Traveling Around the US, and—Unrelated—Militarism

Well, readers, I hope you had a wonderful Memorial Day, and suitably distanced yourselves from those crazy, hyper-enthusiastic people who may have tried to affectionately involve you in various contact sports!  Under ordinary circumstances, I'm right there, hugging and kissing people left and right; I'm a touchy-feely sort of guy in a modest way, though I don't love mouth-to-mouth kissing too much.  I bet there are a ton of people out there who are just plain frustrated by not being allowed to go out and give certain people a hug.  It is a normal human urge, especially to hug kids.  Kids, of course, are not up for hugs very much, as child psychologists and ultra-feminists have been at pains to let us know.  So, though I think hugging a little miss is one of the few consolations that are available for free to humans, thus far, apparently it is no longer available.  And now, with Covid 19, it is completely out of the question.

Memorial Day is about two entirely different things: it is about remembering those who have lost their lives in wars, and the opening of the Summer Season.

About War Dead: I am of two minds.  Many of the wars the US has fought have been wrong-headed.  Starting with the Vietnam War, I think these modern wars should have been avoided, not least the 2nd Iraq War.  I must admit that the dead of these wars must be mourned, because it was no fault of theirs that they were sent out to fight battles that were not wholeheartedly supported by the populace.  (Unfortunately for those of us who do not support wars in general, the populace at large tends to be eager to be up and at almost any nation that even looks at us askance.  Also unfortunately for us, the political leadership tends to believe that if they engage in a war, their electorates will approve of them almost certainly.  Most often, this suspicion is borne out by polls.)  On the other hand, we must remember that these soldiers killed in war were volunteers, and they and their families pretty much signed on to the possibility that they could lose their lives.  I suppose that them's fightin' words for the families of defunct soldiers, but look at it from our point of view: they joined the military for their own reasons, but many of us do not want anyone to join the military on our behalf, and do not want to have to mourn them when they die.

I do not feel as strongly about this as to argue it at length, but I never have been given the opportunity to complain about personal militarism anywhere else, and so I put it here.  It's my blog, and I'll not cry if I want to.

About the opening of the Summer Season, the whole idea of distancing has been understood by many people.  Now, once even the little folk among us know all about distancing, there can be gradual getting into sort of activities with friends and relatives, keeping a little distance, but enjoying the fellowship all the same.  Remember: outdoors gathering is much safer than gathering indoors.  The breeze blows away the virus, but it is difficult to force kids to refrain from touching each other.  I don't know what to advise; allowing them to touch each other is definitely very bad, and much worse in places where the adults do any traveling, which might bring them in contact with those who carry the virus.  In my neck of the woods, nobody travels much at all.

I have a lot of friends who think that these lockdowns are silly.  Some of them have to travel in order to ply their trades.  They also have young children.  There is a small chance that they will come in contact with the virus; there is a small chance that the virus will survive the cleaning procedures that these people will adopt, quite conscientiously.  There is a small chance that any surviving viruses will be transmitted to the kids.  There is a small chance that the kids will develop the disease.  And there is a small but significant chance that they may not survive the disease.  And, if one of these little ones passes away, I will once more be in the position of having to mourn a death caused by activity against which I would have advised.

Well, now for something completely different!

One of my friends got hooked into a social-media chain in which people were encouraged to publish a list of those of the 50 states that they visited.  Doesn't that sound like a fun thing to do in these boring days of cloistering?  Well, I jumped in to play, and I discovered that I have visited forty of the fifty states!!

According to the information that accompanied the instructions for the Name the States You Have Visited game, we were told that the average number of states visited by Americans is 8.  Well, this is pathetic.  And now, the conditions are no longer favorable; for environmental reasons, everyone is encouraged not to drive around for pleasure.  Even Greta Thunberg does not travel needlessly, and she certainly does not fly.  We have a hybrid that does around 40 miles per gallon in the summer, so we don't feel too guilty about driving around.  But we do feel a little guilty.  My wife keeps mentioning just how much she would like to drive out West; well, I'm too feeble to ride a bike out there, and so is she.  What does that leave us?  No; we have to drive.  She doesn't like to camp, either, so we have to live in motels, and eat out; this is going to be expensive.

