July 30, 2011

Shine, Perishing Republic (or Not)


"These people are not unusual.

It is not their fault they have been gelded and made useless. They did as they were told. I find them interesting, because they appear to my eye to be about average. They have participated fully in American public life, and it has made them useless to themselves and to others. The reaction necessary to shine is missing, and the ingredients have collapsed in on themselves, and they only have the slowly fading appearance of the citizenry they sprang from. God bless them, they're got enough mettle to try to squeeze something from the raw material of their lives: Maybe I can be crowned the king or queen of the shiftless, and appear as a Reality Sideshow geek, displaying my underdeveloped limbs and the stubs of my intellect for a few pennies." -- More at Sippican Cottage: My Children Will Not Be Appearing On White Dwarf Star Search, Thank You Very Much

Posted by Vanderleun at July 30, 2011 12:59 PM
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"It is impossible to speak in such a way that you cannot be misunderstood." -- Karl Popper N.B.: Comments are moderated and may not appear immediately. Comments that exceed the obscenity or stupidity limits will be either edited or expunged.

Carpenter here in Tucson, Be glad to come over and fix your broken junk for a moderate fee, there Geeksters.

Posted by: bill at July 30, 2011 1:40 PM

Sorry Bill, but I started laughing when I thought about someone actually touching your junk....that needed fixing.

Posted by: Jewel at July 30, 2011 3:22 PM

Be glad to come over and fix your broken junk for a moderate fee, there Geeksters.

Interesting. When I was younger, a geek was a dude at the carnival. Then a term of derision. As a young man it came into vogue to denote a fellow who was obsessed with something, anything.

These were guys - and some girls - who would delve into the 'why' of something, and that drive to understand could be translated into competence at .... building a bird house.

Geeks are good at logic, ordering, finding out 'why' something is broken. By definition they're good at stuff like fixing things around the house.

So when did Geeks become Geeksters and helpless mopes?

Posted by: Brian Dunbar at July 30, 2011 4:15 PM

Brian: "Geek" (n): "Any American passionately interested in anything besides sports, sex, money or TV."

Posted by: Skorpion at July 30, 2011 8:20 PM