Growing up, my mom was known as the family baker. She did try to cook though, well, kinda... She made dinners such as hotdog casserole, hamburger helper, fish sticks, etc. Everything was processed and we never saw vegetables that were not frozen or from a can. She however, made one thing better than anyone in the entire world: her beef stew. Mom’s beef stew also required little effort. Open a can of this, a can of that, brown some beef chunks, and throw that puppy in a crock-pot for eight hours to simmer. When we all came home from work or school, presto! Warm and butter some bread and you have dinner!
This weeks discussion prompt is to present a metaphor for American society today. I think at one time, America was more like a brownie. We were a group of people who came from far away to build greatness together. With a brownie, there are some individual pieces that don’t get absorbed such as nuts or frosting if one so desires. Overall however, the rest of the ingredients come together to become inseparable and unidentifiable individually. Together, they tolerate other items that don’t absorb but rise together to create a gooey, delicious treat of the Gods.
The America I see today is not this brownie we once were. Today, we are more like mom’s beef stew. We are individually processed through our unique experiences and eventually “unite” to create a warm meal. The bowl together is good, but you can still pick out the individual pieces of corn, peas, carrots, beef, potatoes, etc. Heck, it you wanted to, you could separate all of the ingredients to eat them in their united ingredient categories. Most people in their right mind would not have the time or desire to do this. Many say we taste much better eaten together so our entire individual flavors blend into one. Still, there have become separations between groups and individuals where they think our stew is best eaten in this manner. Today, we are a country out for ourselves; individuals want their daily latte and for work to go well if they are lucky enough to have a job. They think not of their brothers and sisters of America who have families who have ran out of unemployment and are near homelessness (or already there). Today, we are ran by the greedy and want to create separations to maintain illusions to distract us from what is going on behind the scenes. We hold elections based on voting for bad, worse, or worst. Education budgets have been cut so we can stay uneducated and believe the presented smoke screen…
American society today is a beef stew. Unique, delicious ingredients merge to make a delicious dancing of flavors among the taste buds. Stew is good, but why settle for good when we can be GREAT?! American society as a whole needs to be aiming for that brownie status once again.
Beef stew sounds really good right now. I really wanted to comment on what you said about how we are being greedy and everything is like illusions and elections gone bad as well as the budget cuts. I definitely think that our generation has been very badly educated in terms of morals, political stances, as well as personal drive. The reason why I think that our generation and the next generation is so weak is because our lives are just a bit too comfortable. Being a first world country we get whatever we want. Most of us take things for granted and keep reaching our hands out asking for more. Don't lie and try to cheat yourself. Most of us here do it. We are so used to reaching out and receiving without a second thought we honestly forget to thank others for what they've given us. Those that are politically active make our decisions for us when we don't make our own decisions. America is a democracy. Which basically means, we the people rule the country. If you don't participate, you are missing out. Education budgets are being cut because honestly, all schools are businesses. If they were low scores on the STAR tests basically the school rating goes down and the schools might close. Hence why so many teachers help their students cheat or focus on STAR testing instead of the actual material they are supposed to learn. Here at SJSU, if you look at our schools financial reports. Our professors have taken budget cuts and everything and what has the school done? They take advantage of them and use the money they save on the professor's pay for new positions in student government or student services. Honestly, not many of us attend the events. It's a waste of time, money, and effort. Why were 100+ jobs created in this useless recreation field? I'd rather they lower the cost of the school or even give the professor's the raise they were supposed to get 5-7 years ago!
ReplyDeleteHey great post Sea Star! I see the “enough of it” agitation in the post. I got the message that American beef stew is a good metaphor, but we can be a better tasting dish (brownie) if we change our ways of governing, and living like real human beings. If you ask me Americans live like no one else does in this world. There is hunger, poverty, struggle, and wars around the world, and in the midst of all this America wants to bake the cake and have it too as always. America has to learn to regard, respect others and come out of the self-obsessed world to understand the issues we are facing today. America has to accept the stance that it is going through a down cycle like any other nation and has to find its own way uphill by being genuine rather than pulling each other’s legs. We as Americans should support genuine leaders, who can make the real difference in the whole chaotic situation to hope for the good old days.
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