Very interesting idea. They certainly are widely prescribed.
That’s the thing, Chinatown and Chinese were used as tropes. And, most folks didn’t get it, except to reinforce their own racist thoughts. (This was made in '73/74 when the US was mired in southeast Asia and Asian Americans were targeted). Had they substituted “Downtown” for Chinatown and “Old white guys in business suits” for the Chinese, the story would be essentially the same and probably reflect more accurately the reality.
Think of changed lines in the script:
-Hey, Jake. You know how it is… Schtuff happens downtown. Always has…
-Let it go Jake. Schtuff happens down there. Old white guys in business suits get together in dark oak panel club rooms… Well, you should know now, they talk schtuff; they plan schtuff; schtuff happens; and schtuff gets covered up. Ain’t nothing you can do it about, Jake. Let it go.
Change the movie title to “Downtown Vault”. It’s reality.
sing
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I suspect that’s why we have so many mass shootings. Too many have been on amphetamine since childhood or they disassociate.
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Well, the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s should have been replete with mass shootings, with all that weed, heroin, mushrooms, LSD, speed, concaine. But when I walked through the Boston Commons, the folks were tripping on drugs and “peace and lovin’”. No one was grabbing a AK47 and lighting it up.
sing
Maybe they were not as unhappy as the young males today.
Could be. What is the “unhappiness” now? Back then, people my age were getting conscripted to fight in Vietnam, especially if they didn’t have educational deferments, medical excuses and so forth. I lucked out in that “the draft” stopped just as I turned 18. My older brother was up, but the US were pulling out. I had older friends and cousins come back, mostly intact physically. They saw a lot of schtuff. Ask them what it’s about. They answer, “Heck would I know (as an Asian or black man)… I was just trying to stay alive.”
What’s ailing young men today? Funny thing is that they don’t off themselves. Rather they go and off others… usually those who are perceived as “different.”
sing
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In the US, male participation in the workforce has been declining for 30 years. Meanwhile, females now dominate professional schools (Vet, Dental, Law, and Med). What are the guys doing - sitting in their parent’s basement playing video games where you win by killing the most people?
Hmmm. Any connection there?
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“For What It’s Worth”
There’s something happening here
But what it is ain’t exactly clear
There’s a man with a gun over there
Telling me I got to beware
I think it’s time we stop
Children, what’s that sound?
Everybody look - what’s going down?
There’s battle lines being drawn
Nobody’s right if everybody’s wrong
Young people speaking’ their minds
Getting so much resistance from behind
It’s time we stop
Hey, what’s that sound?
Everybody look - what’s going down?
What a field day for the heat
A thousand people in the street
Singing songs and carrying signs
Mostly saying, “hooray for our side”
It’s time we stop
Hey, what’s that sound?
Everybody look - what’s going down?
Paranoia strikes deep
Into your life it will creep
It starts when you’re always afraid
Step out of line, the man come and take you away
We better stop
Hey, what’s that sound?
Everybody look - what’s going down?
We better stop
Hey, what’s that sound?
Everybody look - what’s going down?
We better stop
Now, what’s that sound?
Everybody look - what’s going down?
We better stop
Children, what’s that sound?
Everybody look - what’s going down?
sing
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Additionally, a lot of them are not only medicated but drunk.
I have had to terminate relationships over the years with several people whose friendship I had long valued (and I even quit two jobs) because individuals I was dealing with had increasing chronic reliance on alcohol. The abuse and gaslighting they subjected me to during what I eventual realized were blackout episodes (about which they had no recollection later on) destroyed trust. My extended family seems to have no genetic disposition towards alcohol use and it has really never been part of my own life. Having no experience with drunk behavior (especially with so-called “functioning” alcoholics), it took me some time to realize what was going on when these people were so unaccountably vicious and irrational with me.
Problematic alcohol consumption has spiked since covid and some of the national health organizations estimate nearly 15 million Americans over 12 have chronic alcohol use disorder and many more also have significant problems with booze that negatively affect their lives.
