This week's blog topic is STATUS. It was suggested by Ramana and you can see his take on the topic here Ramana's Musings.
Status is everywhere. We are label happy and so that makes status a label easily applicable to us all. And we have even created emojis to further clarify our status,
We are born with status, Every country has a status system built in. I believe India's caste system is the most widely known and perhaps least understood.
Here in the USA we seem headed on a collision course with race becoming the most dominant identifier/status. Now don't get me wrong - race has always been a dominant status here but it has been closeted and now, fueled by white paranoia about losing "our" country to non whites times are becoming very interesting. and the dominant status appears to be "red neck". Alas, I do not fit the bill - despite where I live (an admittedly trashy trailer park i the deep s I am a fish out of water here because I am no fan of college basketball and the mere mention of Duke or North Carolina do not cause me to genuflect. One has to wonder how Native Americans feel about their country being over run by the victorious conquerors. But wait - we won, therefore we got to write the history. Yay us. Who cares what they thought or think. History is written by the winners, always has been and always will be. Of course it usually has to be rewritten when the various and sundry inaccuracies are so glaring - as in the recently disclosed saga of POTUS 45 and his wealth accumulation techniques.
Having status is not enough - we need a Master Status "in sociology, the master status is the social position that is the primary identifying characteristic of an individual. The term master status is defined as "a status that has exceptional importance for social identity, often shaping a person's entire life." Now that is something I can get behind and support. My Master Status is - drum roll please - Curmudgeon.
It is all downhill from here - Curmudgeon, free thinker, smart ass (a sub set of curmudgeon) - I'm sure we can add a few to the list. Father, Grandfather, Uncle, College graduate, retired, musicologist, member of Facebook, cook, avid reader - dang - this status stuff is quite extensive. And then there is the fun stuff- baseball player, football player, wrestler, softball player, Trivial Pursuit master, Pictionary player,
A recent change has occurred. I am no longer a political junkie The tribalism has worn me down. My registration has changed to Independent. I cannot deal with the extremes of the two parties. The religious right has sold their souls for 2 SCOTUS judges, The progressive left wrote the book on political correctness. So I will just have to muddle through and see what will be.
That brings today's little ditty to a close. We'll see all y'all next week, same bat time and same bat channel
never thought of Curmugeon as a status before, but it does fit. Have to admit my idea of status radically changed after living in Oryegon all these years. Interesting blog, as always.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteA very unusual but, touching post Shackman. I can feel the angst. I wish that there was something that I could say or do to alleviate!
ReplyDeletewow - I was shootimg for snark, not angst
ReplyDeletetruth ringing in every line for me. I always rather liked the quote from JFK... "I'm an optimist with no illusions."
ReplyDeleteI have spent almost my whole life being a natural Pollyanna that just wanted the world to be happy and kind to each other. such foolish and futile aspirations. I saw the world like a child would. well. one that was allowed a childhood without war and spilled blood and guns and knives and all manner of annihilation.
I too have of late decided to change my registration to Independent. I have not snark nor angst nor anything but anger. and I freely admit it. I'm tired of trying to figure it all out.
I am sick of it all. of castes and elitists and rednecks and idiots. clean and simple. no illusions. no ill gotten gains. just disgust. we've been working at all this for how many thousands of years? it's like a board game with no progress. not really.
good one Shack. xo
As a white, well educated, well-off male, I'm definitely accorded a higher status than those who are none of those things. Organisations that wouldn't give a debt-ridden black male or female the time of day defer to me, call me Sir and are ready to help me. It's a miserably unfair world and governments of different political persuasions do very little to level things out. Like you, I no longer loyally support one of the big political parties but have become a sceptical floating voter. My master status is probably iconoclast.
ReplyDelete