I've been pondering this age old question, especially in recent weeks, now that the Color Pious is no longer sending forth decrees from on high every weekday at 4 in that place of honor between Let's Make a Deal and Inside Edition.
I don't blame you, Oprah (at least not entirely.) I realized my issue is not so much with Oprah, but with her insanely inflated place in society. Oprah shouldn't make you cry. She doesn't belong on the five dollar bill. I don't care who she thinks should be president. That book she just told you to read? It won the Pulitzer Prize 50 years ago. All those life changing epiphanies she's sharing with you either come directly from freshmen English or the keychain you uses to open house number 27. Beef was bad for you a decade before Oprah was a woman on a mission with a persecution complex.
See, I think what bothers me is not that there's anything wrong with Oprah, it's that there's nothing special about her either. Yet so many otherwise smart, self aware people are ready to sprinkle holy water and canonize her at a moment's notice. Oprah's not your friend. She's your used car salesman. She's the traveling preacher "healing" the guy in the wheelchair and passing the plate. She gained a national platform because she had a good television show not because she was full of wisdom. She started her own television network so she could buy her dog a third Mercedes, not so the two of you could go on a journey together to find the true you.
Kudos on the charitable work, of course that's wonderful. Just one quick thing: Most people who give money to good causes don't usually also spring for the camera crew and Tom Hanks narration.
You watch Oprah. I watch pro wrestling. You watch Oprah. I watch the Amazing Race and Survivor. You watch Oprah. I watch Lost and 24. It's all part of the same soup. By all means, enjoy her to the nth degree. Just please acknowledge that she does not exist on some higher plane and you'll make me feel SO much better. Oprah is not Ghandi. She's Sally Jesse Rapheal. Oprah is not Martin Luther King. She's Maury Povich. Do me one favor and next time she's imploring you to release your energy out into the universe, picture the love child of Phil Donahue and Ricki Lake with better ratings. That's all I ask.
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Friday, June 17, 2011
Intellectual Vegetarian
"Intellectual Vegetarian" is a phrase I used on social media the other day in an attempt to try and describe my current state of mind on the matter. (By the way, I've also decided that Facebook and Twitter are largely responsible for my blogging hiatus.) Learning to share my mind soup with others in such efficient snippets has sapped the need and motivation to flesh things out further. We'll see if I can change that. End of meta tangent.
The phrase "intellectual vegetarian" is rather self explanatory I suppose, though I'm proud of myself for coining it, at least in my own head. It really just means that it rationally is making more and more sense to me, but at the same time, I don't actually envision myself making the lifestyle switch.
I realize that people have very personal reasons for making such a decision, and there are any number of such reasons. I could be wrong, but I always thought the core of vegetarianism was the idea that as self aware members of the food chain, once we figure out that we don't need meat to survive, should probably not eat it, ethically speaking. In other words, of course it's nothing wrong with it, naturally speaking, and we have the teeth to prove it. Yet, some would argue that "we should know better," that once it becomes a concious choice, the empathetic decision is to avoid eating animals since we don't actually have to. There's always been one logical hurdle (or rationalization) for me on this front. All the animals I eat are already dead. I've never liked hunting because it seems unfair and unecessary to me. (Give the deer a gun too and see what happens, though my hunting friends always eat what they kill.) I figure if I stop eating delicious hamburgers, it's not as if the burger gets to go free in the countryside. So, while I largely find the effort to be futile, I find the intention more and more noble, having never actually met a vegetarian until grad school and having several years to mull it over.
Personally, there's another reason why my mind keeps coming back to the subject. Despite how good it tastes, I'm increasingly disconcerted with what is in my food. Everything is so processed and artificial that we no longer have the slightest clue what we are putting in our bodies. I gave up milk after one too many docmentaries, though it's more a symbolic decision than anything else. In a perfect world, I'd just eat less meat, and eat organically, but it's expensive. Plus, organic food is actually becoming easier to find, but mostly because corporations have realized how chic it is, and have co-opted it, campaigning to the FDA to get the guidelines for what is considered organic loosened and lowered. Point being, I don't have the energy to figure these things out,so vegetarian might be the path of least resistance.
I'd be shocked if I ever actually did it. There are probably plenty of less radical ways to eat healthier and more naturally. I just find it interesting that my head has been inching in that direction over a long period of time, while my taste buds have no idea. Maybe I should try being a pescatarian. Wait a minute...damn mercury poisoning
The phrase "intellectual vegetarian" is rather self explanatory I suppose, though I'm proud of myself for coining it, at least in my own head. It really just means that it rationally is making more and more sense to me, but at the same time, I don't actually envision myself making the lifestyle switch.
I realize that people have very personal reasons for making such a decision, and there are any number of such reasons. I could be wrong, but I always thought the core of vegetarianism was the idea that as self aware members of the food chain, once we figure out that we don't need meat to survive, should probably not eat it, ethically speaking. In other words, of course it's nothing wrong with it, naturally speaking, and we have the teeth to prove it. Yet, some would argue that "we should know better," that once it becomes a concious choice, the empathetic decision is to avoid eating animals since we don't actually have to. There's always been one logical hurdle (or rationalization) for me on this front. All the animals I eat are already dead. I've never liked hunting because it seems unfair and unecessary to me. (Give the deer a gun too and see what happens, though my hunting friends always eat what they kill.) I figure if I stop eating delicious hamburgers, it's not as if the burger gets to go free in the countryside. So, while I largely find the effort to be futile, I find the intention more and more noble, having never actually met a vegetarian until grad school and having several years to mull it over.
Personally, there's another reason why my mind keeps coming back to the subject. Despite how good it tastes, I'm increasingly disconcerted with what is in my food. Everything is so processed and artificial that we no longer have the slightest clue what we are putting in our bodies. I gave up milk after one too many docmentaries, though it's more a symbolic decision than anything else. In a perfect world, I'd just eat less meat, and eat organically, but it's expensive. Plus, organic food is actually becoming easier to find, but mostly because corporations have realized how chic it is, and have co-opted it, campaigning to the FDA to get the guidelines for what is considered organic loosened and lowered. Point being, I don't have the energy to figure these things out,so vegetarian might be the path of least resistance.
I'd be shocked if I ever actually did it. There are probably plenty of less radical ways to eat healthier and more naturally. I just find it interesting that my head has been inching in that direction over a long period of time, while my taste buds have no idea. Maybe I should try being a pescatarian. Wait a minute...damn mercury poisoning
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