1/9/24
Newsletter #544
The Crack of Dawn
I’m thinking of renting a small place in Amsterdam, although I’ll keep my house here. Amsterdam is a direct, 8-hour flight from Detroit. One of my major reasons has absolutely nothing to do with me. In Holland, and much of the world, parents still send their children to school on their own, either by bicycle or walking. Parents do not drive their kids to school and pick them up, because they don’t live in blind, unfounded fear of evil, perverted kidnappers.
As the first great American, Benjamin Franklin, said, “If you put security above freedom then you deserve neither.” Presently, here in America, we deserve neither.
Parents in America have every right in the world to be fearful of their children being murdered at school, most probably by an assault rifle fired by a depressed, young white male who can’t get laid. This is purely an American fear – nobody else in the world has this problem because nobody else in the world has this many guns in their country – and we won’t do anything about it, in the names of both freedom and security. Guns make some people feel secure that they can hold on to the freedom they are more than happy to give up for security. Guns make other people feel insecure because they or their children may well get shot for absolutely no reason. I just looked this up:
Where does the US rank in homicide rate?
Compared to other developed countries, the US has the most homicides, with 7.8 homicides per 100,000 people.
Hello. We’re talking about the lives of children, as well as our own, and the atmosphere and environment in which we all live, which has grown toxic. The bullshit slogan of “I need weapons in case we need to take our government back by force” is A. ridiculous, and B. nowhere near as important as letting your kids walk to school. And since there really isn’t a barbarian horde of kidnappers out there waiting to abduct your children – that is a paranoid urban myth – and the chances of you using that gun to defend yourself is about zero, nobody really needs those weapons, certainly not AR-15-like assault rifles. It’s deathly stupid and proves Mr. Franklin’s adage – if you can’t weigh the value between the importance of freedom, and the blind paranoia of security – let’s put security cameras everywhere – you deserve neither.
I had my bathroom remodeled. I contracted with a company, and they sent out a young white male contractor, who was maybe thirty-five. Once he got comfortable doing his work, he turned to me in the doorway and stated, “Biden is a liar.” I said, “I’ll be at my computer working if you need anything,” and walked away. Alas, he did need something: a bracket or something. I suggested that we go to the Home Depot on the corner and get it. As soon as we were situated in his big pickup truck, he said, “This is a terrible time we’re living in.” Being a smartass, I said, “Not like the good old days before sewage, when everybody poured their piss and shit in the street? And horses crapped in the street all the time.” He said tersely, “That’s not what I meant.” Oh, really? No shit. Either he wanted to start a fight, or he desired commiseration from a fellow suffering victim. Either way, he wasn’t getting what he wanted from me.
We live in a toxic atmosphere. As Americans, and being number one at everything, we’re in first place for having the most stupid, irrational society. I don’t mean this euphemistically, either – not with our entirely unique attitude toward weapons and mass shootings, even when they are of little children – I mean America specifically. Whether you’re on the right or the left, Americans have all become moronic victims. They are oppressed by the government, the patriarchy, the deep state, the rich, and of course, Moloch (don’t know what it is? Look it up). We’re frightened that something awful is after us, ready to destroy us, kidnap our kids, steal our identities, and rob us blind.
So we stay in our own little worlds, on our cell phones, earbuds stuffed in our ears, listening to podcasts by people we don’t know commenting on the actions of other people they don’t know.
I believe that cell phones are anti-Zen devices. The point of Zen is to be present; the point of a cell phone is to not be present, plain and simple. I’ve got news for you – the past is gone, and the future hasn’t happened yet, which only leaves you with the present. The present is our most valuable commodity. If you’re zombie scrolling on your phone, you’re pissing your life away.
Presently, I’m isolating in my nice little house with my cat in the suburbs of Detroit. All of my friends left me here and went to Florida. Going to Florida won’t solve my problems. I don’t have a climate issue, although better weather would be nice; I have a people issue.
Going to Amsterdam won’t fix all of my problems, but it sounds like fun. And fun in and of itself is valuable.
Thank you.
Great essay!