Friday, Lafayette, Indiana

The Presidential race is still up for grabs. Down to three candidates, McCain, Clinton and Obama, the cable news networks are filling dozens of hours a day with analysis, covering every nuance of the campaign.

And these days there’s increasingly more noise - you know, “breaking news” noise. There is not a focused on issues like the economy, health care and the war (remember that?). Instead we hear about a staff member or supporter who makes an inflammatory remark about the opponent. And again, it is unrelated to the candidate’s views or platform. They target qualities like age, gender or race.

It’s all so revolting!

It is particularly nasty on the Democratic side where Hillary and Barack are nearly tied. Each candidate has had their character impugned - Hillary is a “monster” and Barack’s middle name intimates that he is cozy with Islamic terrorists. So far the actual candidates have distanced themselves from the fray, but the news media keeps entertaining us with the irrelevant soap opera. The most recent episode happened this week when Clinton cut off Geraldine Ferraro for her bonehead remarks about Obama’s race. And he in turn canned the advisor who called Hillary the M word. And McCain has slapped down a local radio host and the Iowa Congressman for their embarrassing rants about Obama.

It could be that like so many recent elections the final count will be close. But there is a growing sense of swelling frustration and rage across the country that cuts across a wide swath of the political landscape. And it might well erupt in November. There is a feeling in the air of a voter uprising against whole mess that is the political environment. From moralist officials caught with hookers and in men’s room trysts, combined with an endless war and spending into bankruptcy how much more will the electorate take?

I just have a feeling it will change in November. And if it is true then if I were betting I would put my money right now on the next President being Barack Obama. Unless some new bombshell sinks him (which of course is possible at any time), he appears to be the most disconnected from the status quo that has alienated the populace. If this should come to pass, I confess to a fear that, given the virulent hatred that rumbles across the country, harm might come to him. And this is a trauma too many citizens my age dread revisiting!

But wether it is President Obama, McCain or Clinton, I am prepared to be supportive of their new direction. Despite the rhetoric of campaigning I believe all three individuals are centrist enough to bridge some of the ugly divide exacerbated by President Bush whose choices in advisors and actions has disappointed me more than any other President in my lifetime. For the sake of our country recovering from a long and deep depression, it’s time for some light and peace.

Why is civility rocket science?

Whoever prevails, I hope the next President will change the tone and tenor of American culture to lift the depression gripping us and harming us around the globe. I pray the next President will do a better, more deft job of balancing focused action smashing terrorists without such collateral damage. And it’s past time that everyone was asked to be involved in our national efforts instead of putting it on the backs of a small number of young heroes (including four of my nephews!) doing all the heavy lifting.

I simply do not believe the hand wringing platitudes of the current "deciders." Because deciding to go to war is a lot easier from an air conditioned office in Washington.

Watching the press conference where the disgraced New York Governor Eliot Spitzer resigned I was shocked to see his wife Silda.

My God, she’s beautiful…

and he looks like a Muppet!

She’s a gorgeous Harvard Law School graduate!

What’s he looking for that isn’t standing next to him?

He diserves his disgrace for his sheer stupidy, even beyond his immorality.

And as far as that goes, my question for her is, "why isn’t he in a cast?"

Friday, Chicago, Illinois

Among the assignments that I give to the students in my class at Purdue, includes watching a documentary whose purpose is to persuade people. One of the obvious choices, of course, is Al Gore’s award winning “An Inconvenient Truth.” The film is quite a simple production really. It’s a recording of a Power Point presentation that Mr. Gore gives to an audience, making his case that the earth, in his words, “has a fever.” It is Exhibit A in the modern case that Global Warming is real and dangerous. His statistics are impressive; the case he makes is very persuasive. But of course we’re well aware that there are many skeptics who utterly reject his proposition that we are dead meat in a few decades.

As a casual observer, without personal scientific knowledge, I can only observe what is happening around me. Although I should add that, compared to the average citizen, I do travel around the country a great deal. This coming week, for example, I will be in Denver, Los Angeles, New York City, and Des Moines, Iowa within a span of five days. And since I’ve always struggled with anxiety about flying, you can be sure I will be looking out my window at the weather systems blowing across the country.

Here in the Midwest our winter has than anything but warming. In fact, we’ve had six inches more snow for this month so far than is normal. It’s 7 degrees as I sit here. Making matters worse, there have been record-setting, devastating floods swamping dozens of communities throughout the Midwest. In our community, the city golf course still sits under several feet of water! And of course who knows what’s coming next?

