Just finished viewing "Bobby," the Emilio Estevez's "fictionalized account of the hours leading up to the June 5, 1968 shooting of U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy in the kitchen of The Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles following his win of the 1968 Democratic Party presidential primary in California."
While I bear no special liking to the Kennedys, members of the privileged class, the movie did touch me emotionally with its multiple side stories of ordinary, and not so ordinary, people whose lives were touched. It made me believe that that year, with two infamous political assassinations, marked clearly the shift in America, a shift from the country to which I looked up as a source of inspiration, a country that was what it projected as being around the world--a country of possibilities for all, to a country being finally hijacked by the opportunism that inevitably arises from the social, economic, political system we call capitalism.
I arrived to that country 8 years later in 1976 still experiencing the country of hope only to witness its slow, long path towards its own moral destruction when the opportunist class openly, boldly took over in 1980. She continued sinking to the point where I decided to leave her in 2013.
I still like to visit my friends who live in that beautiful country and hope that her wonderful people will see through the empty promises and arise to reclaim her soul once more.
Tuesday, August 11, 2015
Bobby
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4 comments:
The country started sinking in the 1960s (probably before) because of the loss of social value and moral compass, together with a loss of appreciation of good art, good music, good relationships. These things take time, and today we see the results. Same conclusion, different reasons. Capitalism is perfectly fine, as long as we stop saving those that fail. Failure is an integral part of capitalism. The degradation is the same in Europe, except that it is much better hidden.
You may be right about the timing, Gordon. One must ask a question, though, was the "sinking" necessary and, if so, what made it necessary. My view is that the "sinking" is necessary and is a consequence of the economic, social, political, etc. system within which it takes place. The "sinking" is not a result of some "bad" people but of normal actions and reactions of normal people given the circumstances.
How did the change that you observe in the background of the culture affect you, personally? Can you give an example of something that changed that negatively impacted your own every day life, Dubravko?
Yes, David. These days, and increasingly so since 1976, I feel less and less valued as a customer due to prevalence of large stores (like Target, Publix, Bestbuy, etc) with employees most of whom do not identify with the store's mission, who feel more and more replaceable (being just another commodity), who are frequently overworked and undertrained to provide me with quality service I found in early days of my US experience in more locally-owned establishments.
Also, I find more and more situations of commercial land development managed from a distance and inspired by quick ROI without regard for the local community's long term needs and desires. One such example is the "development" along Magnolia Drive close to the Apalachee Pkwy in Tallahassee. I used to live in that area while it was still wooded with foxes and other wildlife there which was part of the attraction to me to select to live there. Homes became valued much less over the years, including my home, partly due to that development as they attracted different potential buyers. This last statement is just a speculation, but I do know that now I would not select that area to live in.
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