potter’s field...Think about this. We are the only industrialized nation in the world that does not have universal healthcare. We are also the only industrialized nation in the world that still has the death penalty.
“...So that tells me that we’re a dumb bunch of schmucks here, really, voting against ourselves. Or is there something else? If you’re fed banality and you’re fed trivia and you’re fed all the schlock – the sex and the crime and the overdose of food and everything else – something is bound to happen. It isn’t just people being dumb. The cards are stacked; the dice are loaded.”
On a completely different note, after discussing his “ineptitude” with regard to mechanical things – which I can certainly relate to – he talks about how he prefers to keep things as simple as possible in general...
“The other thing I like to do (when interviewing) is keep it simple: ‘What do you do? What is your day like?’ Here’s a good example: a gas-meter reader in Working. I ask, ‘What is the day of a gas-meter reader like?’ He says, ‘Well, it’s dogs and women.’ And I say, ‘Dogs and women?’ And then I realize the first is the reality, the second the fantasy. You’ve got to know that. ‘Well, let’s talk about the dogs first.’
“’I don’t care for a pit bull,’ he says. ‘I’ve got my flashlight ready. I don’t mind a wolfhound. It’s those little poodles, those Pekingese pups, I hate them. They gnaw at my legs.’
“’Now what about the women?’”
“’Oh, nothing’s happened. It’s just sometimes it’s summertime, and it’s hot, and a woman is kind of good-looking, and she’s lying there in the backyard on her stomach on the blanket, and she’s in a bikini. She’s getting the sun on her back, and she’s got the bra unfastened. So what I do is I creep up very slowly, very softly, and when I’m right near her, I holler: ‘Gas man!’ And she turns around. You know what, I’m bawled out an awful lot, but it makes the day go faster.’”
Genius.
Does anyone remember the scene at the end of the movie Dogma where Linda Fiorentino’s character, Bethany, asks God, who’s played by Alanis Morissette, “Why are we here?” God (Alanis) thinks about it for a second, looks around, then looks up at Bethany, scrunches Bethany’s nose with her finger, and says, “Wrrp...!” That’s still one of my favorite scenes in any movie I’ve ever seen because, I think, it says everything without saying anything. That is why we’re here…to play with and enjoy each other and have fun, so long as nobody’s getting hurt. Everything else is icing. Which isn’t to say I don’t still struggle with the issue about which I posted yesterday...but I absolutely believe that.
Gas man! (Wrrp...!)
(You may want to skip this for now, Wendy, as I don’t want this to be a spoiler for you...)
“You wonder: How stupid are the American people? Are my books a hoax? Because the books say there’s a basic decency in the American people, and a basic honesty, and a basic intelligence. Am I wrong? No, because the cards have been stacked against the people from the beginning.
“We talk about ‘assaults’ these days. We talk about the ‘9/11 assault.’ The most egregious assault right now is on our intelligence. Public TV is a big offender – look who’s been on there the longest: (conservative commentator) Bill Buckley. And who else has been on? John McLaughlin and Robert Novak and Mort Kondracke (all conservatives).
(And meanwhile the liberal Bill Moyers…) “...was forced out of public TV. They say he’s too biased. And so you have to think the American people can be pretty stupid. Or is it that we’re suffering from a national Alzheimer’s disease? We cannot remember yesterday, let alone what happened fifty years ago…
“...Social Security – privatize it, and half my friends would be buried in potter’s field...Think about this. We are the only industrialized nation in the world that does not have universal healthcare. We are also the only industrialized nation in the world that still has the death penalty.
“...So that tells me that we’re a dumb bunch of schmucks here, really, voting against ourselves. Or is there something else? If you’re fed banality and you’re fed trivia and you’re fed all the schlock – the sex and the crime and the overdose of food and everything else – something is bound to happen. It isn’t just people being dumb. The cards are stacked; the dice are loaded.”
On a completely different note, after discussing his “ineptitude” with regard to mechanical things – which I can certainly relate to – he talks about how he prefers to keep things as simple as possible in general...
“The other thing I like to do (when interviewing) is keep it simple: ‘What do you do? What is your day like?’ Here’s a good example: a gas-meter reader in Working. I ask, ‘What is the day of a gas-meter reader like?’ He says, ‘Well, it’s dogs and women.’ And I say, ‘Dogs and women?’ And then I realize the first is the reality, the second the fantasy. You’ve got to know that. ‘Well, let’s talk about the dogs first.’
“’I don’t care for a pit bull,’ he says. ‘I’ve got my flashlight ready. I don’t mind a wolfhound. It’s those little poodles, those Pekingese pups, I hate them. They gnaw at my legs.’
“’Now what about the women?’”
“’Oh, nothing’s happened. It’s just sometimes it’s summertime, and it’s hot, and a woman is kind of good-looking, and she’s lying there in the backyard on her stomach on the blanket, and she’s in a bikini. She’s getting the sun on her back, and she’s got the bra unfastened. So what I do is I creep up very slowly, very softly, and when I’m right near her, I holler: ‘Gas man!’ And she turns around. You know what, I’m bawled out an awful lot, but it makes the day go faster.’”
Genius.
Does anyone remember the scene at the end of the movie Dogma where Linda Fiorentino’s character, Bethany, asks God, who’s played by Alanis Morissette, “Why are we here?” God (Alanis) thinks about it for a second, looks around, then looks up at Bethany, scrunches Bethany’s nose with her finger, and says, “Wrrp...!” That’s still one of my favorite scenes in any movie I’ve ever seen because, I think, it says everything without saying anything. That is why we’re here…to play with and enjoy each other and have fun, so long as nobody’s getting hurt. Everything else is icing. Which isn’t to say I don’t still struggle with the issue about which I posted yesterday...but I absolutely believe that.
Gas man! (Wrrp...!)
Labels: inspiration, media heroes, our gutless media
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3:19 PM
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