Hobohemian Rhapsody

Well, once again while I was not studying for a test... (this is quickly becoming a bad habit) I began musing on my performance... I'm considering a costume... this is gonna be sweet... I hope everyone brings earplugs. Anyway, in researching my topic, I'm reading a book that brought up two really interesting and pertinent quotes referring to what we have been talking about in class.

First, one that would have fitted nicely into my last blog... look below if you want to see what I mean. "Here at hot bubble is the familiar chemistry employed to prepare the ground for persecution: establish that your victim is debased and barely human, thereby justifying inhuman, draconic measures."

I think some one used that term "dehumanizing" to describe the rape of cultures inflicted upon black slaves and other exploited minorities.

Second, here is a quote that puts Chicago in an interesting light, especially as it is describing Chicago from around the time when Muddy Waters and other blues musicians began emigrating there from Mississippi.

"This dumping ground, with accelerated change, has prolonged in Chicago the atmosphere of the frontier town it had so recently been. This leads to an atomization of social relationships, the swill of the shipwrecked and unadjusted through their half-life, their world apart: that quality of the adventitious that they seek yet which makes despair and detachment easier, but which also gives the life its element of chance and adventure, and stimulates behavior that is like 'the attraction of the flame for the moth, a sort of tropism.'"

I think this pretty well describes not only hobo culture, which the book is about, but also a certain amount of the blues attitude, especially in the lines "that quality of adventitious... which makes despair and detachment easier, but... gives life its element of chance an adventure."

Needless to say, I really like this book... but rather than copy the whole thing on my blog and risk copyright infringement, I'll just tell you the title and author and let you read it for yourself should you care to- HARD TRAVELLIN': The hobo and his history by Kenneth Allsop.

Alright... now I'm seriously going to study. No really. I mean it.

-Ruby X

Herd Poisoning...

Wow... we talked about a lot of really heavy subjects today in class. It's something I was thinking about while at the library not studying Chemistry... this country was built on a lot of people's pain. It was built on alienation and control. Even the disconsolate and destitute were pitted against each other, often to the benefit of the more affluent members of society.

There was something that the book mentioned... "blacks learned to consider 'white trash' their natural enemies" and "When there were outbreaks of night riding or lynching, poor whites were the perpetrators."

Meanwhile the rich white plantation owners shafted them both- by not hiring the poor whites (keeping them unemployed) and keeping the black sharecroppers in more or less slave conditions. The sad thing is, if the poor whites had fought (through their unhindered voting rights) to protect the civil rights of the black sharecroppers- both groups may have come off a lot better.

Of course, this is an oversimplified view of an incredibly complex subject.

There is also to consider human psychology... in class, the question came up- why do people fear and try to control groups different from themselves?

I think that PART of it, is that we all desire so badly to be part of a group... maybe it will be easier to explain this using the microcosm of high school and its cliques- if you notice, each group has it's hierarchy- there's always some cheerleader at the bottom of the pyramid. If she can keep the rest of her clique targeting some other group... say, the "anime fangirls" then the upper hierarchy of her own group won't turn against her. Also, though she may not be the "Queen Bee" she has the ego boost of NOT being one of THEM.

Similarly, the poor backcountry whites might be rednecks and WHITE TRASH, but at least they're not BLACK.

Besides, that way it's not their fault... it's the blacks, or the Jews, or whatever else other group you want to blame, and a million other excuses that have no excuse for why people treat each other so horribly.

People treated each other atrociously back then, and we still do today. It's something we all have to struggle with. And as was brought up in class, it isn't necessarily racism- it can be something as simple as judging a person based on their clothing or mannerisms... anything that makes us actively step outside of our safety zone can cause some sort of prejudice- and it's different from seeing it through the media... For instance, I can watch Discovery Channel shows full of tribal New Guineans wearing nothing but penis cones and it doesn't perturb me. If a guy wearing nothing but a penis cone sat next to me on the bus... well, it might be a different story.

Well I've rambled long enough... (my, that's a horrible conclusion- I'm glad this isn't being graded as an English paper...) anyway, that's all for now.

Some More Thoughts...

Well, we had a lively discussion today about Gov. Blanco's speech... makes me really glad I'm not a politician. Yikes. Wow, we really are pretty judgmental about our public figures... I don't know quite how I feel about that- to a certain extent, I think it's important that we judge our public figures... but it's sometimes hard to do that fairly.

Although, on the plus side, it got a few more people to talk in class besides just the one or two that are usually involved... This is going to be an interesting semester. Looking forward to it.

Oh, and it's Magick with a 'k'. Because yes, I am just that obsessive-compulsive =). teeheehee (evil laugh)