Quite Ridiculous, isn’t it?

Several years ago a friend suggested a book titled: Walking On Eggshells by Jane Isay describing with personal insights and honest interviews the interactions between Adults, Other Adults and Children, the young and the grown ones. I read it, loved it and wished that I had stumbled upon it when I was much younger, and when it would have been much easier to stick an adhesive tape over my lips rather than spilling it all out! However, I am of that segment of a generation that grew up in the tumultuous sixties and that had decided to be avant-garde about what we imagined to be important  issues, one of which was to do away with hypocrisy, double-speak and masks! We were going to tell it like it is, spill the beans, do away with tippy-toeing around issues like the generations before us! Oh my! Add to that “revolutionary” attitude the fact that I am an Arab Woman, who was living (at the time), in a traditional society and you can bet that all this was sometimes a hard sell! Did we succeed? Not really! Looking at our Planet right now where hypocrisy, double-speak and masks abound, it seems that we are even worse off today than the generations before mine! Quite Ridiculous, isn’t it?

The Lethal Virus that invaded our World, and that is still alive and kicking its way around, sickening, killing (about 400 US Humans per day!) and doing mischief opened the door for many to cope and to adjust to a new reality. One of those realities was Zooming! Families, alumni, book clubs, business meetings, seminars, academia and, of course, our vaunted television hosts began to Zoom in earnest. However, many in the media, especially, still, and after almost three years of doing this, haven’t quite gotten the hang of it, and I chuckle to myself when I see them interviewing a guest. They often barely allow that guest to return their: Welcome to the Show (or whatever greeting they chose to start off with) while hardly waiting for that same person to respond before disappearing him/her from the screen and mouthing off. They also do the same at the end of their interview barely giving their guest the courtesy of saying: Thank you for inviting me (or whatever they want to end with) before cutting them off and rudely disappearing them again, mostly mid-sentence! It is so offensive, and technologically lame. Quite Ridiculous, isn’t it?

Then we have the shrill bombardment by Big Pharma of inserting an ad almost every five minutes into Every Single Program on television! I am not surprised, of course, because ads are the prime reason for the existence of television to begin with, the second being Runaway Capitalism! However, I am disgusted and annoyed by this continuous intrusive assault! Thank Heavens that I can pre-record and zap through their rude invasions. Whom are they really directing their obnoxious – and it really is obnoxious! – advertising to? Me and You? After all, we can’t just ask our doctors for the product that they are ramming down our throats because our Health Insurance companies (for those of us who have them) are the deciders of which products, and from which manufacturer, to sell us. Are they aiming their distasteful advertising at the Doctors who do not have the time to watch television, and who are visited by Pharma Reps to sell them products and sweeten the deal with all those vacations, perks and lures in order for those so-called “Do-No-Harm” Professionals to prescribe products whether we need them, or not; whether they are appropriate or not? Opioids Anyone? Or, is it simply “Corporate Media Welfare” whereby Pharma pads the wallets of all the over-paid, under-achieving television executives and personalities? Obviously they are not speaking to most of the hoi polloi! Quite Ridiculous, isn’t it?

Globalization is another one of those ideas that seems to be faltering these days, and showing fissures that have, mainly, hurt the underdeveloped Humans of our World, while allowing Corporations to rake in the Profits and feed their Greed. One very annoying aspect of this Globalization are the Call Centers situated in such places as India, the Philippines and other countries where the Agents are woefully under-trained and where you often cannot understand their heavy unintelligible accents resulting in our concerns/issues/questions not being properly addressed as we wait “on hold” for umpteen hours! Then there are the other unscrupulous Call Centers ringing you umpteen times a day in order to Scam You! I believe that they are aided and abetted by Insiders! Shameful! While our Government has closed down some of those Fly-By-Night Outfits, they keep reemerging! Quite Ridiculous, isn’t it?

Then there are those Polls! I remember when I was a teenager, and later into my twenties, when I answered the Questionnaires in Cosmopolitan Magazine, and how after I tallied my results I would go into a Funk for failing to be: the sexiest chick on the block; the trendiest girl ever; the smartest genius that exists, and so on! The whole trajectory of my dismal-looking future would be determined by those results! Well! Nowadays we have Polls, almost all of them Non-Sexy Political ones, and almost all posing their Slanted, Biased Questions in order to arrive to the Conclusions that the Pollsters have cunningly pre-determined. Moreover, they usually Poll about Two to Three Thousand People, and then base the results on that selection. However, “The People” often Outrightly Lie to those Pollsters, as one Poll Guru outlined. Nevertheless, the Blood Pressure of the Nation is measured by the Poll Results, Hyped by the Media and Quoted by the Specialists, and the Sheeple swear by them and act on them! Quite Ridiculous, isn’t it?

Lastly, I would really love to know who are all those People listening to the Thousands of Podcasts; downloading the thousands of Apps; reading the Thousands of Newspapers and Magazines that are On Line, or are on Paper; perusing the Thousands of Blogs (including mine) that are available? Who has that much time to read/listen to anything but one, or two of these publications a day? After all, whether you avail yourself of the content of the Right leaning, the Left leaning, the Middle, the Subjective, the Objective, or Whatever, you end up with Repeat, Repeat, Repeat and hardly ever change your beliefs, because we Humans are Obdurate! And that’s precisely why, at this particular time, we have demonstrated how Dangerously Divided and Polarized we are on almost every issue under the sun, including, and most importantly, The Truth! Quite Ridiculous, isn’t it?

Of course, there is Much More “Ridiculous” going on in the World, and I’m sure that you have your own list! For today, these are my mine! Thank you for taking the time to read my blog!