Fall Back on America
One of the features of failing systems is the lapse into disconnection: the imperial center that bubbles over with court intrigues and factional power struggles while the villages die. As I’ve been saying, I just drove a long lap through a big piece of the country, racing to get to places I’ve wanted to see for myself — and stopping at night to get online and take a quick look at the “news.” It was like living in two separate countries at the same time. The stories don’t match.
The extraordinary figure of a Joe Biden, comically corrupt and astonishingly gormless through decades of increasingly stupid public performance, is an end-stage character. Hunter’s “let’s call my dad” business model, senior political figures who are openly steered in public like a bus, the maneuver of indicting the leading opposition figure again and again and again on increasingly absurd charges: end-stage behaviors. The imperial city smells like decay, and it smells like decay because it is decaying. A Jack Smith appears in a dying system. A Dan Goldman appears in a dying system, reeking of flop sweat.
The destructive stage is accelerating. All of this oppression and corruption is, above all, stupid. It’s increasingly self-referential — courtiers fighting over their place in a fake system of status, mindlessly reciting whatever insane shitsucking line they have to recite to hold their worthless positions in the fake status system. “Raymond Shaw is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I've ever known in my life.”
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They’ll cause a great deal of harm as they destroy themselves, but they’re destroying themselves. Live in the real country, not in the narrative invention. America’s Green Zone imagines the world outside its walls, and it imagines that it runs that world. But it doesn’t have anything to do with it.
Earlier, I was in my home town (population approx 1,500) and had the occasion to talk to a guy passing through. He was from Connecticut and was heading somewhere westerly for his job. His car broke down just outside of town.
A tow truck came and got him and parked him next to the auto parts store. While he was in there trying to work out what part he needed a local farmer overheard his troubles.
The auto parts guy told him they’d go to one of their other stores and pick up the part for him and have it in the morning, so he left. While he was gone, the farmer paid for his part.
The cafe next door found him sleeping in his car the next morning and gave him a free breakfast. Then he found out about the guy who paid for his part.
He came back in the cafe, where I was, and loudly and proudly proclaimed that he loved us and our town.
He told his entire tale of woe, along with the blessings he’d received, and said again he loved us. He said he’d never been anywhere like this before. I guess on previous travels he just drive through little one-flashing-light towns like ours. 🙂
Made me proud of our people. 💞
We have a big, beautiful country and a small, ugly swamp. Enjoy your road trip. Already dreading the court eunuch purple checks like Richardson, Rather, and Reich posting about their orange man indictment induced orgasms.