Social Class.....ism

There are certain things I have to remind myself. One is what it is like to live with Donald Rumsfeld. Others include that there is no active music scene anywhere near Fayetteville, NC, and the "music scene" that exists in the Research Triangle Park hasn't changed in 20 years. Tradition. UNC-Chapel Hill is traditional, and that is good for undergraduate study. Then comes the need to make a living in your field. Then comes the need to 'evolve" as a person. Then comes the need to advance or excel in your life. How are you going to do that when the very system in which you were brought up doesn't evolve? If that system doesn't evolve to include new blood, new ideas, and new personalities, it is stagnant. That is North Carolina. It was startling to travel back through Chapel Hill, NC on the way back from an eye doctor's appointment at Duke. Other than new buildings and construction things were the same. Tradition. I think traditional is good in some cases, but it gave me the eebie jeebies. Why? Because there is nothing around me at the moment that reinforces my life. I have left my doctoral studies in Columbus, OH. My work on cruise ships is a far distant memory when living in Fayettenam. My father is a republican that voted for Dubya. There is no commercial music "scene" in Fayetteville. Let me clarify that. There are no venues for live music, live music in varied styles appealing to a variety of people. Fayetteville is a military town. The strata of folks here is: Black. Soldiers. The Rich. It is not normal or rather doesn't reflect the cultural diversity of other places. That I think is because there is Social Classism. The traditional structure of the "Old South" is still here. The blacks or African-Americans seem mostly poor. Side bar: There are lots of what look like "gang" vehicles driving around. I wouldn't not stereotypically label drivers of these vehicles drug dealers, but they look like it. It is a representation of what you see on BET. TV black culture. Athletic clothing, baggy pants, jewelry, dread locks, and big, loud, flashy SUV's. Okay, I try NOT to think the drivers of these cars are selling drugs, but the image is generic. It has been painted in the media through BET that this cross section of life parties hard, abuses women, sells drugs, and just wants to get their freak on. I try to imagine they are just like me, trying to work a simple job, make a living, and enjoy their lives. Continue: Rich. There are homes in Fayetteville you will never see anywhere else. Tucked into ghetto boulevards strewn with urban sprawl, there are multi-million dollar homes. Aside from the "Gold Coast" and "Sky Drive," developers continue to build mega homes no one could afford. I have never understood how anyone living here could live in such houses except for the old money minions that have been in Fayetteville forever. That people, is "old money," southern money that has mold on it. People move to Columbus, OH because Old Money will not allow them to prosper here. It is controlling. That is what it is like living with Donald Rumsfeld. When I played my first breakfast at the Pinehurst Hotel, I saw the movers-and-shakers of the Old South. I instinctively had never liked these people, because they seem pushy, selfish, and self-absorbed. They do not seem to care about anyone other than themselves. As was stated on one of the news channels last night about Bush and Kerry ,"They have money and an attitude" and will never change. Never change. Never change. How can that be a good thing, when the rest of the world or at least the economic infrastructure of the US has changed dramatically? With "old money," the money sits in investments earning mo money. No worries, man. For the rest of us, that doesn't apply. Maybe that is why John Kerry didn't win the presidency. Many of us have to make "new" money to live, and all that stagnant, non-moving old money makes it more difficult, that is when it comes with an attitude that things are still and will always be the same. Imagine getting up everyday with a person that is a vessel unto themselves. Only their needs and desires are important to them. Their opinion is the correct one, and anyone who disagrees with them is labeled ignorant of subordinate. Seems like our republican government. Donald Rumsfeld. Who decided that the rich deserve this respect? In a political system of social class and aristocracy that may be appropriate. Isn't the United States of America a Republic with democratic ideals? I disagree with the controlling nature of "old money," because it seems to bully society into submission. It assumes for itself that because there is acquired wealth their is wisdom and an ability to lead. Old money is only inherited money. Old means it was made or accrued "in the past" and then passed down through generations with trusts and other loopholes in the tax code. Inevitably, as in the case with Sam Walton, the recipients of that money do not have the same social, intellectual, and financial skills to earn the respect that wealth usually brings. That is why I say "new money" is the life blood of the country and the people. There is no future without "new money." Everyday I get up and am overwhelmed by some unseen, Attention defecated "force" that halts my thought process and overrides my own emotions with "jive." I play defense until it subsides, and my own thoughts, experiences, and feelings seep back into my consciousness. It feels like rape. It feels like living in a society where no one cares about you or your progress. It feels like the "mainstream" has become so distorted with acid-laden media, cell phone disfunction, and superficiality nothing in public seems to reflect a true human condition. Are these the effects of Capitalism? Is so, it is time to change to something that works better or at least attempts to empower the human soul.