Friday, January 7, 2011

Philosophy Friday Issue 1. Art.3: More Bread More Circus

More bread more circus is a mantra made famous by Julius Ceaser. It meant that if the people have a culture filled with entertainment and enough necessities they will be easy to control.

Sadly the same still holds true. Here in America very few people pay attention to reality.

I had a talk with someone very close to me right after doing some research about prison statistics. I explained to  her that prisons are filled with over 38% blacks, while blacks only make up just over 12% of the U.S. population.

Her response was so weird that I didn't know whether to be angry or to feel sorry for her. Her view was that black people commit all the crimes in the country. She argued that this was the case because it was what she saw on the news.

In another discussion I quoted the stat that more than 20% of American people are on welfare. Someone responded, "Well, Blacks are the ones in the ghettos having five or six babies."

This type of ignorance is the problem that those of us who want to change an oppressive system must combat. This is the real fight. Someone at church told me that I always think I'm right, and that I attack people. She said this because I point out truths that people have been trained to ignore. Truths that alter the false realities they have embraced.

I gave what she said some thought then I responded. "No, I don't think I'm always right. I just don't open my mouth unless I know what I'm talking about. If someone wants to debate with me based on what they think or feel then they don't have a chance of winning that debate."

Then she said to me, "Well maybe you are the one who has been scarred and the rest of us are normal."

I can't argue with that. The norm in our society is to form opinions based on propaganda. Then most develop misguided prejudices which others are subjected to--whether they deserve it or not.

We are society that thrives on ignorance. We spend our lives coveting things that hold no significance. We believe things that are not rational. We hold on to rituals that are destructive and instill them in our children. For the most part we hate those who are intelligent enough to see our mistakes and who have the courage to try to point them out to us.

We want to be ignorant!

How terribly sad.





Always real;
Supaman Tion Terrell

How terribly sad.

1 comment:

  1. Over 80% of our incarcerated society suffers from mental illness. How is this different from when the mentally ill were just thrown into asylums and forgotten about?

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