If I came away from Al Gore’s presentation persuaded about anything, it is that the climate is unnervingly unstable. Whether the globe is warming, cooling, or naturally cycling between the extremes, I know this: I am ever reminded that we are at its mercy. I try to do my part to lessen my a footprint on the earth. But it seems like so small an impact.

This capacity of human effort is just staggering. Today people on a ship at sea fired a missile that hit a fast moving target reentering the atmosphere. The target was a communications satellite that some other people sent up some years ago. Do I really take such things casually? Am I that blase about human beings constructing an orbiting space station? Do I take for granted that human beings have enabled me to sit in my house and communicate on the Internet? It’s mind-boggling and I really don’t want to lose my fascination with what we are able to do.

However…

All these accomplishments, as well as my very existence, can be wiped out in seconds by an earthquake, tornado or, more pathetically, by human caprice and stupidity that pollutes nature and uses its resources for cruelty, hatred and violence, and in the name of God no less! And it is this last reality that is the true inconvenient truth!

Tuesday, Chicago, Illinois

Among the divides in American Popular culture there is one that we don’t like to talk about much. It’s the divide between the vapid and the intellectually alert, between the thinkers and the blinkers. Every society has it’s separation between those who are reflective, value learning, who work on improving their minds and those who think with their loins, ridicule education and reject intellectual improvement.

And I am not referring to the real bottom of the literary scale of mouth breathing felons with misspelled tattoos who prey upon the rest of us and give cause for the entire enterprise of the criminal justice system. It’s the love affair we have been having for a long time with associating learning with a snobby elite. There are those cars with the bumper sticker, “My Child is an Honor Student at…” and then there is the car behind with “My Child Beat Up Your Honor Student at…” O…Kay!

Susan Jacoby, writing for the Washington Post point out, “Americans are in serious intellectual trouble…in danger of losing our hard-won cultural capital to a virulent mixture of anti-intellectualism, anti-rationalism and low expectations.”

Illustrations abound!

- One of five Americans believe the Sun revolves around the earth!

- One of three don’t know where the Pacific Ocean is!

- Only one of ten can find Iraq on a map!

- And all the while our scores in math & science continue to fall behind!

This would all be tragic enough if it weren’t for the gloating of the dumb. Mocking the intellectually gifted has been a staple of television comedy for decades. Ridiculing nerds and geeks is stable grist for the entertainment mill. And many of the most popular television programs feature fighting and the celebrations of physical prowess.

What gets lost in these distractions is the fact that a high percentage of the ignorant morons beating the crap out of each other in ultimate fighting have a limited career future, while the dweebs who get rejected are busily inventing the new technologies that are changing human life.

It’s an anecdotal observation to be sure, but my exposure to individuals visiting here from other emerging countries, such as India, China & Japan, place far more value and esteem on the endeavors of the mind than the activities that induce sweat, bruises and contusions. Until we begin to rebalance the scales and make heroes of the people who are conquering cancer instead of those conquering another tattoo covered dropout with a gym-chiseled physique, we will continue our slide down the competitive scale.

If you are fascinated and motivated by the activity of beating people up, good luck with that. But let’s have no illusions. Those values and passions are not contributing to the advancement of society. The more hours each week that Americans spend amusing ourselves with unreflective nonsense, the further we slip behind and slip away into irrelevance. That does not sound like the America I know.

Glorifying and excusing the stupid is what is hurting the country. If he were alive today, I doubt Thomas Jefferson would be found belching in his easy chair watching professional wrestling!

Good God! Read a book; encourage your kids to focus on school and learn. And spend a little tme with the History Channel, The Learning Channel, Discovery. Anything beyond Wrestling, American Gladiator or Ultimate Fighting. America needs you to think more.

Thursday, West Lafayette, Indiana

What a pathetic display of arrogance, stupidity and dishonesty dressed up in a suit. I’m referring, of course to the Congressional Hearings on the Roger Clemens steroid debacle. And the supremely embarrassing individuals were the Congressmen asking the questions.

With few exceptions they were predictably haughty and grandstanding. Some were worse than others. There’s no problem with asking the tough questions but the skewering of Mr. MacNamee made it seem that these Bozo’s were mostly star struck and pandering to the cameras.

Indiana’s Dan Burton was emotional and nearly incoherent, foaming at the mouth as he attacked Brian McNamee. He needed his aides to whisper facts into his ear when he confused facts and stammered. He opened his statement by asking Clemens if he could call him "Rocket." Huh!? I was waiting for him to run down and ask for Roger’s autograph.

And he wasn’t the only one. It became easy to see which party had an axe for Clemens and which for McNamee his accuser. Once again it became a display of congressional representatives lining up for party loyalty while blowing gas about seeking the truth. What immoral, unbearable gasbags.

