Below are some sample pages from Which Hobbit Lives Here?

Culture

Competition
Growing up in the United States of the mid-Twentieth Century, I felt conflicted in many ways. I wanted to fit in and be like my classmates, but our interests often diverged. I found popular sports, such as baseball and football, rather boring, partly because I was not very good at them. I was fleet of foot, and could often win a race, but I was as apt to drop a ball as catch it securely. Besides, what was the point of it all? If you were the winner that meant that somebody else was a loser. I have always been more interested in win-win propositions.

If you look closely at our society, it is permeated with competition, and not only in the sports arena. Virtually all subjects in school are graded, and students are encouraged to excel. Theoretically, the learning is the point of this, but in fact students often work for the high mark, and are rewarded by notice in class, advancement within the system, or some other form of recognition. I did well scholastically and was often listed on the "honor roll," posted prominently in the hall. Being displayed here was supposed to be a reward for our elite group, but the social effect of it was to isolate us as "brains."
Consumerism
The very word "consumer" suggests a kind of ravenous absorption of that which is available. It is a one-sided concept of taking-in, without necessarily giving-back. All organisms consume something, such as oxygen, food, or water, but in the natural scheme of things they also return something to the environment, such as carbon dioxide or fertilizer. There is a balance to natural systems that is self-sustaining, or else they will ultimately fail.

In our society, we are regarded by the marketers as consumers, because we buy what they sell us. Conventional thinking does not look at the overall equation of what happens to what is being sold once it is consumed. What happens to the waste that is a by-product of consumption? Food wastes typically go either down the sewer line and are rarely recaptured as nutrients for further food production, or they are discarded and taken off to the local dump, along with a great deal of attendant packaging. Of all the other stuff that we "consume", only a very small percentage is ever recaptured after its useful life. In our throw-away society, it is taken off to the land-fill, and actually becomes a burden to safely dispose of; land-fills have become toxic wastelands.

This has really only become a problem since the industrial revolution, because before this recycling materials was more the rule than the exception. Now the extraction of materials from the earth has accelerated to the point that it far exceeds what is recaptured for useful recycling. Because we live in a finite world, this obviously cannot continue indefinitely.
Capitalism
In the United States, belief in the free-market economy is absolute; other models of economic organization are looked upon as uncivilized. We are the free ones; others are consigned to dictatorship and subjugation.

The hallmark of capitalism is private ownership and the accumulation of private wealth; this is sacrosanct. So the freedom that we possess is to be our own lords and masters and control our own little kingdoms. Who am I to criticize this, since I enjoy my own little kingdom as much as my neighbor does?

The trouble is that the kingdoms don't tend to stay so little. With wealth comes power, and with power come greed, and with greed comes the accumulation of more wealth...it is a vicious circle. So in a capitalistic system, who is subjugated? It is always the less wealthy, for the profit of the wealthy. In this way more and more wealth is accumulated in the accounts of fewer and fewer people, who naturally have a greater stake in maintaining the systems that make them wealthy.

Money is inevitably drawn to the political arena to further the control of power. Politicians are often financed by the wealthy, whose influence remains after they are elected. In this way laws that are enacted tend to benefit the wealthy, allowing for even greater accumulation of money and power.
Violence
An aspect of our mass culture that I find especially troubling is the obsession with violence. As I mentioned earlier, violence is always considered newsworthy, and so gets top billing. Violence is an obvious ingredient of an overwhelming number of movies and TV shows. Violence sells, or so it seems. Even cartoons that are made for children, and intended to be funny, often portray violence in gratuitous ways.

I wonder if the acceptance and seeming enjoyment of violence is an acquired taste, or whether this is endemic to the makeup of humanity. I suppose that there is usually some element of drama associated with violence, which translates into a good story. I know that the shows arranged at the Roman Coliseum were perhaps the bloodiest entertainment devised, and were promoted by the authorities to keep the masses appeased. Does witnessing bloodshed, either directly or via a screen, serve some civilizing function in our society? Are we less likely to actually injure or kill each other if we have watched hours of such activity for entertainment?

Politics
So why does politics in general leave such a sour taste on the palette? I am even having trouble bringing myself to write about this topic because of my own repulsion of it. I guess that the failure of elected politicians to follow through on campaign promises is one reason; people do not trust them to do what they say they will do. It is a matter of trust, and the vast majority of us do not expect the truth from elected officials. Politicians will say what they need to say to get elected.

Then there is the way that campaigns are often conducted, where the candidates sling mud on their opponents rather than discuss their own platform. Negative campaigning has become the norm, even though it is rarely informative and is generally disgusting. You would get the impression from the way most campaigns are handled that the politicians have a rather low regard for the intelligence of the voting public. Elections have become games generated by advertising agencies, using the same tactics of mass persuasion that are used in selling products. Once again, you and I and our votes are being sold to the political campaign.

If political leadership were only a formality where the true direction of our society were set by some higher authority, then this state of affairs might be tolerable. The truth is that politicians have enormous power in determining the course that we take. Laws and policies are constantly being enacted that directly influence how life is lived and how we interact with the world around us. As mentioned earlier, there seems to be a natural alliance between wealth and politics, so that the direction that we take as a society generally favors big business and the wealthy. This in turn enhances the development of a tiered, class society, where the moneyed interests subjugate the lower classes in various, often subtle ways.

Militarism
The story that often engenders patriotism involves the glory of fighting for your country, doing your part toward its defense and perhaps sacrificing your life for this higher good. There is nobility in this story, but there is also the potential for grand delusion and horrific deceit. The thing about war is that there are always two sides to the story; it is never just about Good versus Evil.

The motivational thrust toward war is often multidimensional. While on the face, wars may appear to be idealistic, as between Capitalism and Communism, or purely defensive, these reasons may be a mask for other less obvious reasons. The clash of basic cultural differences, desire for expanded territory, greed for natural resources, pursuit of personal vendettas, need to prove one's prowess or might, megalomaniac lust for world domination...all of these have masqueraded as more noble causes. When analyzed, the cause for war too often boils down to rather personal reasons. The sacrifice of millions of lives and the mass destruction of human artifacts and natural ecosystems has resulted from misguided individual fantasy. We should never allow this to happen!

It was discovered long ago that the threat of violence could make things happen. The bully got his way by simply pushing the little guy around. The history of mankind is written with broad, bloody strokes of violence, because violence works. Through brute force or intimidation, the most powerful can control other people. Whether it is called "terrorism" or "the defense of freedom", the dynamic is the same: intimidation through violence.