Originally Posted by Rigged

Sheeple, is a word used by people who want to feel like there superior to others. In one sentence you make a pronouncement separating one group from another on a baseless criteria, in the next one you contradict it?



You see, that is a "half-truth" part of the equation. True people want entertainment, however, I think this election has demonstrated that many people don't have the time to sit and think about the deep questions all day. Most people in this country live from day-to-day, paycheck to paycheck. It is not an accident that most people doing all the deep thinking are not worried about their at-will employees of McDonald's.

It's not that the average person (being an average person I can speak from this) is not smart, observant, or even aware of what is going on. It is that you either don't care b/c it doesn't effect you, or you don't have time to care. I try to keep up on current events, but my schedule doesn't always allow me the time to sit and read the entire newspaper. So I jump on the internet and read the soundbits of the day, or you listen to the radio coming home from work.

Americans are very isolated from what is going on outside of our borders, perhaps more so than any nation in history. That isolation is our weakness. It doesn't come from being "superior" or "Sheeplee" is comes from ambivalence. I am American, but I was raised in a non-American household, so my perspective is a bit different. I would say it really depends on the issue you are talking about. In the areas of culture, (e.g. values/norms in society) most Europeans would probably say they are superior (to be honest I can't really blame them sometimes). I do agree America has a pretty bankrupt culture these days but I don't think that is the fault of the "average" guy.



Well...I suppose. That is some people though, not everyone. I can't say that it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside to know that children are starving and dying of AIDS. It certainly doesn't make me feel better. I know its just the roll of the per verbal dice they I am here and not there.



I can't say i am a big fan of rhetoric. Its mostly empty.



No offense, I don't know what your life experiences have been, but inspiration does a fat lot of good when people have no place to live, no jobs, and are broke all the time, or have several hundred thousand dollars in debt (what my glorious education costs over 40k a year not including personal expenses, that is JUST tuition, you know what the gov't gives me? 18-20k a year if I am lucky, compound that with ungrad/graduate/lawschool it will take over 30yrs for me to pay off my debt).

I still don't know what Obama plans to "change" or how he plans to do it. I still can't get over my skepticism when it comes to all his rhetoric. Pretty words will not fix the economy, stop the war in Iraq, or do anything about the various human rights crisis that have been burgeoning the past 8 years on our watch, or help me pay back my over priced student loans.

I will be inspired when he DOES something other than talk. With HC gone now, we will see what happens.

As for the other rather arrogant things you have said, I got to take an exam now so I can't address them. Wish me luck!