While this whole matter might make for a great daytime television soap opera, it begs the question about why are these knuckleheads spending a day of taxpayer money refereeing an intractable dispute between two individuals involved in baseball? We are in a recession, a war and a heated presidential campaign.

Is this spectacle deserving of national media focus? A quick wrap up on the evening news of a lawyer’s deposition would have been more than enough. Do the sycophant aides working for these privileged individuals have the courage to clue them in about how they appear to us? One idiot had to be told the name of Jose Conseco.

HELLO! Next time you’re on a paid corporate junket somewhere, read the section of the newspaper relevant to your hearing! Catch up! It was embarrassing.

Thursday, West Lafayette, Indiana

Dr. Gunnar Ollsen is a senior research fellow at the Teletherapy Institute in Fowler, Indiana. He was born in Holland and emigrated to the U.S. as a teenager. He became addicted to television, typically devoting over one hundred hours each week to watching. Sent by his parents to counseling, he then developed a reaction formation and became committed to spreading the idea that television is destroying American civilization. He now devotes his life to the science of Teletherapy - the study of hidden meanings in television programs. He sent the following to me:

(CAUTION: Some of the writing below shows signs of incoherent rambling and may indicate a decompensation or even a psychotic break on the part of Dr. Ollsen. Pick out only what is helpful for you)

Dr. Will,

As you know I am often the victim of stalking. These are crazed fans desperate to learn from me how to find healing through television. In one recent encounter at a local food store an individual (let’s call her Phyllis Dirkson of Panama City, Florida) assaulted me with bag of croutons rolled up in her fist.

As I lay there twitching on the floor of the bread aisle, she said to me, “clearly I am disturbed. My question is, did television do this to me?”  I asked her to sit next to me on the floor and said I would offer my insight. Before long there were a dozen other shoppers sitting around me as I lectured. Here are my insights:

The question before us is, "has Your TV Viewing Made You Psychotic?"

As we begin our study of the special problems associated with extreme craziness, perhaps you are not sure if you or someone you know might be cracked. Take this quick test to assess your sanity. (Remember, answering yes is not good news, but lying will not help you. In fact, if you lie by answering any of these questions “no,” this means you are probably a pathological liar, and this can be as problematic as psychosis.)

1. While watching television, do your thoughts wander to topics completely unrelated to the content of the program? (For instance, while watching “Law & Order” you begin reflecting on origami, even though you have no history of contact with the art of paper folding)

2. Have you ever heard messages relating to the government coming through your television set during talk show? Were they encrypted, and, if so, were you able to understand the code? Have you made a call to the authorities reporting these messages?

3. Have you ever gone on a trip using plastic trash bags as luggage? Have you ever made a rain suit from a plastic trash bag? If so, have you ever saved it for reuse at another time? Do you believe this is what Wolf Blitzer would want you to do?

4. Have you ever torn the “Do not remove” tag from a mattress and lost sleep or appetite, or experienced any other anxiety related digestive symptoms concerning your probable arrest?

5. Do you pay close attention to the dialogue on crime dramas listening for references to yourself or members of your family?

The Chaos Inside

For those readers who have not yet been in therapy, and who have never become familiar with the basics of psychology, I must share a painful truth with you. As a human being, I know that you have been plagued by periodic doubts about your sanity. You have certainly had those nagging suspicions that there might be something seriously wrong with you. I can now confirm that your suspicions are correct. There is something wrong with you. But there is also something wrong with each one of us. We are ALL filled with the capacity for comprehensive derangement.

Why? Because buried inside each of us is a reservoir of unformed, unprocessed impulses, fantasies, and habits which are untamed and always pressing to get out. And there are no exceptions. Think about the most saintly individual imaginable; think about the Dalai Lama. This may stun you, but even Dalai has this smoldering cauldron of intense feelings which could potentially drive him to acts too horrible to contemplate.

Bring the picture of Dalai to mind as he helps a poor suffering innocent understand the meaning of life and the way to happiness. This is the holy path he chose, and the world is humbled and gratified. But as a human being he holds the potential to crack and take a decidedly different direction in his life. Should he ever cave in and surrender to his baser instincts, we would be introduced to another side of this saintly individual.

Try to picture him as an ordinary man, say as “Barry Lama.” Instead of the spiritual icon he us now, you see an unbalanced, antisocial elderly man who has a penchant for spitting and back-handing rude cab drivers.

Sound impossible? The truth is, this is a possible reality. If you don’t believe me, ask Dalai yourself. He’ll be the first to tell you he is a fallible, human “sinner.”

