I’ve been on the road. Driving is a good time to think.
Driving is also a golden opportunity to observe America. I’m not seeing the mess projected by the hysterical flapping fruit-loops in the media. Actual Americans in actual America actually going about their daily business seem remarkably sane; so long as they’re not in contact with the fruit-loop contagion. Outside of politics, Americans in general are almost universally happier than the media portrays.
Airheads in the political/media complex have completely lost touch with the nation as a whole. That’s not a particularly deep observation but it’s true. The more they lose touch, the easier it is for them to go full retard. Once they go full retard they never come back.
There so many reasons for the press’ insanity I could write a book about squirrels trying to avoid the topic. But treading lightly on the thin ice of politics and painting with a broad brush I’ll pick a big driver that is not actually political at all.
Here’s a Curmudgeonly Gem of Insight:
“Politicians and the press think with the time frame of a gnat and they often have no more real world experience than a child.”
Over and over I read or hear some braying ass claim this thing is “unprecedented”, that thing is “impossible”, and this other thing is “the worst event in the history of everything”. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Many “impossible” things I’ve personally seen. If I’ve seen it, it’s not impossible. Things ebb and flow. We’ve all seen the tide of this or that dumbshit thing rise and fall (often more than once). It’s not rocket surgery.
There’s only one group that hasn’t seen the ebb and flow; the press. Sometimes it’s because they’re young and breathtakingly unaware and sometimes it’s because they’re merely stupid. Invariably, it’s worsened because they choose not to think things through. Humans in general are excellent at ignoring important things they don’t want to see while getting hysteric about smaller things that press their buttons; the media has raised it to an art form.
I don’t want to get into one party versus the other but I want to give a very simple example. In 2015 Trump announced his candidacy and started yammering about a border wall. I was giving a person (whom I sincerely respect) a ride. I was forced to hear an hour-long harangue about how it was “impossible” to build a wall. I’m willing to entertain arguments that it’s a dumb idea, or expensive, or silly, but impossible? Of course not.
The people that dug the Panama Canal, laid steel train track coast to coast, paved 50,000 miles of interstate, flew to the moon, and convinced people to voluntarily eat a thing called a Big Mac sure as hell have the skill and resources to build any damn thing they want. I mentioned, as kindly as possible, that humans have been building walls for a very long time. Chinese peasants with picks and shovels fortified against Mongolia a couple centuries before Christ. Romans built a wall across Britannia in 122 to keep out the Picts. I keep the pigs out of my garden with… a wall. How is this very simple technology even remotely “impossible”?
Here’s a photograph that has nothing to do with Trump:
Borders have been around throughout human history. Dumb idea or wise, walls are often part of that package. You’d need immense blindness to history and the world as a whole to think a 2,000 mile de-facto unguarded border is normal. It might be cool, awesome, peaceful, or even evidence that we’re highly evolved super-beings that no longer need the trappings of the last several thousand years of human interaction. (Give me enough smooth bourbon and I might buy into the super-being argument.) Regardless, the current state of affairs sure as hell ‘aint the normal situation in human history.
This has nothing to do with whether the Russian Puppet / Orange Menace or Felonious McPantsuit won an election a few years ago in one of 150 odd countries. It’s just the way things tend to be most places and most times. (There are exceptions, but they are brief and fleeting.)
This brings me to my most recent “hobby”; history lectures. I’ve been traveling a lot and that means a lot of time in my Dodge. I have a choice. I can marinate in a mass media that’s increasingly toxic, listen to shitty music, or load up with MP3s. I’ve chosen the latter and have been wading through dozens of Great Courses Lectures.
I specifically chose to listen to lectures about the history of nations and times far removed from today’s hyperventilation. It was my best defense against NPR (America’s State Sponsored Pravda Analogue). At first it’s all boring names and dates; King Whatsiname defeated Sir Robin the Not-Quite-So-Brave-As-Sir-Lancelot at the Battle of Froederic’s Mudpit in 1179. Whatever. But over time you start seeing patterns. It looks like this:
Once you see the pattern, you can’t unsee it. Politicians and the media hate that. They’d have us stampede to and fro about nothing. Today it’s the children of undocumented aliens illegal immigration, whether some restaurant owner acted like a jackass, or “Russia, Russia, Russia, this time we’ve got him for sure”. Don’t take it too seriously. We shouldn’t let them use us as toys. We know everything in the newspaper today (assuming they still print newspapers) will be forgotten in a month so it’s clearly not something to panic over. For example, America’s Orange Menace and North Korea’s Psychotic Dictator For Life met in Singapore on June 12th. Presumably it was a big fat hairy deal. It’s now June 29th. Is it in the papers today? Heck no! The possibility of ending a 68 year old war between nuclear equipped powers couldn’t hold attention for 22 days? The press couldn’t stay focused long enough. They’re off their meds and they smelled an emotional dopamine rush elsewhere. They in a lather about a new “very important” situation which will vanish the millisecond when they flake out about something else.
