...regular blogging thing.
So MUCH going on. New member of the Krewe - 11 months old as of yesterday. Oldest offspring is a sophomore in High School. Just spent three months producing a play (which to us was a success, in that it ran on time and had an audience of at least five people every performance). Ski resort I work at has been sold to one of the biggest ski resort conglomerates around, in a surprise to exactly no one.
Taking a moment to reflect here, a few months into my 44th trip around the sun. Feeling more and more as though I am at a cross-roads. I've been contemplating, seriously, a change in venue. Real estate values on the current BaseCamp Ponderosa are skyrocketing. We've been thinking for a while of the benefits and drawbacks of a move back to the flatland of Florida (no income tax, The Ocean, Giant F--king Rockets). Both the Mrs. and I hail from there, so we know a lot of people in those parts, and the both of us are, shall we say, not career oriented, so jobs commensurate with our current take home and workload should not be an issue.
Mostly it hearkens to family. My In-laws currently live here in Utah, but are planning a move back to the south shortly. My folks live in eastern Florida. I love the Space Coast, and would seriously love a home on Merritt Island - or the environs. I want a longer growing season, and, gosh dang it, I want to get another boat. Last boat I (tangentially - it was the ex-wife's) owned was a 19 foot Bayliner with a Volvo Penta inboard, lovely blue and white gel coat and beautiful leather. What a pain in the ass to keep it clean, but it was a lot of fun.
For the past few months I am fining myself quite enamored with the idea of taking a giant plunge and getting a large, live-aboard sailing catamaran. Nothing like going all the way, in fact, where angels fear to tread. I'm getting just to the point know where through research I'm beginning to get an idea of "wow I really have no idea about a lot of this." I know am getting an idea of what I don't know. So, a measured approach is what is called for. Start small, get a small boat, and see if I even like it... Which means get a truck to tow a boat and a house with a spot to store a boat. OK, not just jumping on an airplane and flying to St. Maarten to pick up a boat and fix it up...
Apologize for the rambling... not quite ranting this time, although...
**RANT WARNING**
Modern politics and the decline of civility in the social sphere
We are in a pickle folks. There are a bunch of people out there who are convinced we are slouching towards civil war. Anyone who thinks that is a good idea should be admitted for treatment for a mental disorder. Civil war is agony. You having a rough day because your wifi is slow, or your phone wont show memes while you're barrelling down a highway at 80 miles an hour? You get mad because someone you've never met, posted something about people you've never met, and would never meet, who are affected by something someone did who you didn't vote for?
A lot of people out there think it will be great! The war will happen and all of the "evils" they post online about will be vaporized by some kind of phaser. There will be a couple weeks of people being up in arms, battles in far off places, and then your cushy little utopia will be here and the "other" will be gone! Right?!
Abso-fu--ing-lutley wrong. Civil war happens, guess what happens if you're lucky? The power goes out for weeks, if not months, depending on which faction shatters the power-grid. If you're lucky you won't suffer from dysentery for too long, you wont die of thirst or freeze to death, or just plain starve. Power Grid goes out, the infrastructure breaks down, and then a hurricane comes? We do such a wonderful job preparing for disasters we know are coming. Imagine getting hit by an Irma (category 6+ 180-200 mph sustained winds) with no warning, and no prep time. Ice Storm?
If you're unlucky, you get to witness actual combat. For the sake of full disclosure, I have never been in combat, nor do I ever, ever want to be. I've more than a couple of friends and relatives with combat experience, and I am a student of history. So that counts for a very little something. It will not be quick and it will not be pleasant. We'll get to see car bombs, IEDs, drones, good old fashioned air strikes, tanks and artillery. Oh, and chemical weapons will get used eventually, simple stuff at first... then the stuff we say we don't have anymore. Nukes, too if it gets bad enough, and it might.
Who will do the fighting? Who will we line up behind? I have no idea, I'll sit it out, 'cause I think all sides of this sh--storm are fools. People I know and care for are already telling me that I have to take a side.