So perhaps you should get off your high horse and recognize that you are inches away from full blown loopiness. A carefully prescribed regimen of therapeutic television watching is your only hope.

Don’t blow it!

Have an awesome day!

Gunnar

I have been getting a tsunami of spam comments that number in the hundreds each day. So unfortunately I have had to restrict access by requiring a contributor to offer a name & email. You have my word that I will NOT abuse your information, put you on a list of any kind or bother you. It’s simply a device to dam the flow of insidious trash. Sorry for the inconvenience. Have a great weekend. Will

Friday, Lafayette, Indiana

Casual Talk for Public Exposure

Will you allow me to blow off some steam? I will be calling people names who are always calling people names!

Perhaps we need to be patient and allow time for the news media to evolve more fully. Obsessed as they are with the presidential circus, the cable news outlets are drawing in audiences with the traditional tactics of tabloids - shock and awe. It’s drawing rubber necking spectators to look over at a spectacular car crash! The “issues” being covered are of the most inflammatory and divisive type: racial animus, religious orthodoxy and fear mongering.

Viewers who choose to look in on one of these news outlets for some intelligent updates and summaries on the progress and process of the Presidential election are instead inundated with slant, innuendo and juvenile name calling.

As much of a news junkie as I have long been, current television news coverage, especially on the cable outlets, is simply revolting to me. And no network is better than the other - none has the high ground!

From the agonizingly annoying Wolf Blitzer to the arrogant blowhard spinmeister Bill O’Reilly, there is apparently enough of a desperate audience tuning in to these millionaire entertainers for their social edification that they are making money for their networks. Whether it’s the irrelevant liberal gasbag pundits, the stunningly opportunistic Al Sharpton, the bellicose Chris Matthews or the drug addict Rush Limbaugh, the mealy mouth sell out Alan Colmes or relentlessly unreflective Sean Hannity, they are all show business stars masquerading as journalists.

The liberal spin of the major networks and New York Times, the fringe fervor of Fox and its intemperate, myopic talent - well - it’s enough to make anyone hurl and turn immediately to HGTV and the Food Network for composure. Really, beyond curiosity, what is the point of watching the vicious, purposeless provocations of Ann Coulter, the ideologue with no visible conscience?

Watching the shock-jock nerd John Gibson, dressed up like a real newsman, cruelly mock the death of Heath Ledger this week, it takes gall for the Fox pundits to assume the high road on morality, airing on a network whose reputation for sleazy prime time programs is legendary. This is the network that dilettante comedian and newly minted conservative Dennis Miller, in love with his thesaurus, once described as “the Network whose parents are not home.” At least the amoral sewer slug Howard Stern had the decency to disappear into the fog of Satellite radio.

The arrogant New York Times is equally obnoxious as it explains to the elite what is going on “out there” among the rest of us, peering down like an entomologist observing an ant colony. They too should stick to what they do best: reviews plays and operas.

Where is compassion? Where is open discourse? Where is the discussion about health care? Where is the conversation about our status in the world? Where is the civil debate about the best approach to confronting the religious psychotics apparently free to come across our porous borders while we debate the Clinton - Obama race baiting nonsense?

Ugh! Where is the news coverage?

Clearly it’s someplace else! In the meantime cable news is just broadcasting heated bar conversations best kept among personal acquaintances in the privacy of their own relationship.

Is it any wonder that we’ve been electing the venal, the corrupt and the stupid for the past 15 years?

Rosa observes:

It’s so true that the media (an even the candidates at times) have fallen for the sensational opportunity to stir racial and gender issues. I think that having an African-American and a woman as candidates make the subject almost unavoidable, but I agree that there are even more relevant issues to focus on: Iraq, health care (I will never understand why car insurance is mandatory but health isn’t), economy, education, etc. We only have basic cable at home, so we turn to Brian Williams, CSPAN, and the “arrogant New York Times” (electronic version) for news regarding the candidates and their campaigns. We try to watch all the debates, but it’s frustrating that some of them are broadcasted by MSNBC or CNN (we don’t have those channels). Am I over reacting or is this discrimation against the “poor”? :-). Any ways, despite all the negative, I find this political campaigns extremely interesting and entertaining

And Beth adds:

Tell us how you really feel, Dr. Will!

