Test your knowledge of what the Hell's going on!

[Reader Rabbit]

Do you know what the Hell is going on in America? Test your knowledge!

Introduction: A Pop Quiz!

Question #1

“...popularity is based on fear and control...”

“...commonly bully and silence to forward their own agenda.”

“Any challenge to the powers that be is seen as an act of disloyalty...”

“...those in positions of power won’t take responsibility for their actions, and those not in positions of power fear the consequences of speaking out in public.”

“...has an eye-for-an-eye worldview.”

“...is extremely secretive.”

The above statements were originally made about:

a) Corporate CEOs
b) The Bush Administration
c) Those mean girls in school who were somehow the most popular, despite being heinous bitches

Question #2

“...will do anything to be in the good graces of ...”

“...security depends on doing... ‘dirty work,’ such as spreading about a target.”

“...status immediately rises when...in active duty as a messenger......has a self-interest in creating and maintaining conflicts...”

The above statements were originally made about:

a) Middle managers looking to climb the corporate ladder
b) The mainstream news media
c) Less popular girls who suck up to the mean girls in the hopes of garnering some residual popularity

I will post the answers and further commentary if anyone is interested.

[Sammy Pepys]

1. Is it possible to get some context on those statements?

“...is extremely secretive.” is not much to go on.

[Reader Rabbit]

4. Think of them as over-arching descriptions...

...of a particular group. I selected the more general statements, so that the correct answers would not be too obvious.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

2. I'm interested

because I couldn't decide which answer to choose. I think that is indicative with the deep problems found in our culture.

[Emit]

3. I think it's c) the girls/bullying/popularity thing for both.

But that's just my gut instinct.

[4 t 4]

5. I was gonna say C on both too

[Reader Rabbit]

6. The Scary Truth

Here's the rest of the Introduction—"answers" to the quiz and added commentary.

If you answered “a” for either of these questions, you’ve probably been following the Enron case in the Business Section of your local newspaper. Good for you! But your answer is wrong.

If you chose “b” for either of these questions, you’ve definitely been paying close attention to what’s been happening in the American political scene over the past six years. Way to go! But you’re still wrong.

If you answered “c” for either of these questions, then you’re probably a woman who remembers her adolescence well, you’re a middle or high school teacher, or you’re the parent of a teenage girl. Oh yeah, and you’re right.

Each of the statements listed above were taken directly from Rosalind Wiseman’s Queen Bees and Wannabes: Helping Your Daughter Survive Cliques, Gossip, Boyfriends, and Other Realities of Adolescence. If you have a teenage daughter, or a daughter who is thinking about becoming a teen, I strongly advise you to read this book. That is not, however, the purpose of the quiz.

The purpose of the quiz is to point out the frightening similarity between the people currently running our country and the savage girl groups that populate every school in America. Apparently when George Bush told Americans that “the adults are in charge,” he not only got it ass-backwards, he was wrong about the gender of those taking over.

For those of us who’ve actually been paying attention to the political scene—as opposed to watching American Idol or Survivor—we only thought we knew the catastrophic nadir to which our once great nation had sunk. The Hurricane Katrina debacle, going to war under false pretenses, the dismantling of the Bill of Rights, secrecy, torture, the wholesale auctioning off of our country to corporate interests: Yeah, those things are all pretty bad, but the ugly, underlying truth of the whole situation is much, much worse.

Ladies and gentlemen, the United States of America is currently being run by teenage girls.

The above, along with the quiz, is part of a longer article I've been writing, comparing the relationship between the Bush Administration, the Democrats, and the mainstream news media to the teen scene described in Queen Bees and Wannabes. It really is frightening. The similarities are downright creepy.

[Richard Steele]

7. Well, the REAL truth, then, is that both questions are "D"...

"All of the above".

[Reader Rabbit]

8. No, no! I worded the quiz very carefully!

Even though the statements could apply to any of the groups, they were all originally written about teenage girls. The comparison to Corporate America and the Bush Administration simpy leapt out at me the last time I reread the book.

[Richard Steele]

11. Now I am confused. You say "no no", then immediately admit I am right?

Quote:
"Even though the statements could apply to any of the groups..."

Whatever.

[Reader Rabbit]

12. Please read the quiz more carefully.

"The above statements were originally made about..."

[Richard Steele]

14. As you say, your arguements are clever..."too clever by half", I fear.

You cling to "originally made about" as if it defends your premise,
when in fact it undermines it.

Those statements have been made about many people,
in many times and places, long before you or I were born.

So what you are REALLY asking is:
"guess the exact book wherein, I, Reader Rabbit, first encountered
these particular well-worn descriptions."

Personally, I support your "B*shCabal™ = MeanGirls" premise;
it is unquestionably valid. A useful point to make,
and a fine basis for a political article.

But when you become so obsessed with parsing these
minor semantics, you risk losing the thread of your own narrative;
becoming so focused upon your own clever wordplay
that you find yourself dealing with shades of definition
so subtle that they posess no useful relevance to anyone but you.

And that would be a bad thing to happen
to such a good idea for an article.

[Reader Rabbit]

15. You seem kinda cranky.

Shorts riding up today?

Other than that, I really can't figure out why you're so determined to pick a fight.

:shrug:

[Emit]

9. LOL. I answered C on both. I have a teenage daughter. 'Nuf said? n/t

[Rex]

10. Both b

nt

[Reader Rabbit]

13. Check your answers in Post #6! n/t