We are lining up in left / right sides.
I'd line up with the lefties, 'cause I believe in equal rights for all, freedom for everybody, don't think illegal aliens should have their kids taken away from them, pro-choice (again - see the freedom thing), and consider myself to be an LGBTQ+ ally (even though I am a white, hetero cis-gendered male), and I think the separation of powers and church and state are very important. Also, I am convinced that churches are businesses and should be taxed if they become profitable, or get involved in politics in any way. All of these things preclude me from the right. Since I am all of the above, I cannot be accepted by the right side of this crap.
Lefties won't take me because I believe in freedom for everybody (you don't want to bake somebody a cake or serve them lunch - don't - but don't be surprised when word gets out that you are a bigoted piece of excrement), socialism is s#!+, nobody is responsible for you or yours, respect is earned, and am very pro 2nd Amendment (especially in times like this). I just want to be left alone, to associate with whomever I choose, and not to be involved in this left/right - Republican/Democrat BS. I don't think Trump is Hitler (and if you do, you had really poor history teachers). Hitler was way more intelligent than Trump (this is not an endorsement of National Socialism - it's not - I hate Nazi's with a fiery passion of a thousand suns - i.e. the best thing about the 1940's was all of the dead Nazi's - OK??).
Trump isn't bad because he's Trump. Trump is an malignant narcissist who wraps himself in the cloak of patriotism and is using the system that has been continually perverted over the years by each party. Every administration- there's more and more executive power accumulated at the White House. Congress does less and less every term. It has been happening since the Johnson Administration. Rome wasn't built in a day. Trump didn't either... Someone might have even warned you, gentle reader, during the Bush and Obama administrations about the steady accumulation of executive power... Who's to say? Point is this - Trump in a US government that actually functioned would be shut down by the checks and balances that are codified in that document that no one pays attention to any more. Wow - it being a "living document" kinda sucks now doesn't it, Al Gore??
I've said it before and I'll say it again - the system is broken. I cannot for the life of me see a road map that gets us out of the quagmire without some serious discomfort. Divisions are calcifying, families are experiencing tension and social media is acting as an echo chamber that only adds fuel to the vitriol. Sorry, Samantha Bee's writer Ashley Nicole Black - civility is not a tool of white supremacy. There are governments all over the world that function due to the civility of the population. It is literally the root of civilization. We Americans do not not escalate well. Civility is important. It is a tool that keeps 81mm mortars out of neighborhoods. We are losing it. And since we do not not escalate, it will get nasty and quick.
Civility is the check on emotion. Lack of civility is just the exposure of non-reason and can tend to get violent, quickly - especially when people who know how to push buttons do their thing. A certain dead-Nazi once said: "I use emotion for the many and reserve reason for a few." We are being PLAYED and ill served by social media. We are being divided and conquered. Look for an event soon that might firm up the divide, and then the team picking will commence.
I fear for my country, 'cause I can't see a way to fix it, other to break it up, and let the Balkan-ization by ideology commence. Then a few decades of jockeying and minor wars of consolidation. No matter what, it's obvious that the Westphalian Nation-State is on the ropes.
If there were a modern day Cincinnatus? Maybe - but that's a bit much to hope for. (again- if you don't know who that is, the metaphor is a bit off, but curse the modern educational system, and go look him up online). Yes, I know Cincinnatus fought against an external entity, but who am I kidding - no group of modern Americans would ever agree to such a thing...
History will be our judge.
Love wins, every time it's tried. Be civil to people who disagree with you. As a rule, we Americans escalate, always - don't believe me? Ask the city fathers of 1864 Atlanta, 1944 Dresden, 1945 Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 1968 Hue City, the commanding generals of the Iraqi Hammurabi and Adnan divisions in 1991 and again in 2003.
Do you have three weeks of water and food for every member of your family in your home?
If not, why not?
Take a moment before you share a political post about how stoopid the other side is, and see if your feelings of ideological and mental superiority are justified?
Love wins every time it's tried,
Crazed American, out.
