Too Much
Too Much
Cat Guy
Leading Actor Joined: 3/17/17
#2Too Much
Posted: 6/18/17 at 9:16pm
The London van might have been targeting innocent Muslims (I.e., it might not have been an Islamic terrorist attack, despite it fitting the signature style). I sincerely hope this is not the case.
"You can't overrate Bernadette Peters. She is such a genius. There's a moment in "Too Many Mornings" and Bernadette doing 'I wore green the last time' - It's a voice that is just already given up - it is so sorrowful. Tragic. You can see from that moment the show is going to be headed into such dark territory and it hinges on this tiny throwaway moment of the voice." - Ben Brantley (2022)
"Bernadette's whole, stunning performance [as Rose in Gypsy] galvanized the actors capable of letting loose with her. Bernadette's Rose did take its rightful place, but too late, and unseen by too many who should have seen it" Arthur Laurents (2009)
"Sondheim's own favorite star performances? [Bernadette] Peters in ''Sunday in the Park,'' Lansbury in ''Sweeney Todd'' and ''obviously, Ethel was thrilling in 'Gypsy.'' Nytimes, 2000
#3Too Much
Posted: 6/19/17 at 10:16am
Cat Guy said: "Too much. Just too much."
I understand and share your weariness, but I suspect that what there's too much of is news coverage. The fact is that, despite a recent uptick, violent crime is way down in the United States over the past several decades. There are far fewer terrorist incidents in the UK now than there were during The Troubles in the 1970s and 1980s. Globally, there's surely a lot of misery and violence in the world, but by most indicators there's far less than there was in the past. It can be hard to believe these things given what we see every day in the news, but it's true. (You can look it up, or I can provide some references if you like.)
Cat Guy
Leading Actor Joined: 3/17/17
#5Too Much
Posted: 6/20/17 at 1:10pm
Hi CatGuy,
I agree with all the above; every day brings another round of "what next"?
...and thanks for your (and others) words of support in another thread that has mercifully been deleted; I'm just thankful that others got my POV w/out resorting to endless "words" and piling on that was just out of control.
Kudos to the Twiggy avatar!
I Can Has Cheezburger With This?
Updated On: 6/20/17 at 01:10 PM
#7Too Much
Posted: 6/20/17 at 6:35pm
I read a really good essay on this a few months ago that theorized that our brains can't keep up with the ability to get news all the time from everywhere. Even 20 years ago this wasn't as possible, and it's hard to quantify sadness, despair, and what to react to anymore.
What kinds of terrible things have happened in history that we didn't know about immediately, or maybe not even months or years later, when the emotional impact is gone or not the same? Now we can find out immediately, and it feels like a bombardment.
"This thread reads like a series of White House memos." — Mister Matt
#8Too Much
Posted: 6/20/17 at 6:52pm
It is time for the liberal discourse to finally adopt some truth before another attack on innocent muslims happens again (and further terrorist attacks, of course). We unfortunately have no side of the political spectrum that will call out the issues for truly what they are. If you are a person that clearly sees an almost perfect correlation between senseless mass killings and religion - but you are told by the political left that "it has nothing to do with religion", that there is nothing wrong with the belief system and that it is a "religion of peace", are you going to gravitate to the side that is clearly telling you lies or the other that can at least see the issue partially for what it is? The problem with the other side of course, is that there does seem to be some genuine racism/xenophobia going on and the policies and followers can't seem to distinguish between muslim people and the islamic religion/belief system. The issue is not muslim people but the belief systems and ideas.
If 'progressive' people could call it out for what it is, then hopefully those who aren't stupid enough to buy the false narrative that it has nothing to do with religion can move towards the hypothetical progressive side - which is recognising that there is an issue with this religion, and this belief system - but it is not a problem with 'muslims' and thus picking out any individual muslim off the street and shouting at them (or killing them as it would be) is not going to help.
Right now - there is two options it seems. Either it has nothing to do with religion or that muslims are bad. Neither of this is true. It has everything to do with religion and muslims aren't bad - but their belief system/religion is bad. And it's up to them to fix it.
"You can't overrate Bernadette Peters. She is such a genius. There's a moment in "Too Many Mornings" and Bernadette doing 'I wore green the last time' - It's a voice that is just already given up - it is so sorrowful. Tragic. You can see from that moment the show is going to be headed into such dark territory and it hinges on this tiny throwaway moment of the voice." - Ben Brantley (2022)
"Bernadette's whole, stunning performance [as Rose in Gypsy] galvanized the actors capable of letting loose with her. Bernadette's Rose did take its rightful place, but too late, and unseen by too many who should have seen it" Arthur Laurents (2009)
"Sondheim's own favorite star performances? [Bernadette] Peters in ''Sunday in the Park,'' Lansbury in ''Sweeney Todd'' and ''obviously, Ethel was thrilling in 'Gypsy.'' Nytimes, 2000
Updated On: 6/20/17 at 06:52 PM
Cat Guy
Leading Actor Joined: 3/17/17
#9Too Much
Posted: 6/20/17 at 8:27pm
Steve C. said: "Hi CatGuy,
I agree with all the above; every day brings another round of "what next"?
...and thanks for your (and others) words of support in another thread that has mercifully been deleted; I'm just thankful that others got my POV w/out resorting to endless "words" and piling on that was just out of control.
Kudos to the Twiggy avatar!
Thanks, Steve.
In the scant two days since I posted my first comments, there have been two additional attacks (Paris and Brussels). To my original point, whether it's war or terrorism or some other calamity, we just can't seem to catch a break (as LizzieCurry helps to put in perspective). Borrowing from Cole Porter, it might appear that "The world has gone mad today".
But, I remain optimistic.
#10Too Much
Posted: 6/21/17 at 9:01am
I think the Brussels attack illustrates the point very clearly about our skewed perceptions. If there weren't some way to stretch this into being a "terrorist incident," this would have been an utter non-story outside of the city where it happened (and perhaps even there). No one was hurt except the perpetrator, and little damage was done. If this weren't "terrorism," if it were just a normal police incident, it would have been treated as the complete triviality that it was.
On the other hand, if yesterday was typical, about thirty people died in drunk driving accidents in the United States. How many of those have you heard about? I'm not really anti-media; they just cover what they think will attract an audience, which they have to do to survive. But the end result is that we've been totally conned into thinking that terrorism is a bigger problem than drunk driving or heart disease. In reality, compared to these things, it's an entirely negligible phenomenon.
Unfortunately, when we get intensive coverage of a non-incident in Brussels but none at all about actual murders committed on our roads every day, we come to think that terrorism is the momentous problem of our time, for which we should be willing to make major sacrifices. And this is exactly what terrorists want us to think.