Think long term and it breaks the cycle. Good luck y’all.
You say:
“Actual Americans in actual America actually going about their daily business seem remarkably sane; so long as they’re not in contact with the fruit-loop contagion.”
You clearly have not been driving through any hives in your travels. While some of them are comfortably numb smokin’ their weed in line at the SuckBucks, hive dwellers in general enthusiastically lap up the gruel that descends from the Media’s rectums. And then proclaim proudly that they are not Deplorables…
Yep, it goes without saying that I drive though hives when needed but avoid them as much as possible. There’s still a whole lotta’ America that ‘aint a hive.
Territorially, you are indeed correct. The overwhelming majority of the US countryside, including Alaska and Hawaii, is not hive land. Unfortunately, roughly half of the US population does live in hives, however.
Facebook is a clusterf**k these days, but it’s still useful to me as the best way to keep up with friends and family. I’ve noticed a striking dichotomy, though—those in my friends list who live on either the east coast or west coast are OBSESSED with politics, social issues, and controlling other peoples’ behavior through legislation. (They are mostly, but not all, on the left-leaning end of the spectrum.) Those of us here in flyover land seem to be more concerned with being neighborly, posting about what’s in our gardens, and tracking the movements of the resident wildlife. (Also: Posting pics of tourists doing dumb-ass stuff in national parks.) I wonder about the difference. I also wonder how some of those people can sustain that level of righteous indignation.
And thanks for the tip about your new hobby. I’ll have to check out those Great Courses Lectures. I usually listen to podcasts when I drive, but I’m always up for something new and interesting.
It is true that the coasts have bought into the deep navel gazing of politics while folks in the center (in general) still go to work in the morning and have “real lives”. Probably more about population density than geography.
I’ve had good results with Great Courses. Though whenever I branch out from history I come running back to that particular topic. There are also lots of courses with drivel like “mindfulness” or whatnot but I’m allergic to that crap.
Also, never pay full price! Great Courses, being academics, try to appeal to snobbery with massively inflated prices. Being a capitalist venture, they will invariably accept reality and have “temporary sales” which drop the cost of a course by 25% – 75% (which is what the market, if not their egos, will bear). Also, if you’re into medieval history (which I am) there’s one lecturer who’s pretty good for a novice (like me) but tends to get wearisome in the long run. Contact me via e-mail for specifics if you’re interested in Great Courses about medieval history.
Have you ever listened to Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History? He has a few series that are free. The Blueprint For Armageddon on World War 1 will soak up many miles of travel. I’m in awe of the men that fought that war, endured the trenches and returned with any degree of sanity.
Yes!
I loved his discussion of the Munster Rebellion in 1534. What a story that was.
Speaking of the presses’ insanity, I, as a non-sports nut, get the same vibe when forced to listen to sports commentators at work. They guy beside me is a rabid Patriots fan. Did you know Belichick is the fourth person of the Trinity? Apparently it’s true. The guy across the shop is a Ravens fan. Did you know Ray Rice got a bad rap beating that woman down? That was two years ago and people say, ‘Ray who?”
“The pivotal game of the season..” “The decisive play that cast the die for the division…”. They are all hyperventilating about … a game.
In the end, news reporter or sportscaster, it’s their job, screwed up as it is, to keep people ‘engaged’ (anxious, angry, hyped, turnt, worried) to keep them coming back for more bullshit. Advertising dollars, ratings; it’s a sick world, follow the money.
I’ve a theory that 99% of what passes for “politics” in 2018 is just sheep rooting for “their team”. There’s something very deeply rooted in the human mind that craves membership in one group and another group which to oppose. The best I can say is that some nitwit going apeshit over who scores a goal is modestly less likely to fuck up my world than some nitwit going apeshit over the incomprehensibility of not winning one quadrennial election among many.
Actually, North Korea is still in the papers, the latest news is that they are increasing nuclear fuel production.
Interesting, so Kim Jong Un considered a range of alternatives and decided to remain painted in a corner? I was unaware of that.
I gave up the 24 hour news fiasco some time ago and my life is so much better. I read a local three day a week paper which is more than enough to continue living plus it has coupons to save money on food we buy.
You’re on the right track. There’s just not enough “brain-power” out there to assemble useful news at a 24/7 pace; even in the unlikely event they wanted to do so. Obviously TV is a joke but I do miss print news. I read a paper every day until the “journalism” finally devolved to unreadable. I’d occasionally try weekly magazines hoping they’d calm the hell down and think before typing their story but that went from hit and miss to universally appalling. Now I’m glancing at the internet every now and then and studying history from 1000+ years ago. It’s oddly informative.
I have a subscription to a local “once a week” newspaper that has articles about hunting season, the county fair, and the odd car crash. Interestingly, the writing is vastly superior to anything else in newsprint. I assume there’s a single elderly individual writing the paper and he (or she) is the last literate journalist.