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The Silent Majority-----We Continue to Sit

beneteaubeneteau Member Posts: 8,553 ✭✭✭
edited December 2006 in General Discussion
(a little longer than I wanted---but I wanted to say it)

The Silent Majority----I haven't heard that phrase in a long time; but never forgot it and we're all a part of it. We sit (millions of us) in front of our computers---voice our opinions/frustrations on various blogs/forums in regard to what's happening and has happened to our country. We're all fed up with crime, gay rights, illegal aliens, the continuous onslaught on our Constitution, crooked politicians, the war---and the list goes on and on.

We sit and watch on TV----the gay community marching in protest and demanding "the right for same sex marriage"---yet, we continue to sit. We watch thousands of illegal aliens marching in protest---demanding their "so-called" rights---we continue to sit. We see our ancestral and historical statues being removed because some "group" said they were racist----we continue to sit. We see individuals attempting to remove "God" from everything imaginable---we continue to sit. We see hardened criminals released from jails/prisons and commit more crimes----we continue to sit.

Since I was a kid (62 now), I was always told---"if you don't like the way the country is going---VOTE!" I've voted for 41 years and I don't know of anything that's gotten better. That's the Silent Majority----we vote---then we sit.

If "all" the Silent Majority were to stay home from work----go into the streets to protest just one day----would this country not "grind to a halt"? From every walk of life
millions upon millions. Would it have any effect?

Don't know if you ever saw the movie "Network"---released in 1976. The following are quotes/lines from this movie by actor Peter Finch during his TV newscast (played newscaster Howard Beale):

HOWARD BEALE "I don't have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It's a depression. Everybody's out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel's work, banks are going bust, shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter. Punks are running wild in the street and there's nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there's no end to it. We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat, and we sit watching our TV's while some local newscaster tells us that today we had fifteen homicides and sixty-three violent crimes, as if that's the way it's supposed to be. We know things are bad - worse than bad. They're crazy. It's like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don't go out anymore. We sit in the house, and slowly the world we are living in is getting smaller, and all we say is, 'Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials and I won't say anything. Just leave us alone.' Well, I'm not gonna leave you alone. I want you to get mad! I don't want you to protest. I don't want you to riot - I don't want you to write to your congressman because I wouldn't know what to tell you to write. I don't know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street. All I know is that first you've got to get mad.
Howard Beale: [shouting] You've got to say, 'I'm a HUMAN BEING, %$#@*&^%$! My life has VALUE!' So I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window. Open it, and stick your head out, and yell,
[shouting]
Howard Beale: 'I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!' I want you to get up right now, sit up, go to your windows, open them and stick your head out and yell - 'I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!' Things have got to change. But first, you've gotta get mad!... You've got to say, 'I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!' Then we'll figure out what to do about the depression and the inflation and the oil crisis. But first get up out of your chairs, open the window, stick your head out, and yell, and say it:
Howard Beale: [screaming at the top of his lungs] "I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!"
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Comments

  • ElMuertoMonkeyElMuertoMonkey Member Posts: 12,898
    edited November -1
    Howard Beale was also senile in the movie. Not the best of role models...
  • Slow_HandSlow_Hand Member Posts: 2,835
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by beneteau

    Since I was a kid (62 now), I was always told---"if you don't like the way the country is going---VOTE!" I've voted for 41 years and I don't know of anything that's gotten better. That's the Silent Majority----we vote---then we sit.


    At no point in any of the world's history were or are the common people happy with the way the world was headed. That is the absolute truth. Why? Because human beings by nature are never truly happy with status quo. Change is constant. It is inevitable. Not every change is sought, welcomed or embraced by the general populus. Many changes are for the betterment of society as a whole - not just one group, country or faction of it. I understand your sentiments and I share your frustration at times but with 6 billion people living together on one orb spinning through its orbit in space, the chances of consensus are impossible and happiness is merely what you and I make of life itself respectively.

    Cheryl Crow's song has these words:

    "It's not having what you want, it's wanting what you have."

    The Rolling Stones offered:

    "You can't always get what you want. But if you try real hard, you just might find, you get what you need."

    Have a Happy and Healthy New Year!
  • pickenuppickenup Member Posts: 22,844 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Apathy runs rampant. [V]
  • zipperzapzipperzap Member Posts: 25,057
    edited November -1
    quote:beneteau:

    Since I was a kid (62 now), I was always told---"if you don't like the way the country is going---VOT

    Me, too - 61 - BUT - what they didn't tell you was that everything is pretty much settled in Washington BEFORE you vote. Your vote ain't worth much - never was - ain't now.

    ... you should know that by now![:D]
  • Slow_HandSlow_Hand Member Posts: 2,835
    edited November -1
    quote:
    Apathy runs rampant. [V]




    Perhaps it does but the alternative is what? A heart attack? Ulcers? Fist fights? Pockets of armed resistance? A mob run on the police stations? Anarchy? Becoming a hermit in the hills? Leaving America? Hating everyone who doesn't share the same opinion as you or I?

    Absolutely none of what people beyatch about is new. It's as old as civilization itself.

    Law-abiding citizens, by definition, yield to majority rule, vote their conscience, pay their taxes, follow the laws and live their lives as best as they can. Some participate in life more actively and vocally than others. Not everyone is a shining star nor "leader" or "executive" material.

