It's November in 2020, and dystopian novels have proven to be both prescient and unheeded. I've had drinks, and I need to express myself in the only artform with which I have a modicum of talent, that of the written word.
WHAT IS WRONG. I've just finished watching a documentary on Hunter S. Thompson. Certainly a genius, not a role model nor even a person I'd wish to follow down any of his chosen paths in life. But...a genius in his vision of society, and, unfortunately, eventually a victim to his own predictions of destruction.
WHAT IS WRONG. You cannot ask any significant portion of the American populous who their favorite author is and expect an answer that is supported with detail and reason. The age of the learned and objective pundit is dead. Or...at least the age of the reasoned pundit is dead, anyway. What killed it? The cathode ray tube. Instantaneous media. The Facebook. The 24 hour news cycle. The death of objectivity through the dearth of time taken towards cognition as opposed to abject reaction. We only react, we no longer think.
HST invented a method of reporting on society that was both piercingly real, but hyperbolically fantastic. It takes a bit to get used to figuring out where the line is drawn, and the reality dissolves into the symbolic...but his gift to those who read him is the clarity with which those far-reaching absurdities so accurately capture the human condition. It's raw. It's embarrassing. It's difficult. It can be tedious, but the man...who was about as "liberal" as they come...had an affinity for guns and powerful motorcycles that stepped outside the halls of the "learned left" and into sharply defined reality without regard for dichotomy. His love for life was eventually crescendoed by a bullet.
P.J. O'Rourke. Both a contemporary and a student of Hunter. National Lampoon editor. Rapier wit, and subtle yet qualified economic and political bard. His is a tale of "boomer" America, and, thankfully, as resistance to reactionary journalism. His compendium of written work spans the whole spectrum of political ideology...something imperative in an eventual arrival at what one can finally call...WHAT I BELIEVE. Personally, even though my ethos does not entirely intermingle with his, I find that the journey described and the experiences that have shaped his positions to be a thing I aspire to in my own quest for a solid structure of belief.
WHAT IS WRONG. Not enough people have read Vonnegut. Gaimon. Bryson. Twain. Abbey. Ambrose. Jack freakin' London. If you want to see America...if you want see our world...my opinion lies strongly in the belief that the written word...actually...the well-considered written word...holds the answers. Now, we attribute a talking head on a screen to reality, all too frequently that reality is solidified for each one of us when it agrees with our core feelings about a subject.
WHAT IS WRONG. Feelings...however strong...do not constitute reality, which, last time I checked, is based in fact. Today, fact and reality are snowed under by belief, and the strength of beliefs is bolstered by a constant stream of targeted information...the marketing of falsehood. The truth is...out there. And it won't be spoon-fed to you.
WHAT IS WRONG. We are quick to judge, quick to attack and counterattack. We operate as though those with beliefs contrary to our own MUST BE DEFEATED. Henry Clay's old bones must be spinning around underground, not that his role as "The Great Compromiser" didn't eventually result in a bloodbath. Compromise is dead...killed by a basal understanding and gradual implementation and exploitation of human behavior. We have been corrupted by marketing.
WHAT IS WRONG. "Reaching across the aisle" is now considered to be basic impotence. There are people who won't read this for the centrist rant it is intended to be, simply because they know...or think they know...my particular political bent. Before I am representative of a "party," I am an American. I do not think I am alone. I am a student of the comparatively short history of this Great Experiment. My heroes have always been visionaries in the guise of Thomas Jefferson and Theodore Roosevelt. Men who history reveres, but men who, when studied, were most certainly not without fault (what man is?). What would they think about the America of today?
WHAT IS WRONG. Contention does not have to be divisive. Contention SHOULD be based in fact. What is wrong...is that "fact" is under fire, and media is holding the gun. We are being played against each other. We are being systematically programmed to hate. Take ONE step back from the argument you are so fervently banging the keys on your computer to support...and breathe. Take TWO steps back...and consider the point of the opposition. Take THREE steps back...and STUDY EXACTLY what you are attempting to countermand. Take your TIME to do this, as great minds and authors of the past have done. See if your general attitude changes, and SOLUTION begins to rear its head.
This might just be pissing in the howling wind of divisiveness that is gripping this country like never before. This is a tiny posting in a hurricane of discord. This is a TL;DR for a lot of people. But, however small, it is my plea for unity. It is my bridge across the divide. It is an apolitical request for humanity through humility. Fly the flag of your cause, but make sure it is planted in truth and reason. Find that truth and reason might just mean common ground and a way forward for this country. Take a hard look at WHAT IS WRONG...and do your damndest to find a way to make it right.
