‹ Leading and Managing in a Wired Workplace •
Thanks to that irritatingly itchy but always reliably satisfying Scratchings, I found a new-to-me-blog tonight that kept me reading for an hour (from 2.30 a.m till now), even through the archives. There’s something remarkable about it and I’m not sure what … I found myself thinking that this is perhaps one of the most “this is just me” blogs I have run across in quite some time … well, I also like the poetry, the general diversity of interests and books that require intellectual attention, and I think we have similar views on the miasmic absurdity of the slo-mo fuckup that’s been being perpetrated (not least by themselves, in some form of ritualistic self-destruction) on the USian people … and has been since Ronnie Raygun first started grinning and spinning. If that peculiar mind-set that calls itself mainstream American culture ever has a day (or three) of reckoning … let’s see, which crisis will it take to start the process - environmental, social, financial ? … and comes to some basic understanding of what’s required to re-undo the reconstruction of pre-WW II society that’s been the neocon’s active and conscious project … hmmm, then there’ll be some real wailing and gnashing of teeth.
But I don’t expect that will ever happen in my lifetime … more likely, I think, is that the pinch of starting down the far side of the slope from Peak Oil will cause the great wounded beast to lash out more and more … I just can’t see the basic attitudinal palette changing much … people have to think hard, and also work hard with themselves, wrestle with themselves, to change attitudes … and not just once, but day after day. And that corny, bullshit-and-propaganda based American Myth, or American Dream is just too much entrenched. To change it some idea that will support and sustain a robust and much more aware-and-inclusive belief system will have to come along, be introduced and begin to grow in effective ways. Think that’ll happen ? I don’t. It’s been hard enough to even get Air America operating on a sustainable basis, let alone considering how to change directions or paths for the country (and thereby the world) as a whole.
4 comments
Comments feed for this article
Trackback link
http://blog.wirearchy.com/2005/03/16/a-new-find/trackback/
March 17, 2005 at 8:11 am
Anonymous
You’ve got your ear to the ground, Jon. Depressingly clear-eyed post here. So, like, how about a Bloggerstock in Amsterdam, and, as at the end of the Big Chill, we’ll just decide that we’re never leaving.
March 17, 2005 at 8:48 am
Anonymous
I guess we’re on parallel tracks of thinking, Bruce. canada’s too close to the beast, and essentially there’s much of the American Dream / Myth shared as a primarymotivation by many of the peopl (but there are indeed others - I believe the bulk of Canadians hold tolerance and living well together as a primary value and as a source of pride that we do it relatively well).
But … I have visited A’dam often (maybe a dozen times in the past decade, as I have old friends (and new ones) there, and I am actively seeking to create ways to acquire a small flat there (or Barcelona). I know the 2 0r 3 neighbourhoods I prefer in Amsterdam, and know people and bars and cafes in those neighbourhoods, where i can pop in at 9h30 for a cafe vekweerd, a glance at the Manchester Guardian or Le Monde, listen to very good jazz or blues or some other eclectica and puff on a tuber.
Seems like a good way for me to pass a goodly portion of my 60’s and 70’s (warm up to it in my 50’s).
I’ll help you plan a Bloggerstock, if you want … do dudes like Hindraker and Reynolds and Big Dog get to come if they want ?
March 18, 2005 at 12:09 am
Anonymous
Thanks for the mention!
I suppose occasionally ego-surfing technorati can be a good thing. I am not so sure about being just me- I tend to wobble wildly between Serious Posts about the dangers of babies (they come out of the hills making sucking noises, disguised as ham sandwiches) and talking about literachoor. I suppose people would say that is me, which could be a bit disturbing.
Or something like that.
I think the Colossus will simply flail and fade. I’m not sure it’s such a bad thing. We’ve not been doing so well, ethics-wise, since we got into the America: World Police bidness. Or ever, come to think of it.
March 18, 2005 at 12:59 am
Anonymous
Strangely touching .. or troublibgf .. or something .. to come home from a movie, and find a comment about the dangers of babies. The movie was “Vera Drake”, by Mike Leigh.
I’m just gonna go be quiet and reflective, and sit with my feelings. People keep on getting tougher and tougher with each other … and I’m never really sure what’s the point.