Collective Identity...the hidden in plain site zombie apocalypse?
I feel sad. Very, very sad.
TV, media, entertainment. It’s (I said it, not they, as I will not personalize a machine), it’s been allowed to replace and remove the history of my family.
“Oh no, here he goes again...”
I know so little about the personal, familial details of my family. Bits and pieces, if that, of parents childhood, almost nothing of grandparents.
I know my mom’s dad came from Hungary. He was a tall, gentle, quiet man, he spoke little and I’m not sure how well he spoke English. He drank, at least he had. He was goofy, silly, a gentle giant. He would take his rolling papers, pouch of tobacco and go to the garage to twist up and smoke his home rolls. His health was poor, in fact he was dying when he came to live with us, I think. There’s no one left to tell.
I know nothing of his life. I know nothing of the Hungary he would have know as a boy during the great wars. Was he a communist? My romantic side and his nature whispers to me he was a resistance fighter.
Who was my mom’s mom that she from very humble origins (I think my mom said her mom grew up with dirt floors & an outhouse), met and then married this Hungarian?
White privileged? Ha ha, ho ho, hee hee.
Wops, Hunkies, Frenchies, rednecks, trailer trash lineage, sorry, my kin (and YOUR kin if you’re related to me) has NOT know white privilege. My kin worked hard, busted their butts, hustled, overcame prejudice and hate, were Democrats, Republicans, Christians, Jews, Catholic & Protestant, back-woods folk healers, Gypsies...and oh yeah, what white privileged I may have had a path to I walked away from as a young teen in New York. While visiting relatives I was approached by a goombah former “The Family” guy offering me a name and a phone number, “that should I ever need anything, call the number.” Yeah, that my dad, and other Italians or immigrants had to warn me in advance of this possibility and to say respectfully and finally, “NO” to any such offer, as that offer came with strings.
The Italians, as did the Irish, Jews & Mexicans etc have all had to band together in early immigration days just to survive. Some have had to or chosen to maintain that for decades, and will likely forever.
Breaking away from that protection, leaving family stuck in generational cycles of immigrant poverty, limited opportunities, and familiar cultural and ethnic enclaves — they took risks, braved new lands, different states, pushed upon & broke invisible barriers, and then choosing to work and make sacrifices to leave and provide greater opportunities... that doesn’t sound like privilege, that sounds like people. The story of people all over the USA, all around the world and down through every generation. rant over on that...
Back to my Hungarian granddad. What the heck?
I’m sad.
Very, very sad that I know the details of my favorite TV characters back & forwards, know the stats and details of sports “heroes” I grew up with...and know almost nothing of my own family line.
My blood lines have been erased. (M)TV not only killed the radio, it also erased my bloodlines.
The other day I was telling a story to my grandkids, not sure if it was about me or their dad, but one said very politely, but confused, “poppa, you already told us that story...”
Confused as to why I’d tell them THEIR history? Sad.
Yet, they, as I, as we, go back to our TV series, seasons episodes, part 2 or 3 or 1000 of Avengers or Star Whatever. Binge watch, reruns and anniversary editions, platinum collectors editions ad nauseum.
But don’t tell me twice about the time you snuck into the drive in movie theatre, or your childhood memories, childhood pranks or sweethearts or the details of work & family vacations and NO, oh no, don’t bring out the photo albums or home movies!!
But YES, oh yes!! Tell me all about Nancy and her exotic freezer & custom ice cream fetish, spare no detail! Let me see a congresswoman dance. Stage for me rejoining you’re family after a pretend strict quarantine.
People & Entertainment magazine, former British royalty & porn stars, Sean Hannity, Judge Judy or Janine or Dr. Phil-Oz-Gupta, Rachel Maddow & Whoopi, please tell us about yourselves and all the wonderful, exciting celebrities and rich people we don’t know and never will meet, whom the vast majority are fake, and the antithesis of goodness, decency, and selflessness. Face lifts and tummy tucks and peels and diets and makeup tips. We must know & have this info-gristle.
What an absolute dumb ass I’ve been.
“Write about it, talk about it, record it for posterity!!!” Hell no, and it, that true outpouring from every soul become as the daily leaves that fall off a million trees? No. No thanks.
Books, and even more and greater than that are our stories, our familial stories, the good, bad, the ugly, the stars and the underachievers, the fabric of our personal identity and personal history is no more. Replaced by fake, made up, equal parts fictional, personal and historical characters generated (or degenerated) from a stranger’s mind.
