Diary:

[degringolade]

Looking Down

Yesterday was a pretty nice day here in riotville.  I have been staying out of the city, out here in the safe and complacent suburbs where much hand wringing and pearl-clutching is in evidence, but nothing is ever done because the pursuit of the material takes precedence over the half-thought-out compromises necessary to maintain lifestyle and status.

Now, you might think that I am sneering at the sub-population that this describes, truth is, there might be something to that, but it is at best a half-hearted kind of condescension.  I spent to long in that world to make any such judgement and my current attitude is that of relief that I need nothing downtown anymore.  That thoughtless bourgeois attitude is a simple place to live on the edges.    

The US West Coast is a strange kind of place.  I ran here to get out of Utah, which is an ever stranger kind of place.  West Coast is a thoroughly "blue" area and the blue is necessarily turning purple over time.  The tinge is light right now, but as things get increasingly hinkey, I am noticing a drop off of the high dudgeon that usually accompanies Donnie's antics.

When I talk with my blue buddies, I am noticing a lack of heat when they talk about current events.  The media still come here to document/celebrate the injustices, but the messiness is more contained and understated with the press's enthusiasm seeming pro forma.  I am wondering what it is that has done this?  

You might think that this is a "call to action", but nothing could possibly be further from the truth.  I am thinking that maybe, just maybe, people are beginning to think about how to come to a compromise and what is actually important.  I certainly hope so, because the conflict that has earmarked the last five-ten years hasn't done us a lick of good.