You’re so right. It’s very easy for people to attack without backing up their comments, and the media feeds off of itself. This is only one example of many, but when Ann Coulter made her ridiculous remarks about John Edwards, and people were outraged and talking about it, I asked, “Why are you upset about this? She’s only saying that kind of thing to get attention, and the more you discuss it, the more attention she gets.” That kind of idiotic remark has no place in a reasonable, intelligent society, and my reaction is to dismiss it for the foolishness that it is. I don’t understand why the media has chosen to exploit that kind of behavior instead of ignoring it. Ratings, I suppose. But whatever happened to journalistic ethics?

You rant very eloquently, by the way.

Wednesday, Lafayette, Indiana

Gifted young actor Heath Ledger died yesterday and there are suspicions that he was taking a mixture of strong prescription drugs. The shocking end to a career full of artistic potential is stunning, especially when there was no well reported indication that he had a troubled life. Much like the surprising reports of the suicide attempt of Owen Wilson, another young celebrity actor who struggled with severe depression a few months back, this stunning event comes without public warning. But the commonality is the penchant for wealthy celebrity actors to fall prey to drug use. Supposedly Ledger had anti-anxiety medications, Xanax, Valium and several other strong medications.

As obvious as it sounds, the public perception of actors is inextricably tied to the roles they play. Clearly the impression we have of any actor is most clearly imprinted through characters they embody on the screen. We may have a sense of Tom Hanks, Robert DiNiro and Reese Witherspoon, but in reality our impression is framed by their scripted film roles. We have, at best, only a vague notion of their core personality traits.

What we can know about Mr. Ledger is that he was obviously in the throes of some emotional chaos. How can that be, given the privilege and acclimation of his young life? He had wealth, notoriety and a bright career future, everything to live for with no reason to engage in self destructive behavior? So what is going on here?

Clearly there is no connection between acclaim and affluence and emotional stability. Coping with the struggles of human living defies any simple strategy, including those based on such concrete and physical variables as money and fame. Being rich is no bulwark against sanity or the debilitating effects of depression or anxiety.

What Do We Learn?

From the other direction, this is a cautionary tale for all those who are sin hot pursuit of the fantasy that a better life will come with wealth and personal significance. A strong feeling of longing for a better life - relief from the suffering of an unbearable mood - is not relieved by the sudden realization of desired material success. Even if one’s wildest dreams come true, an underlying crisis of mood follows you throughout the entire roller coaster ride. Depression is immune from changing personal fortunes.

Even the luckiest, most talented and acclaimed people have self destructive habits designed to alleviate their intense psychological pain.

Beth notes:
How true. If someone doesn’t get help for deep seated issues, those issues will follow them no matter what their circumstances. The grass isn’t always greener…
A question. Why do some (like Wilson and Ledger) suffer quietly, while others (like Britney Spears) draw so much attention to themselves? I think maybe that’s her way of asking for help…do you think that’s correct? Are both types of behavior equally unhealthy?

While both Ledger and Spears clearly had psychological struggles, they are of a different sort. Spears flamboyant acting out to draw attention to herself, as you noted, suggests a form of narcissism. Ledger was perhaps suffering from depression - understandable given the roller coaster ride of celebrity. Tragedy played out in the tabloid press - but really no different than the emotional pain of millions of people everywhere struggling to live the best life they can.

Monday, Monticello, Indiana

There have been a few occasions when I’ve been told by people with contact with professional athletes that the men who played Football in college and in the NFL are frequently living with the debilitating results of having been physically battered for several years. They report that many of these men have had extensive damage done to their legs and back that they sometimes can barely walk.

Anyone who watched the playoffs this weekend understands the reason. The hitting and tackling in both games, played on fields that were essentially frozen concrete parking lots, was brutal. Players were flipped horizontally in the air and landed flat on their backs. Others were clocked by 300 pound opponents and leveled in head on collisions. Even the receivers, before they were blitzed, were trying to hold on to a ball that must have felt like a loaf of concrete bread! And on top of it all, the games were played in frigid temperatures. The Green Bay Packers game against the New York Giants was played at night in sub-zero weather!

This was simply cruel!

In most cases the players are richly compensated for their work. Many of them are millionaires living a life of fame and pleasures. Nonetheless, the price they pay in return often includes coping with a limited and damaged body for the rest of their lives. While it doesn’t make me sympathetic to those among them who act out with obnoxious and even criminal behavior in public, it does give me pause. How would any of us cope with being a wealthy sports celebrity, but at the cost of the full use of my legs for the next 50 years? Hmmm…

The hunger we feel to become significant has become so strong that we are willing to trade the vigor and longevity of our physical bodies for the exhilaration of enjoying about a decade of fame and cash. And whether it’s the physical price of professional athletics, or the mind numbing glare of media focus and invasion of privacy endured by entertainers, it seems a price most kids are drooling to pay.