I close with a plea to everyone: once the virus is under control by some objective measure—and I don't trust the ad-hoc declarations that the president makes, using his gut feelings which have a poor record of being correct—if we all make an effort to visit various states in which we have family, or which are home to some entertainment that we look forward to sampling, that we should eat in the local restaurants!  One of the most awesome meals I have enjoyed was in a hole in the wall in Amarillo, Texas, served by a poor family of Mexicans, who practically blinded us with their smiles of welcome!  I hope they have survived and thrived since then—1999, that's some 20 years ago—in order to give many visitors the benefits of their cuisine.  What are the chances of that?

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George Carlin

Greetings to all!!

Well, this seems a strange topic to begin the New Year with, but I have to catch these opportunities as they come, because my memory is not as good as . . . What was I saying?

Oh, George Carlin.

Just this morning, my stepson happened to have left his tablet on the table open to faceBook, and someone had posted a link to a George Carlin clip on YouTube.

My stepson was quick to declare that he did not take these sorts of links seriously anymore, because he was getting a lot of conservative spam.  I assured him that George Carlin was anything but, and he looked at me uncertainly, and I repeated my assurance, and went off and indulged in an orgy of George Carlin, which kept me chuckling for a whole hour!

Introducing a twenty-something young liberal to the late George Carlin might not be a kindness.  I will elaborate presently.

Not everyone is familiar with George Carlin enough to be able to recognize all his moods, and the background to some of his comedic "pieces" -- for lack of a better word--and some might not know about him at all.  If our species survives this generation, we could hope that Carlin recognition is built into the genes by Darwin, or whoever is in charge of evolution these days.

I have it in for Capitalism.  I tolerate the Capitalism of the old Pre-Reagan days, but the most recent flavor of uncompromising Capitalism is evil and misguided.  George Carlin explains why it is so.

I have it in for Nationalism.  Nationalism made sense in the world when new nations were struggling against colonial powers.  Today, emerging nations are still fighting against paternalistic restraints--c.f. Catalan politics--but to say that America is fighting against colonial powers is so funny that whoever says so should not be allowed to speak henceforth.  Carlin explains this beautifully.

Carlin described fake news long before fake news was cool.  If you learned to recognize it then, you would know how it has evolved to what it is today, and how fake those who habitually use the phrase today are.

Advertising is a pet peeve of George Carlin, as it is mine.  It isn't very different from fake news; in fact, it is the friends and relatives of fake news mongers who craft and disseminate advertising copy.  I would nuke Madison Avenue (or whatever is the address of contemporary hype), and if George Carlin were alive, he would probably nod approval.

He opposed stupidity.  He opposed US militarism.  (Oh, you should definitely check out his video clip on American military adventurism; one listens with amusement, and anger.)  Golf courses.  Religion.  Materialism.  The Real Estate business.  (It isn't obvious, but it is there, hidden in his commentaries on modern US culture.)  Racism.  I'm not sure he was particularly close to blacks and people of color, but he could certainly spot racism at any distance.  Economic inequality.  Education.  Parents.  And finally: politicians.  (But he lays the blame squarely where it belongs: on the electorate.  That is, the US Public.

Unexpectedly, or rather, not unexpectedly, if you knew the reason: George Carlin is cynical about the environment.  He laughs at Save the Planet rhetoric.  The planet, he says, is going to be around long after we're gone.  This is undeniable, but how are we to think about both our anxiety to preserve the environment, and George Carlin's shrugging it off?

Well, what exactly do we mean by preserving the environment?  We mean to keep the planet the way it is, as much as possible.  Why?  So that future generations can enjoy it (or that we can enjoy it a little longer).  But Carlin takes the view that the human species will not last forever.

One doesn't need to think too hard to conclude that this is absolutely true.  While we may not embrace the rapid deterioration of human living conditions with great glee as Carlin does, we have to realize that, from an objective point of view, our ecological efforts are merely a desperate rearguard action against the inevitable.  As modern Ecological agnostics must believe, saving species from extinction for a few more decades in the face of their vanishing habitat is an exercise in futility.  Whether or not the GOP thinks that way, it makes it easier for them to balance the budget without raising taxes, and as we all know, what the GOP loves is money, far more than the beauty of nature!  Gotta love 'em.

How did George Carlin get this way?  If you watch enough of his videos on YouTube, he explains it.  It is a psychological defense mechanism.  The best way to avoid soul-eating disappointment is to give up all expectations.  He says that he never voted; he just stayed home.  Cynicism, in the end, is a crude form of self-preservation.  This was not Carlin's invention; it is the main principle of Buddhism!  More about that another time.

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