Happy New Year All! Tami A! I have a confession to make…I know that you introduced me to Norah Jones, and, that I pooh-poohed her – but I have to admit – she’s very, very good. So I must apologize for my snobbery – thinking that my musical background – which I’m still trying to back – let me turn a deaf ear to excellence. Apology accepted?
I’m sure I’ve mentioned Roger Waters’ album Amusing Ourselves to Death at some point in my writings – but, if I haven’t – I do so now: as the self-dubbed, creative genius of PINK FLOYD was spot-on with this particular contention (but that doesn’t mean I can forgive him for forcing the late, great Richard Wright’s departure from the band following The Wall, nor can I forgive the projection of his personal angst into portions of The Wall and all of The Final Cut!).
But Roger was quite correct that the West has been amusing itself at the expense of tradition, ceremony, ritual and meaning for-quite-some-time-now: and it seems like the specter of social death looms upon us now. Did Nero burn Rome for fun, or, to blame it on the Christians? I’m not sure. But Christians have been burning the West for some centuries now, and can always blame the devil. Satan is certainly the greatest of all scapegoats!
The Golden Globe Awards are on next week (actually they’re on tonight – but I’m still a week behind) – and thankfully some folks in Hollyweird are actually suggesting that an actor’s strike might not be appropriate at-a-time when the national unemployment rate closes in on 8% and heads towards 10%. Damn! Ya think?! If the contemporary entertainment industry wasn’t such a masturbatory exercise – I’d like to think that we might have valued those aspects of life that get people from A-to-B; from dawn-to-dusk; and, families — from generation to successive generation.
But most things promulgated by the media(s) these days seem nihilistic – yanging when they might have been yinging. Sure, the universe needs a balance – but the West’s pursuit of the Almighty Dollar has certainly unbalanced the state of things (do I feel the re-colonization of Africa and South America coming along again?).
So Obama is going to make a stab with Keynesian economics…Humpty Dumpty can’t be put together again. He was foolin’ around on that wall for far too long – just like we have been jacking ourselves off for far too long. That yellow tide has been moving inexorably for far too long…to not flow over the huge graveyard that has become the decadent West – where nothing grows and images of Western humanity plunging into the amusement meat grinder are all the yellow mouths need.
I knew that if the Chinese could run a successful Olympic Games that they could successfully run the world. Well, perhaps they can. And the West can only hope that they have a sense of humor.