Bunches of Comic Con Things, Big Discussions on Israel and the Gaza Strip, Some Levity to Balance that Out, and Musing on the Culture of Fear

This entry is part [part not set] of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

There are no shortage of fear-inducing, attention-grabbing headlines out there. Most of them turn out to be utter hype, but you don’t discover that until after you’ve clicked through. And if you don’t click through, well, the damage to your peace of mind is already done.

For a long time now I’ve been interested in fear and how it gets used–both by us and on us. Part of that is due to growing up on a steady diet of classic horror films. Another part is from growing up through the tail end of the Cold War and a few not-so-cold-wars.

I’ve seen a growing problem over the years. One that’s not going away and only seems to be getting worse.

The problem is the overall culture of fear and paranoia we’re all soaking in… and have been for our entire lives. That’s the reason we (in general) are even suspicious when anonymous gifts show up.

We assume malicious intent.

That’s… not healthy.

And it’s most certainly not conducive to sensibility.

And, perhaps worst, it leaves us open to all sorts of manipulation. The kind that’s been used again and again and again over the past two decades to make us give up more and more of our freedoms in the name of security. Security from threats that, even when they do exist, are far from immediate, imminent, or actually damaging to the vast majority of the population.

This is the kind of fear that, at worst, expresses itself in events like those riots in France the other day. Or in people getting shot just because they look different from the person holding the gun. Or in war.

So, yeah, there are, indeed, things out there to be afraid of, but there are far more things that strike us as creepy or fear-inducing. We have to be fully aware of *why* it strikes us as such and how problematic that actually is.

That all said, here’s the feed starting from Friday (including the article about dolls that spurred most of the above musing)…

Affordable Housing, Role Playing Games, Legal Wranglings, Inspiration, Tragedy, and Everything Since Friday

This entry is part [part not set] of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

Yeah, apparently I’m skipping Friday updates more often than not. I should stop that. Actually stick to my own schedule.

One of the big topics that ended up being discussed today in the stream was the whole rich/poor divide and the idea of affordable housing… spawned by an article about a new building in NYC that’s going to have a separate entrance for it’s less privileged residents (who they agreed to take in so they could get a tax break, mind you).

The topic of “affordable housing” comes up frequently here in Maryland. Particular in Silver Spring. The issue is a little different than it is in places like NYC.

Here we have the problem of people building a lot of expensive housing that is then bought/rented by people who mostly work and play in DC. This leaves people who work in Silver Spring (which has a wide diversity of jobs and pay rates) unable to afford to live there (in some cases), pushing them farther out where public transportation is less viable, leading to a bit of a traffic problem and a bit of a parking problem (which leads to all sorts of other problems… like local businesses being able to do solid business because people can’t get to/part at them easily or actual residents not being able to find parking/get around easily during the day).

A number of members of the community here are very interested in trying to build and maintain an actual community. One that’s vibrant at all times during the day…. not just during rush hour. What’s been in place has been slowly slipping away as development has boomed and busted a few times. (Most of what’s being built are one or two bedroom apartments/condos… not conducive to people with families, encouraging more transient people who go elsewhere to put down actual roots.)

It’s an interesting situation. A problematic one. And one I know I haven’t come up with a good solution to (mainly because I’ve got some very mixed feelings about all the affordable housing solutions I have seen–some of which were laid out in the article that Nancy shared–but some of those concerns are at odds with my desire to have poor people actually treated as people, since I’ve seen that be one of the best ways to help someone get back on their feet).

Needless to say, a number of people disagree with me on a lot of those points.

I’m okay with that.

Like I said, I don’t have an answer, so the discussion obviously needs to keep going on somewhere.

Here’s the extra long feed (which contains a few interesting discussions or starting points, so you should check it out)…

Awesomecon Flashback, Modified Mario, Elegance, Ramone-less, and Various Other Bits of Stuff from the Weekend

This entry is part [part not set] of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

The weekend wasn’t anywhere near as productive as it should have been.

Sure, I finished off another canceled series or two from my Hulu queue and finally got around to a couple of movies I’ve been meaning to watch for years. Even read things that weren’t being displayed on a screen (I think we call them “books”). But there was more I probably should have done.

There’s a big difference between “should” and “could”, though. I don’t think I legitimately could have been much more productive. I needed the break, as seems to be the case often. Life in the “regular” world by a “normal” schedule just grinds me down more now than it ever has before.

I know there are reasons for that. I’m working through them as best I can. But, well, it’s slow going.

So, instead of being as productive as I “should” be, I do what I can when I can and learn to live with that.

But, there were still a lot of fun links to be had over the past four days.

Here’s hoping you enjoy them.