Giving Attitude

I have to rant. I'm not sure this is going to be a coherent rant, but it's a rant nonetheless.

Yesterday, during the July 4th celebrating at Da Boyz', we watched the Mars Pathfinder mission with something akin to way more excitement than was due, considering how long it took them to get us the damn pictures. We got on to the subject of, what else, Roswell.

I brought up a discussion that I had heard on NPR's Talk of the Nation on Thursday concerning science fiction and the state of the world today. (That wasn't the actual episode title, but close enough. I think Ceej should order a copy, or, if I were a good friend, I would get a copy for her.)

One of the things one of the particpants in the panel discussion mentioned was that we have a very strange attitude in this country: there's a cultural belief that the government can't let the sheep know what really happened at Roswell because we'd go nuts. One person is a crafty, investigative, self-reliant individual, but a whole bunch of people are sheep.

This is nuts.

One of the people I was talking to opined that people are sheep and are for the most part scared and closed-minded.

I, not knowing my place, said, "You mean, like deciding that most people are closed-minded?"

Another participant opined that something had to have happened at Roswell -- not necessarily of the extra-terrestrial kind, but something nonetheless, because there's no way the government's story of the Mogul balloon is true.

Both of these incidents illustrate, for me, the same attitude, and it's an attitude I happen to detest. It is: "I know better than you, I am better than you, I am more privileged and get to tell you what to do."

This is the quintessential American attitude, and it's lazy. Most people do not examine their convictions or act on them. If you honestly, truly believed that an alien landed at Roswell or is abducting upwards of 300 people a night, that belief alone would rock your world. Really rock your world. Not this, "Oh yes, well, what can I do?"

(And don't even start with, "Well, there are plenty of things that science said couldn't exist but do." True, but it is wrong to then extrapolate that that which hasn't been proved is true. Please.)

The idea that you are so jaded, so blasé, that you know when the government is lying and when it's telling the truth, makes my teeth ache. That's one of the things I hate about conspiracy theorists, especially fans of the extraterrestrial stripe: they don't believe anything the government says, except when it seems to bolster their case.

A few years ago I was talking to a young friend of mine on the anniversary of Nixon's resignation, I think. I mentioned hearing that most high school graduates don't know anything about Watergate, and she said, "Well, that's not very important." Gee, just government as usual.

If this is known as a more jaded, sophisticated outlook, I don't want any part of it.

I hate this "la-di-da, you sheep" attitude mainly because it's so attractive -- you get to be the top dog! -- and you aren't required to do any more work, like actually validating any of your beliefs.

Don't give in and be lazy. Fight once in a while.

I sense myself sliding into a related rant about power. But I'll keep mum for a little while.