I've never tried embedding anything on here yet, but its quite fitting that my first attempt would be from "The Daily Show." In my course reviews from last semester, the top two things students wrote in as being their favorite things about my classes were something to the affect of she's funny (I make fun of myself a lot, that's basically what they mean there) and "she uses awesome clips from The Daily Show."
But anyway, as a professor of history, I often get irritated when people start talking about "the good old days." I'm telling you, there weren't any good old days. I don't mean to sound totally pessimistic here, but the adage "Life is hard and then you die" has always been true, but in the past life was really, really hard in super sucktacular ways, and then you died. Usually early, and of some horrible disease that we don't have anymore. Or, for us women, childbirth- its no coincidence that women didn't start outliving men until medical advancements made childbirth about a million times safer. (And its still super risky- this spring one of the doctors treating me told me that when he started practicing 20 years earlier, they would've lost me after the abruption I had with Emma. He said he's only seen 7 abruptions as bad as mine- and those moms were drug users, of course- and I'm his sole survivor.) So for me, even 20 years ago would have sucked (although I was alive then too, but not able to have children yet.)
There are other reasons why the good old days never existed either, particularly in America. I'm usually appalled when people ignore things like civil rights when they talk about simpler times. It truly was only about forty years ago that this country started letting African Americans VOTE- 1964, people! And even then, it took awhile to actually be put into practice. There were no good old days, we've just traded lynchings for terrorists (and there's definitely an argument to be made that lynchings are a form of domestic terrorism.) There's always a downside, and life never was, and never will be, idyllic.
So, I laughed OUT LOUD when I saw this clip on "The Daily Show." John Oliver is my current favorite correspondent (although Asif Mandvi does some great stuff too), and this helps prove why.
3 comments:
Kara I totally agree, I have one word for those people looking for the good old days Dentistry! Really you want good old dentistry? Also ties in with the book I am working on a review for.
Um Kara you and I have had the conversation many times about how SUCKY it would be to be a woman any other time than now. Haha the values we grew up with, that was white supremacy I think.... hahaha they were CHILDREN!
So this reminds me of something that's slightly related. Kids "these days" are scary awful. Little 6 year olds dropping the eff bomb like it's nothing, in view of adults and infants! I can't get over it. But I think I've figured out why. Watch Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer and there's your answer. Santa Clause and the daddy reindeer were straight up MEAN to Rudolph and the poor elf who wanted to be a dentist. They said things that I don't think I could ever say to Kyndal or Dev! But, maybe being super mean and dream destroying means that your children will behave better? So, good old days because kids weren't as truly awful, or not good old days because parents were jerks??
Post a Comment