{"id":104,"date":"2008-03-23T20:33:51","date_gmt":"2008-03-23T20:33:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/onecity\/2008\/03\/five-thoughts-to-combat-a-sour-mood-on-sunday-night.html"},"modified":"2008-03-23T20:33:51","modified_gmt":"2008-03-23T20:33:51","slug":"five-thoughts-to-combat-a-sour-mood-on-sunday-night","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2008\/03\/five-thoughts-to-combat-a-sour-mood-on-sunday-night.html","title":{"rendered":"Five Thoughts To Combat A Sour Mood on Sunday Night"},"content":{"rendered":"<p align=\"left\">First of all, do hypocrisy and irony get any bigger and bolder than Eliot Spitzer? That is my first question. I mean, come on. I already said this to Will.I.Am but&#8230;.Cognitive dissonance much? No. Seriously. Come on. WTF. As the 13th century Soto Zen master Dogen used to say to students, \u201cHe who becomes amorous with hookers should not be an Attorney General vigorously prosecuting multiple prostitution rings.\u201d (date of fake quote unknown).<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">I\u2019m trying to figure out if Spitzer beats Mark Foley, the anti-gay molester of teenage congressional pages, on the cognitive dissonance meter. I give Foley a 10, and Spitzer a 9.6. You could make an argument that at least prostitution is consensual by of-age adults, but then we\u2019d have to get into a much more complex discussion of misogyny in our society and the complexities of human commodification, and <a href=\"http:\/\/onecity.wordpress.com\/2008\/03\/19\/martha-nussbaum-on-spitzer-and-prostitution-laws\/\">Cassmaster\u2019s post already did that<\/a> (although the post does not address Spitzer&#8217;s clear hypocrisy on the issue). I don\u2019t know, maybe it\u2019s just because I\u2019ve never been even slightly tempted by the whole pay-for-sex game. Sex is either something that&#8217;s happening, or is not happening. That&#8217;s the nature of cyclical existence. And if it&#8217;s not happening, you have two choices: masturbate or meditate. Or both.  And I didn\u2019t even need to be Attorney General to figure that one out.<\/p>\n<div align=\"left\"><\/div>\n<p align=\"left\">Second, Barack Obama gave by far the best speech on race I\u2019ve ever heard by someone in my lifetime.<\/p>\n<div align=\"left\"><\/div>\n<p align=\"left\">Third, the speech wasn\u2019t about race. It was about human perception, unity, division, family, anger, oppression, corporate media distraction tactics, and the real meaning of community. Yet according to the Mainstream Media, it was a really good speech about race. Just like Dr. King was a only a civil rights leader (do you think it\u2019s ironic that politicians who vote for war still get to celebrate his holiday, and don\u2019t have to answer any questions about their total failure to practice nonviolence?)  Ah, the need for soundbytes and headlines. To make stories simple. I reject the idea that Americans need things put in soundbytes for us. I reject the idea that Americans are dumb or have short attention spans. I reject that Americans need narratives shortened to one sentence. Hell, we watch 3-hour-long Lord of the Rings movies, why can\u2019t we watch a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=zrp-v2tHaDo\">37 minute speech<\/a>? Only the advertisers need the soundbyte versions to prevail. So there\u2019s room on screen for the ads.  Ergo, a 37 minute speech that covers \u2013 with poetry and nuance \u2013 the entire psychological landscape of American identity history, is just about race. More room for the Continental Airlines banner ad on CNN.com that way.<\/p>\n<div align=\"left\"><\/div>\n<p align=\"left\">Maybe to combat this tendency, I will also stop trying to summarize things that cannot be summarized. If anyone asks me what the novel I\u2019m writing is about, I will say, \u201cIt\u2019s about IT. It will take you about 7 hours to read. Do you want it?\u201d Of course, you need to get your pitch together to get published, I know, I know. I have a good pitch, too. I&#8217;m such a goddamn hypocrite.<\/p>\n<div align=\"left\"><\/div>\n<p align=\"left\">Fourth of all, I think I\u2019m addicted to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dailykos.com\">political blogs.<\/a> At first it seems deeply communal and insightful (holler at me, netroots) but it gets pretty samsaric in a hurry. I am seriously considering another weeklong internet cleanse.<\/p>\n<div align=\"left\"><\/div>\n<p align=\"left\">Fifth of all, it\u2019s very hard not to get mildly depressed on Sunday night. Even if you finished all your homework already. As a Buddhist, I am depressed about Tibet, but honestly, not nearly as depressed about Tibet as I am about Darfur. Did you guys see the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2008\/03\/22\/opinion\/22french.html\">craptacular hack job editorial that the NY Times published against the Dalai Lama this weekend<\/a>? Apparently the dude who wrote has worked on the Tibetan cause for a long time, but apparently not long enough to know that a bodhisattva is not a god. Jeez, you learn that after studying Buddhism for about four seconds.