Gone are the nights together telling, and retelling the stories of our kin, the details of their lives that made us unique and special. The admonitions, the warnings, those we hold up for honor for their work & deeds, those whose lives we talk about as reminders of our genetic mental, and physical pros/cons, strengths and weaknesses.
My way-stations, transponders, landmarks are gone.
I am sad. Millions of people will lose their personal family history every day, forever, never to be regained. Genealogy reports and DNA testing is not the soul of humanity. The manipulators of TV, media & entertainment have become this world’s gods, and that crafted message(s) is becoming the collective soul.
I will not share my
stories. They will die with me, I will let them fall like the leaves
they are. I do not know what this modern, tech driven society will
become. I do not know what will become of the next generation, in such a
hurry to learn more about a fictional character, celebrity, star or
athlete. In such a hurry to distance themselves from themselves and to
become that airbrushed illusion of a character.
Maybe this loss, this terrible loss of our personal history is the hidden in plain site zombie apocalypse.
Have a cheery covid-19 day.
TV, media, entertainment. It’s (I said it, not they, as I will not personalize a machine), it’s been allowed to replace and remove the history of my family.
I know so little about the personal, familial details of my family. Bits and pieces, if that, of parents childhood, almost nothing of grandparents.
I know my mom’s dad came from Hungary. He was a tall, gentle, quiet man, he spoke little and I’m not sure how well he spoke English. He drank, at least he had. He was goofy, silly, a gentle giant. He would take his rolling papers, pouch of tobacco and go to the garage to twist up and smoke his home rolls. His health was poor, in fact he was dying when he came to live with us, I think. There’s no one left to tell.
I know nothing of his life. I know nothing of the Hungary he would have know as a boy during the great wars. Was he a communist? My romantic side and his nature whispers to me he was a resistance fighter.
Who was my mom’s mom that she from very humble origins (I think my mom said her mom grew up with dirt floors & an outhouse), met and then married this Hungarian?
White privileged? Ha ha, ho ho, hee hee.
Wops, Hunkies, Frenchies, rednecks, trailer trash lineage, sorry, my kin (and YOUR kin if you’re related to me) has NOT know white privilege. My kin worked hard, busted their butts, hustled, overcame prejudice and hate, were Democrats, Republicans, Christians, Jews, Catholic & Protestant, back-woods folk healers, Gypsies...and oh yeah, what white privileged I may have had a path to I walked away from as a young teen in New York. While visiting relatives I was approached by a goombah former “The Family” guy offering me a name and a phone number, “that should I ever need anything, call the number.” Yeah, that my dad, and other Italians or immigrants had to warn me in advance of this possibility and to say respectfully and finally, “NO” to any such offer, as that offer came with strings.
The Italians, as did the Irish, Jews & Mexicans etc have all had to band together in early immigration days just to survive. Some have had to or chosen to maintain that for decades, and will likely forever.
Breaking away from that protection, leaving family stuck in generational cycles of immigrant poverty, limited opportunities, and familiar cultural and ethnic enclaves — they took risks, braved new lands, different states, pushed upon & broke invisible barriers, and then choosing to work and make sacrifices to leave and provide greater opportunities... that doesn’t sound like privilege, that sounds like people. The story of people all over the USA, all around the world and down through every generation. rant over on that...
Back to my Hungarian granddad. What the heck?
I’m sad.
Very, very sad that I know the details of my favorite TV characters back & forwards, know the stats and details of sports “heroes” I grew up with...and know almost nothing of my own family line.
My blood lines have been erased. (M)TV not only killed the radio, it also erased my bloodlines.
The other day I was telling a story to my grandkids, not sure if it was about me or their dad, but one said very politely, but confused, “poppa, you already told us that story...”
Confused as to why I’d tell them THEIR history? Sad.
Yet, they, as I, as we, go back to our TV series, seasons episodes, part 2 or 3 or 1000 of Avengers or Star Whatever. Binge watch, reruns and anniversary editions, platinum collectors editions ad nauseum.
But don’t tell me twice about the time you snuck into the drive in movie theatre, or your childhood memories, childhood pranks or sweethearts or the details of work & family vacations and NO, oh no, don’t bring out the photo albums or home movies!!
But YES, oh yes!! Tell me all about Nancy and her exotic freezer & custom ice cream fetish, spare no detail! Let me see a congresswoman dance. Stage for me rejoining you’re family after a pretend strict quarantine.
