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August 3, 2013
The Eaters of Government Cheese
It seemed to me, from talking to many of my patients, that that was the kind of journey upon which they were embarked.They had been relieved of the requirement to take an interest in their surroundings that the often painful necessity to wrest a subsistence from them conferred, for their subsistence was assured; on the other hand, they had not been encouraged to develop or had not attained the mental attitudes to find the world of inexhaustible interest. The result was a kind of ontological boredom: they were bored with being, with existence itself. To this boredom there were two possible responses: the first was a listlessness, conducive to the grossest overeating and chronic hypnosis by television, and the second was an attempt to overcome boredom by the introduction of drama, no matter how destructive, into life, which was thereby turned into a soap opera. Better pain and misery than waking anaesthesia. Butterfly Minds > Theodore Dalrymple
Posted by gerardvanderleun at August 3, 2013 9:11 AM. This is an entry on the sideblog of American Digest: Check it out.
Your Say
Today, between errands, I stopped in to the local supermarket to refill my childrens' milk supply. Two people ahead of me was a woman whose appeareance, attitude, and overwstuffed cart in the clearly marked express line made me sad for the state of her life.
I only started to hate her, as a person and a symbol, when she reacted boorishly to her non-working EBT card, and complained with passion while unfurling 20s about the indignity of having to dip into her cigarette money to pay for food.
Posted by: Dan at August 3, 2013 2:57 PM
I think the rulers in sheep's clothing underestimate how many of us would rather die than take their thirty pieces of fake silver.
Posted by: monkeyfan at August 3, 2013 3:40 PM