How enlightened are we?

[bodegahead]

Edit as of 1pm Tuesday:
This is an edit to the below post that I posted last night. At the time I posted it I believed there were 2,539 post to the Whole Foods thread. Apparently when I posted, I had post responses confused with the post viewed number. Actually the post responses were 100 somthing, which make more sense to me.
It was my belief that there were 2,539 responses regarding a grocery store that had me wondreing if that involved a whole heck of a lot of time discussing where to shop and where not to shop cosidering all the rest of the stuff going on on the planet.
Same goes for my observation on the number of post/responses regarding what restaurant to drop your money in. The reponses are no where near the "over a thousand" that I stated in my original post. Again I had post views mixed up with post responses. Please excuse my confusion.:conehead:


Original post:
Sometimes I really wonder. Yes, West County is a blessed and so enlighted area. I`ve been around and I can`t think of any community more enlightened than this. Yet there are 2,539 post discussing if one should shop at Whole Foods or not. There are over a thousand post discussing what restaurant to eat.
Yet there were but three responses to a post regarding what`s going on in Iran right now
YouTube - **A TRIBUTE TO THE BRAVE AND COURAGEOUS CITIZENS OF IRAN **- election June 2009 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bo3-paRB2No)

I know to be livin we all gotta eat. I`m trying to say somthing without coming across as negative, that`s not my intention and if I do come across that way my apologies.
I guess it has somthing to do with the somewhat four thousand food postings as compared to the three responses to th Iran posting.
Yes we live in one of the most beautiful elightened communities on this planet. I believe in act locally, think globally. But theres just somthing about four thosand post regarding food, when there is so much else going on.

For the record, I really like food, am interested in food, like to shop for food and am very happy with the places I shop. I guess I`m just concerned about peoples priorities.
Peace love and good food to you all.

[Tars]

I`ve been around and I can`t think of any community more enlightened than this. Yet there are 2,539 post discussing if one should shop at Whole Foods or not. There are over a thousand post discussing what restaurant to eat.
Yet there were but three responses to a post regarding what`s going on in Iran right now

First, what do you mean by "enlightened"? From your post it seems to mean "more overtly concerned with Iran".

Merriam-Webster:

"1 : freed from ignorance and misinformation <an enlightened people> <an enlightened time>
2 : based on full comprehension of the problems involved <issued an enlightened ruling>"


Hmmm....no help there. So please, free me from ignorance about what you mean by "enlightened".



Personally, I'm not "enlightened" about Iran, because I'm bombarded with details, comment, and even torrents of "tweets" about it from virtually every media source other than Wacco.



For me, it's rather nice to visit at least one place that's more-focused on local-interest topics, than global politics.


Did you have something enlightened to share here about Iran?

[bodegahead]

You know, I had a problem with that post myself. And I`m still having a problem trying to get across what I was thinking. It did`nt come out qute right.A problem with wording. I actually had a clearer vision of what I was trying to say a few weeks ago but it was in the middle of nowhere without a computer.
One thing, I was using Iran as an example. You can probably fill the blank in with other posts, related closer to home and probably less political, that recieve a small fraction of responses compared to the food related post.
To keep it simple all I`m trying to say is that it kind of blows me away the overwhelming intrest the community has in restaurant and a grocery store as compared to some other subjects. And thats not a bad thing. It just makes me wonder. Hope that clears things up a little.
I knew I was going to wake up with some explaining to do this morning.:conehead:

[Geni Houston]

I think it has to do with personal experience also. If I could write in detail about my experience and knowledge of Iran (sample) I would be writing my congressperson and President

[Tars]

You know, I had a problem with that post myself.

I must apologize as well. Any time posters mention terms like "enlightened" or "conscious", I see buzzwords, devoid of specific meaning, that come across as being arrogant and elitist. My kneejerk response is to challenge them. This, even though I know from reading other posts from people here who use those terms, which demonstrate that they are generally positive, sensitive, and well-intentioned people. Unfortunately, those terms distract from consideration of anything else the poster might be trying to express.

My bad.

I think I understand your concern. Why, when there are so many pithy, serious humanity issues, do we spend so much time discussing relatively trivial topics, like Whole Foods, or local restaurants? Let me use your example, "Iran". Iranian internal politics are almost completely inscrutable to me, and I imagine, most Sonoma County residents. Same would be said for internal politics of North Korea or Sudan. Those counties' cultures are so different than ours, that it's difficult to comprehend what and why their people do what they do. How can we have an opinion about something we just don't understand?

In fact global/political topics do get discussed here, in WaccoTalk and WaccoReader. There are just fewer participants there. My experience has been that the majority of people just feel uncomfortable discussing political/global humanitarian topics, because....they're so often depressing or emotional in some other way. Most people by necessity, focus most attention on their own survival and well-being. To keep their sanity, they tend to involve themselves in discussions about safe topics, like the local topics you mentioned. They instinctively avoid the negative reinforcement of emotional issues.

[lynn]

Not very...

I like what Wendell Berry suggests...We should learn to proceed from an acknowledgement, and understanding of our ignorance...

Yes, I get very sick of the word 'enlightened'...It gets very overused...and it's become an 'elitist', snotty kind of reference point...

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And as far as the Whole Foods, and restaurant threads go...People do eat 3 or more times a day and we are in foodie, and wine country (although I think we should have less than half the wineries we have)...Good food is one wonderful, VERY important thing in our lives...And Whole Foods has become a controversial store with some people...

Aren't cookbooks THE biggest sellers in the world...?...other than the bible...