    Life comes down choices and everyone is free to make his or her own and live with them. But, if you want to dance to the music, you have to help pay the band at the end of the night.

    Just my 2 cents.

    Happy New Year to all!
  • pickenuppickenup Member Posts: 22,844 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by Slow_Hand
    quote:
    Apathy runs rampant. [V]




    Perhaps it does but the alternative is what?
    Participation in more of the process, than just voting, would be a good start.

    I know MANY people who complain, but when asked, have NEVER sent any communication of any kind, to their elected representatives. Satisfied that they have "done their part" by voting.

    Quite a few things have been changed by a small number of people. Concerning firearm laws. How many wanted new laws, how many didn't? How many people were protesting "GOD" in schools? Which of these groups made the most noise?

    I have seen representatives change their position on certain topics, when they were inundated with emails, phone calls, and letters. I don't mean just a few, as usually happens, but FLOODED because people were passionate enough about the proposed changes, to actually SAY something. MANY items, could/should be nipped in the bud, BEFORE they come up for vote. Sadly, apathy runs rampant.

    It has been proven, over and over, that the squeaky wheel gets the grease.
    If more were to BE the squeaky wheel, instead of being the apathetic "did my part by voting" armchair quarterbacks (if even that) we might stand a chance.

    Of course there are some issues where, it is already too late,
  • spryorspryor Member Posts: 9,155
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by Slow_Hand
    quote:
    Apathy runs rampant. [V]




    Perhaps it does but the alternative is what? A heart attack? Ulcers? Fist fights? Pockets of armed resistance? A mob run on the police stations? Anarchy? Becoming a hermit in the hills? Leaving America? Hating everyone who doesn't share the same opinion as you or I?

    Absolutely none of what people beyatch about is new. It's as old as civilization itself.

    Law-abiding citizens, by definition, yield to majority rule, vote their conscience, pay their taxes, follow the laws and live their lives as best as they can. Some participate in life more actively and vocally than others. Not everyone is a shining star nor "leader" or "executive" material.

    Life comes down choices and everyone is free to make his or her own and live with them. But, if you want to dance to the music, you have to help pay the band at the end of the night.

    Just my 2 cents.

    Happy New Year to all!


    All true. Seems I've chosen to be somewhat the hermit, for whatever
    reason. Although, I am definately in touch with elected officials
    on occasion, letting my voice be heard. How much real effect this
    may have is questionable at best.[8D]
  • sig232sig232 Member Posts: 8,018
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by Slow_Hand
    quote:Originally posted by beneteau

    Since I was a kid (62 now), I was always told---"if you don't like the way the country is going---VOTE!" I've voted for 41 years and I don't know of anything that's gotten better. That's the Silent Majority----we vote---then we sit.


    At no point in any of the world's history were or are the common people happy with the way the world was headed. That is the absolute truth. Why? Because human beings by nature are never truly happy with status quo. Change is constant. It is inevitable. Not every change is sought, welcomed or embraced by the general populus. Many changes are for the betterment of society as a whole - not just one group, country or faction of it. I understand your sentiments and I share your frustration at times but with 6 billion people living together on one orb spinning through its orbit in space, the chances of consensus are impossible and happiness is merely what you and I make of life itself respectively.

    Cheryl Crow's song has these words:

    "It's not having what you want, it's wanting what you have."

    The Rolling Stones offered:

    "You can't always get what you want. But if you try real hard, you just might find, you get what you need."

    Have a Happy and Healthy New Year!




    Good solid advice![:)]
  • Fatboy livesFatboy lives Member Posts: 708 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    With the internet there is no reason to not be able to contact your elected so called leaders, and tell them exactly what you think of them. While true, they would probally laugh at one or two nasty emails, imagine if they got several hundred, or a couple thousand, that would change their minds no doubt. First we the people have to get up off our lazy buts and do something aobut it. The only way that evil will continue to run rampant, is if good people are content to let it runs it course. Take New Orleans after katrina, and the gun confiscation, yea the NRA filed a lawsuit, made the jackboots stop, and they are supposed to give the guns back, are they? Would it not have been a much bigger statement were say a few thousand armed citizens showed up, and informed the jackboots they would no longer be confiscating firearms? I think so.
  • Dak To 68Dak To 68 Member Posts: 1,404 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    The "Silent Majority" Beneteau speaks of may now be the "Silent Minority". Lump all the humans in America that DON'T fit into the old "Silent Majority" and they may be the new "Vocal Majority". Look around, if that's not the case now, it won't be long.
  • sharpshooter039sharpshooter039 Member Posts: 5,897 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    we are almost to the point where voting for any law will be obsolete,take gay marrige,,several states have had a vote,it has been banned in several states by majority vote,,,,Now it has to stand up to the lawsuits,,,any 1 "ONE" judge can decide it violates 1 persons rights and overturn the law no matter how big of a majority voted against it,,,,then if you get it pass all the state/federal judges the supreme court can overturn everybody and reject any and all elections in any state because they determind the election violated someone's civil/constitutional rights,,We basically have 1 branch of government running this country,they have even decided who was to be our president
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