It's A Long And Whining Road
Do you think you have it tough because your iPhone's a little sluggish? Here's @AskDrRuth. (The "Haganah" reference is about how she worked as a sniper in Israel.)
As generations of helicoptered kids are coming of age, do you think America is becoming a land of wimps? Or...is it just news from college campuses that make it seem that way?
Adjusted to today's inflation, how much those 75 cents are worth today?
Sixclaws at February 27, 2018 5:01 AM
Good question. Let's do the math: According to her Wikipedia page, she emigrated to the U.S. in 1956. usinflationcalculator.com says that 75 cents in 1956 would be $6.83 today -- less than the legal minimum wage.
Cousin Dave at February 27, 2018 6:20 AM
Also, both of her parents died in the Holocaust. And, she was near-fatally wounded in the Israeli War of Independence in 1948.
Cousin Dave at February 27, 2018 6:22 AM
From Wikipedia: "Westheimer joined the Haganah in Jerusalem. Because of her diminutive height of 4 ft 7 in, she was trained as a scout and sniper. Of this experience, she said, 'I never killed anybody, but I know how to throw hand grenades and shoot.' Westheimer was seriously wounded in action by an exploding shell during the Israeli War of Independence in 1948, and it was several months before she was able to walk again."
Conan the Grammarian at February 27, 2018 6:29 AM
According to this, http://www.in2013dollars.com/1947-dollars-in-2017?amount=0.75 it is $8.23. Almost an 11 fold increase.
I R A Darth Aggie at February 27, 2018 6:52 AM
Oh, sorry, my mistake, I misread when she arrived here.
I R A Darth Aggie at February 27, 2018 6:54 AM
I think we've come so far in health, infrastructure, and education that we have come to conflate physical safety with a sense of security.
Individual risks and individual harms are easily framed as poor choices, and it might be in our nature to delude ourselves into thinking if we behave well we will be safe, and that people who are not safe were endangered by their own risky behavior.
So many people who spoke out against that illusion are people who were already living life on the skinny branches. Certainly they could have doubled down and hidden deeper, but perhaps people reach their own limits and realize their only access to joy, self respect, or the satisfaction of a meaningful life is by venturing out:
"Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing."
- Helen Keller
"Your silence will not protect you."
- Audre Lorde
"I am an artist... I am here to live out loud."
- Emile Zola
Dr. Ruth was not alone in her hardships or her duties, and her opportunities for having her basic needs met, for healing, and education appear to have been institutional or communal, not a private investment by a family. I don't think the ethos permeating the media and the culture was "have it your way".
Tattooing numbers on people was horrific evidence that the individual did not matter, and fighting back against that was a collective matter of the collective good. Now people and companies are trying to find our individual characteristics (income, spending habits) to tailor not only goods offered but the prices at which they're offered. It's easy to get lulled into the mistaken belief that people at large actually care about what we personally want.
Michelle at February 27, 2018 9:07 AM
Do you think you have it tough because your iPhone's a little sluggish?
In the not-too-distant future, we are all (OK, most of us; there will be a small band of resisters, including me) going to become one, literally, with our smartphones.
The new smartphonepeople will get around by drones, which they will also have become one with, and will reproduce by rubbing their screens against each other.
JD at February 27, 2018 9:20 PM
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