an ode to the delusional … americans who don’t realize they are the peasantry, and not noble in the least – ya’ know, the ones who look down on blacks/communists/gays/feelings/dreams/life/liberals/conservatives/dems or reps/free-honest men/ ya’ know, the real poor schmucks!!! –
“People with advantages are loathe to believe that they just happen to be people with advantages. They come readily to define themselves as inherently worthy of what they possess; they come to believe themselves ‘naturally’ elite; and, in fact, to imagine their possessions and their privileges as natural extensions of their own elite selves.”
– C. Wright Mills
always looking down, because if they ever looked up at their rich gods flying over them in their gulfstreams …
I remember going on a tour cruise in the canals of miami with John, Donna, Harry [Hryhorii], Stephanya, Marko, and myself – we toured the palaces of the truly material success stories. The mansions on the islands were the respites of such luminaries as Madonna (Ma-Donna)! Yikes, did not see religion jump in right here, but it fits almost too well – “Material Girl” “Like a Virgin”. Gee whitakers, american culture was really in your face in the 80’s [Michael Jackson was the King of Pop, slowly turning white before our very eyes! – I mean, that is some snow-white level magic playing out in real time!]!
This was the only show I remember watching with parents that were somewhat amused in my early age:
Holy Moly! What cognitive dissonance! My parents war-shipped rich shallow assholes (a constant cry of Donna’s was always “why won’t Stephanya, Marie, and/or Olga ever accept me?!?). Never satisfied with John’s earnings, and the most frugal of women I have ever met (straight depression mindset – she learned to sow so that she could wear fancy dresses but never bothered to learn how to cook, no – just feed the children the re-heated left-overs of her mother’s – literally the best Ukrainian cook in the metro detroit area! – nope, don’t bother learning that – not like the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach … and she wondered why John (to be fair, he was also a momma’s boy) would eat dinner at Stephanya’s before returning to his gold-diggin’ wife!- by the way, no blame. Donna lives in fear – and her solution is money = safety = alleviation of fear = but it doesn’t work, so it’s always more, more, more … never good enough)
yikes, I digress. The culture I was supposed to emulate in order for Donna to win the love and affection of her mother, Anna (to fill the gaping hole that never received the unconditional love a child is meant to receive from his/her mother – due to the trauma of WWII? hunger? displacement? Hardy-har-Hardy!- it’s almost like her life-long obsession to learn how to bake pascha was actually a longing to feel the warmth she felt as a child when her mother, Anna, would open the oven – that blast of warm air was the closest she ever got to Anna sharing a “love” with her!
that is probably why I learned to cook. Day long gumbo from scratch, super slow roasts in the oven, keeping a bone broth going for a week …)
I am the black sheep of the Iwaniec family; it is much easier when one can blame all the inter-family problems on one person – it lifts having to look at one’s actions …
Ooh, I devolve into the scapegoat mechanism of Rene Girard:
this serious series highlights memes, the ridiculous breadth of Christianity, and how scapegoating works
to be continued, since I started this at 6 AM, and now I must prepare for 7 AM basketball this fine day, saturn-day, fifth of birch month, the 2022 year since the birth of our lord …
oh, and Harry wept when presented with the comparison to the material indulgences laid before him, for he felt like a failure! Yay! American Culture at its finest!
purpose – to never return to the dead life – Matthew 8:22