<\/p>\n<div align=\"left\"><\/div>\n<p align=\"left\">Can\u2019t wait to see everyone Monday Night! That always cheers me up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>First of all, do hypocrisy and irony get any bigger and bolder than Eliot Spitzer? That is my first question. I mean, come on. I already said this to Will.I.Am but&#8230;.Cognitive dissonance much? No. Seriously. Come on. WTF. As the 13th century Soto Zen master Dogen used to say to students, \u201cHe who becomes amorous&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":74,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arts-and-media"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Five Thoughts To Combat A Sour Mood on Sunday Night - One City<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2008\/03\/five-thoughts-to-combat-a-sour-mood-on-sunday-night.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Five Thoughts To Combat A Sour Mood on Sunday Night - One City\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"First of all, do hypocrisy and irony get any bigger and bolder than Eliot Spitzer? That is my first question. I mean, come on. I already said this to Will.I.Am but&#8230;.Cognitive dissonance much? No. Seriously. Come on. WTF. As the 13th century Soto Zen master Dogen used to say to students, \u201cHe who becomes amorous&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2008\/03\/five-thoughts-to-combat-a-sour-mood-on-sunday-night.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"One City\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-03-23T20:33:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ethan Nichtern\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Five Thoughts To Combat A Sour Mood on Sunday Night - One City","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2008\/03\/five-thoughts-to-combat-a-sour-mood-on-sunday-night.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Five Thoughts To Combat A Sour Mood on Sunday Night - One City","og_description":"First of all, do hypocrisy and irony get any bigger and bolder than Eliot Spitzer? That is my first question. I mean, come on. I already said this to Will.I.Am but&#8230;.Cognitive dissonance much? No. Seriously. Come on. WTF. As the 13th century Soto Zen master Dogen used to say to students, \u201cHe who becomes amorous&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2008\/03\/five-thoughts-to-combat-a-sour-mood-on-sunday-night.html","og_site_name":"One City","article_published_time":"2008-03-23T20:33:51+00:00","author":"Ethan Nichtern","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2008\/03\/five-thoughts-to-combat-a-sour-mood-on-sunday-night.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2008\/03\/five-thoughts-to-combat-a-sour-mood-on-sunday-night.html","name":"Five Thoughts To Combat A Sour Mood on Sunday Night - One City","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/#website"},"datePublished":"2008-03-23T20:33:51+00:00","dateModified":"2008-03-23T20:33:51+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/#\/schema\/person\/52c98770e14a482ace0de36ea672938f"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2008\/03\/five-thoughts-to-combat-a-sour-mood-on-sunday-night.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2008\/03\/five-thoughts-to-combat-a-sour-mood-on-sunday-night.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2008\/03\/five-thoughts-to-combat-a-sour-mood-on-sunday-night.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Five Thoughts To Combat A Sour Mood on Sunday Night"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/","name":"One City","description":"The Interdependence Project","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/#\/schema\/person\/52c98770e14a482ace0de36ea672938f","name":"Ethan Nichtern","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/13e\/13ee2d28169053f9c0745fa2e72f15b7x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/13e\/13ee2d28169053f9c0745fa2e72f15b7x96.jpg","caption":"Ethan Nichtern"},"description":"Ethan Nichtern is the author of the acclaimed book One City: A Declaration of Interdependence (Wisdom Publications, 2007) and is currently finishing a novel. His writing has been featured in numerous print and online publications. He is the founding director of the Interdependence Project and the host of the I.D. Project\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s popular weekly podcast (available on iTunes). He is currently on the part-time faculty of Eugene Lang College at New School University in NYC, where he teaches Buddhism. Ethan lectures regularly at universities and venues around the country on Buddhism, meditation, contemporary culture, and activism.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/author\/enichtern"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/74"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}