we live in the age of the lily-livered, (liveing in a pusillanimous age)

[rodeodance]

Great article.


.....And yet we live in the age of the lily-livered, in which fretting over things like excessive caffeination is built into the cultural code.

I blame the people at the top for setting the tone. We live in an age in which the White House is staffed by tidy-desked, white-shirted, crisply coiffed StairMaster addicts, whose idea of sensual decadence is an extra pinch of NutraSweet in the lunchtime iced tea. We've got a president whose personal philosophy is: freedom is God's gift to humanity, but bedtime is 9:30.

This isn't the empire of an American Caesar; it's the empire of faux Caesar salad.

......

I blame the titans of corporatism. Fitness is now the prime marker of capitalist machismo, so the higher reaches of corporate America are filled with tightly calved Blackberries in human form, who believe that extremism in pursuit of moderation is no vice. They have become such obsessive time-maximizers that all evening, in what used to be known as social life, they keep an eye on the need to be up, fit and early, for the next day's productivity marathon.....


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/12/opinion/12brooks.html?th

March 12, 2005
OP-ED COLUMNIST
Saturday Night Lite

[Swamp Rat]

1. "... empire of faux Caesar salad."

That's a good descriptor for this admin.

[rodeodance]

2. we do seem obsessed with personal fitness yet ignore enviromental

hazards--toxins, air pollution.

[bklyncowgirl]

3. He's got a good point. Think of SUVs.

We're obsessed with our personal safety, unwilling to take risks but deep down inside there's something wild and crazy wishing to get out.

I think marketing geniuses understand that very well. Look at the way the sell SUV's.

An SUV will take you to all the wild places you've dreamed about. Pictures of people driving off road, into the wilderness, danger, danger excitement, excitement. Oh and they are also enclosing you and your family in tons of steel so when you drive the kiddypoos to their safe, supervised play activities you can feel secure in the knowledge that if anything hit's you it's history. Most SUVs are never driven off road and they are an absolute menace in snow and ice unless the driver really knows how to handle them.

Security, safety, it's an obsession driven by marketing.

[freestyle]

4. Brooks must have written this while drunk

because he is usually a very reliable administration stooge. I wonder if he paused to consider that all this fun he was having was in a quite thoroughly Democratic city and that the killjoys are much more concentrated on his side.

I went to college in New Orleans, and the poverty and class divisions are truly depressing. But, the people there always know how to have a good time and are some of the most generous people I have been around. You don't go to New Orleans for the moderation.

[BiggJawn]

5. That could be taken to some new heights.

So while they sweat on their Bow-Flex machines, the rest of us sit at home in a stupor because we're exhausted from trying to keep up with the "Human Blackberry"...

This is great, another excuse for why I don't advance in my Org. Because I'm too fat.

Oh, wow...guess what today's Opera banner ad is...yup, "Bowflex"...

It's a SIGN.
Excuse me, I need to go ride my hamster wheel now....