If there’s one thing about the times I find myself living in, it’s how quickly one becomes inured to the snapping cords of normalcy. To be fair, supplanting normal is the nature of our culture, our commerce, and our technology – a perfect confluence that inherently eschews tradition in favor of inevitable change. We’ve just supercharged the speed at which that change takes place. I get how baby boomers are freaked out about the way modern life has turned out. I still marvel at how quickly people have adopted their own mobile computer that also can shoot video, surf the internet, and let you talk to mom. And by adopted I mean that in the most intimate way: challenge yourself next time you go out to a restaurant or have a layover in an airport, to put your device away and observe the crowd; you’ll soon notice that many people pay more attention to their tablet/cell/laptop than they often do to their actual children – and it doesn’t take too long for the child to return the favor.
Just because I notice how little people look up anymore doesn’t mean I’m anti-technology. Quite the opposite, I not only think it represents our ingenuity and creativity, I think it embodies a victory of knowledge over superstition. Human history is in large part a constant race between catastrophe and our ability to outrace it with our technology. True, all too often that technology carries within it the seed of future catastrophe but who said life was ever supposed to be easy? Call it cosmically just that the more power we gain over nature only makes us all the more vulnerable.
I like to watch and listen when I go out into my community. Not to put too fine a point on it, but I’m very good at hearing your conversation, couple in the booth next to me. Guy talking to his buddy on the phone in the grocery store. Group of old ladies discussing the devil walking among us as if they saw him swinging his dick from a bell tower just last Sunday. There is good along with the bad. I also see and hear people out there alarmed at the things we ought to be alarmed with, a list that is in itself, alarming. I see and hear the common kindnesses and natural goodwill that is just as much a part of us as is the all too human tendency to look away, or convince ourselves to see what we want.
It is more common than not to be ground down by the necessities of day to day life, leaving not enough cognitive or emotional wampum at the end of the day to barter for some truth, much less wisdom. Today, just as in the past, we’ve always used a privileged caste to shoulder that burden. An Atlas to carry our worldview, a burning bush to light our way, a glorious revolution to either fight for or against. To be sure, most of us simply inherit the framework provided us by geography and parentage. But those cords are snapping too, mostly due to our technology. We’re self selecting into tribes of self interests, a disparate mix of obsessions and escapes competing with noble calls to action in a time of crisis. Is it more satisfying to be a partial member of many small tribes than it is to be a full member of one so large they will never know you by name? I kind of think it is. I think it fits in with our evolutionary heritage.
I’ve found myself disengaging from social media and cable outlets as of late. I think it’s gotten to the point where teams have been chosen and everyone is eyeing each other to see who’s going to jump first. Even so, I regard it my duty as a citizen to stay informed. I find it much easier to do so without watching 99% of cable news. AP alerts, Reuters, a handful of websites, and some carefully chosen print subscriptions have so far kept me reasonably informed. I simply cannot watch the current administration’s talking bobbleheads or the Republican leadership providing it with cover. They erode my faith in humanity.
I don’t like the word faith. I try not to have faith in anything. As a practical concern, I realize this is not how humans operate. We take on faith a great many things. I’ve been able to recognize those things I’ve had faith in due to the shock of faith’s disappointment. It’s hard for me to choose whether I’d rather feel that shock of disappointment over the grim satisfaction of a predicted cynicism fulfilled. I think I would. Especially when you start gazing into the yawning despair enfolding before us now. To do otherwise leads to building bunkers and hoarding food.
Our upper crust overlords, multinational corporations, military contractors and industry, and everyone else who has the means to purchase their very own slice of what Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan call a conscience, are the ones who are pushing us all towards the brink. They could care less about 45 – they merely haven’t gotten their tax breaks and a legal means of dumping coal ash into our rivers, er, I mean regulatory reforms yet. All of their hand picked stooges have yet to be placed in a position to do the most harm for the country and benefit for the buyer. They must be getting antsy that the Russia collusion investigation is getting in the way of staffing. And until they get what they want, they’re going to let the fire take root.
Meanwhile, our very own syphillus ridden Nero is busily sawing away at every chord of normalcy he can wrap his tiny hands around. Isn’t the noise fucking horrendous? How much of this before he breaks the instrument altogether?
Twang, there goes another cord.
We still have each other. Strengthen the cords of normalcy around you. If the center is going to hold, we’re the ones who are going to have to do it.
