We can acknowledge the myriad of trying circumstances that pervade modern life without resorting to thought-terminating cliches like, “There are starving kids in Africa” or “If you lived hundreds of years ago you might have died of a terrible disease”
Yeah, things could be worse. Of course it could be worse. But it could be a lot better, too. And a lot of people are justifiably unhappy about it.
In the late 1990s, psychologists began using the general trust scale to measure people’s overriding opinions about others’ nature. You can get a flavour of it here, by rating the following statements from one (completely disagree) to five (completely agree).
- Most people are basically honest
- Most people are trustworthy
- Most people are basically good-natured and kind
Same energy as
I love Peanuts as much as the next guy, but I dunno if “animal standing on two legs” is a unique enough trait to say Garfield was stealing anything from Snoopy’s design. Mickey Mouse had already been walking around on two legs for decades at that point
I think Macklemore did us all a disservice by telling people $50 for a t-shirt means you’re getting swindled. $50 for a nice locally produced merino wool t-shirt is a bargain.
I imagine Macklemore’s point was that most people buying $50 shirts aren’t buying locally-produced clothes from a mom-and-pop shop; they’re buying overpriced, mass-produced shirts at department stores. I haven’t been to Kohl’s in a while, but I bet if I go to the men’s section at the one up the road from here, there will be an area with basic graphic t-shirts (mostly company logos like Coke) that are nearly $50.
Now that I’m on the topic, my most overpriced shirt is a Goo Goo Dolls shirt I picked up at a concert a few years ago. I really like the color of the shirt, but the cheap lettering on the front started coming off after a single wash. Very disappointing because it was a $45 shirt.
I don’t know much about classical antiquity, but wasn’t part of the issue that he declared himself dictator for life?