There was a lot of violence in the 60’s and 70’s, it just wasn’t as publicly exposed in the eras before everybody had a movie camera in their pocket. And military style weapons were not as readily available back then. I know it isn’t PC to point to the “normalization” of mass violence in video game consumption, but that sort of play-acting must embed mental and emotional patterns that can translate into real life behavior.
The reality of human behavior and impulses is that it can often be purgative to explode with violence when unhappy or frustrated. I’ve experienced that myself but took it out with hissy fits on inanimate objects in private (and usually felt foolish afterwards.)
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During a very stressful part of my life , I was also prescribed Zoloft. I quit taking it because I felt like there were 2 versions of me and I was watching the one I didn’t like.
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I know exactly what you mean. But the experience did give me some insight on what the cognitive situation might be with other people I have to deal with (who are on anti-derpessants) and helps me not take their social carelessness personally.
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Agree. It also is facilitated by the proliferation of high power, high capacity firearms. For the a long, long time, the most dreadful mass killing I remember was the Texas tower shooting.
He killed 16 with a high power rifle. The shooter at the Aldean concert killed 59 with multiple high capacity, rapid fire rifles.
sing
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My ex had an AK-47. He didn’t hunt or really use firearms – only kept a loaded shot gun in his place because he lived in a remote valley at the end of a road in an area where any escapees from a nearby state penitentiary might end up if they followed along the river. And his place had a big picture window at ground level and he did worry about stags (both white tails and bull elk) crashing through during mating season and needing to quickly put one down. Family members had asked him to take the AK to remove it from the reach of an elderly uncle who had brought it back from military service in Europe – the vet was starting cognitive decline and they feared for his safety.
The BF’s adult son used to have a big annual camp out with his old college buddies on his dad’s remote property every Memorial day weekend. Mostly they just hiked, paddled the Susquehanna (the property had nearly 1/3 mile of river bank), got drunk and high and jammed around the campfire. But one year they set up a shooting site in a fallow pasture for archery and rifle competition, using haybales and large chunks of dead tree trunks for mounting targets. The BF eventually brought out the AK for people to try. I had never been around one being fired (fortunately) and it was pretty ghastly. I confess I tried it one time myself. Firing a machine like that does give you a weird sense of “power” in the moment but I felt nauseated by the destruction it wrought on the inanimate target, mentally extrapolating what it would do to a fragile human body.
You and I must be close to the same age, Mr. @sing .
“So put down your books and pick up a gun, we’re gonna have a whole lot of fun…” (Country Joe McDonald)
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The Texas Tower incident was a horrific but isolated incident back then. Unfortunately, not so much now.
Honestly, I was a teen then, living in the (socially/politically imposed) isolation of Chinatown, watching and not quite understanding all that were breaking around us outside of the community. I was not ready to fight for, or against. The harder core protest songs didn’t grab me as much as the songs that invite (plead) for introspection, reflection, questioning, compassion… These reach a much deeper level for me.
sing
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I am a wee bit older and remember sitting in a Pizza parlor drinking a Mountain dew and watching them draw lottery numbers. I had more than one friend that wasn’t as lucky as I was. I also had friends that were given a choice before the drawing…join or go to jail This was a very bad time in America. {There was also good, Remembering both }
I use a Greenland Paddle just to be on subject…Like my Greenland Paddle in case anyone was curious.
Mistakes were made…
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Feels like the genie is out of the bottle, or is it “pandora’s box?”
sing
I loved PP and M and their peers. Can’t say I was introspective but thought high school sucked.
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Indeed. I was sitting in the Holmes Hall grill listening to the numbers. I was a winner at #309 (1 of 2 lotteries I’ve one. The other seems to be the genetic). As noted, many were not so lucky & still bear the cost. I did have a friend who drew a low number. By the time he came to the attention of the local draft board he had gone from SDS to the Weatherman to Cuba to cut sugarcane. Disillusioned & back in the US he explained his recent history & wondered if it made sense for the army to teach him to kill efficiently. He wasn’t drafted although the fact that his father was a Ford Executive might have had something to do with that.
As do I when in a kayak (can’t really call a Delphin a qajaq although the Explorer might).
May I offer Pete Seeger to this discussion. A favorite:
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