People & Entertainment magazine, former British royalty & porn stars, Sean Hannity, Judge Judy or Janine or Dr. Phil-Oz-Gupta, Rachel Maddow & Whoopi, please tell us about yourselves and all the wonderful, exciting celebrities and rich people we don’t know and never will meet, whom the vast majority are fake, and the antithesis of goodness, decency, and selflessness. Face lifts and tummy tucks and peels and diets and makeup tips. We must know & have this info-gristle.
What an absolute dumb ass I’ve been.
“Write about it, talk about it, record it for posterity!!!” Hell no, and it, that true outpouring from every soul become as the daily leaves that fall off a million trees? No. No thanks.
Books, and even more and greater than that are our stories, our familial stories, the good, bad, the ugly, the stars and the underachievers, the fabric of our personal identity and personal history is no more. Replaced by fake, made up, equal parts fictional, personal and historical characters generated (or degenerated) from a stranger’s mind.
Gone are the nights together telling, and retelling the stories of our kin, the details of their lives that made us unique and special. The admonitions, the warnings, those we hold up for honor for their work & deeds, those whose lives we talk about as reminders of our genetic mental, and physical pros/cons, strengths and weaknesses.
My way-stations, transponders, landmarks are gone.
I am sad. Millions of people will lose their personal family history every day, forever, never to be regained. Genealogy reports and DNA testing is not the soul of humanity. The manipulators of TV, media & entertainment have become this world’s gods, and that crafted message(s) is becoming the collective soul.
I will not share my
stories. They will die with me, I will let them fall like the leaves
they are. I do not know what this modern, tech driven society will
become. I do not know what will become of the next generation, in such a
hurry to learn more about a fictional character, celebrity, star or
athlete. In such a hurry to distance themselves from themselves and to
become that airbrushed illusion of a character. Maybe this loss, this terrible loss of our personal history is the hidden in plain site zombie apocalypse.
Have a cheery covid-19 day.
**Getting together is great, glad for enthusiasm....
But appreciated as it will be by many, recording information for posterity & history by way of written, recorded or otherwise misses my point.
Where is Barnes & Noble? Who goes to libraries? What happened to actual newspapers?
Once the story(s) are told, recorded & made available that repository will become an idle archive.
Oh, I’m not an iconoclast, I’ve had my childhood home movies digitized & on redundant servers, I’ve also digitized all Tina & my family’s home movies (in redundant servers), and digitized all my mom/deans home movies (which included Renae’s, Mel’s, and Mike’s)
And over the next year I’ll have all our photo albums, negatives & misc photos digitized and uploaded
Some of you already have access to a private server with these home movies (and if it’s used n can sustain higher traffic I will include the balance of nuclear family after editing and separating)
I’ll leave that behind
But who I am, where I’ve been, me, the real me that’s made up of experiences and stories you will never know, the back story of my life (my parents and grandparents stories etc) will be lost—it will die
Headstone details will be all you know...
It is and will be that way for us all. Bloodlines are more than genealogy, DNA, and broad sweeping strokes compressed into a 45, 60, or 90 minute presser.
The art, the cultural expectation and the norm of sharing generational family stories is over. Over and over and over again, night after night, event after event; “Did you know your grandpa Poppy on the G-side fell into high voltage power lines, nearly died, but overcame that to be a great athlete & to be called ‘the miracle boy?” “If he can do that, you can do this...”
Instead, Spider-Man or Batman or Builder Bob’s lives and fake experiences are their go-to, their repetition, their mantra
And instead of drawing on the wisdom of our wiser, spiritual, successful parents or kin, we look to experts & media talking heads
I am lost. We are lost. My story, your story, our stories are not valued, they cannot be bundled, packaged, nor monthly memberships sold. We lose.
Now, right now July 1, 2020 the radical social agenda and national self-loathing of the once proud, brave, free infesting and infecting quicker than COVID-19 China Virus USA citizens, our State & National monuments are being pulled down, defaced. Colleges, Cities, and even a State is seeking to change its founding names. Movies are being censored and removed.
A call for "the white European Jesus' to also be removed, as well as other offensive religious statues. Anything that could define America and the Patriotism of old.
Socially that era is over. I hope and pray it will survive in a few who will not conform. It will require a paradigm shift, a re-prioritization of values. My life, your life, the history of YOUR family will need to be valued highly, referred to regularly, and passed on.
If it is not, does not become a habit, it will not survive.
Peace.
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