The Weekend in Foolish Attention
Bits and bytes of the week
WORKING WITH THE BALANCE. We live in the age of binary bullshit. Swipe left or right. Vote red or blue. Cancel or canonize. Zero or one. Happy or sad. “How are you?” is a trap because nobody really wants to hear “both.” Nobody wants to sit in the squirmy soup of contradiction. The gray area is radioactive. And yet…
Everything in life that happens has both negative and positive consequences. Always. Unfailingly. Without exception. Whether it’s winning the lottery or getting diagnosed with colorectal cancer, there’s always a damn two-sided coin flipping in midair. You just might not see the second face until it smacks you in the jaw.
Let’s stop pretending life is a morality play where good things bring halos and bad things bring doom. It’s a rigged game of cosmic blackjack where even when you hit 21, the dealer lights your hand on fire just to see if you flinch.
With that in mind, I propose that the truly emotional mature among us recognize this and find ways to work with the balance. This is not to paint every experience as a happy outcome, finding that silver lining, wearing those rosy glasses. It is to comprehend both the negative and positive as pragmatic consequence.
MESSY BREAKUPS. Wow. We all knew in some dark, greasy recess in our minds, that Trump and Musk weren’t likely besties but WTF?
“I’m a little stuck in a bind, where I’m like, well, I don’t want to, you know, speak up against the administration, but I also don’t want to take responsibility for everything the administration’s doing.”—Musk
“I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore. This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination.”—Musk
“Elon and I had a great relationship, I don’t know if we will anymore. . . . And he hasn’t said bad about me personally, but I’m sure that’ll be next. But I’m very disappointed in Elon.”—Trump
“Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51–49 in the Senate.”—Musk
“I don’t mind Elon turning against me, but he should have done so months ago. This is one of the Greatest Bills ever presented to Congress.”—Trump
“They should initiate a formal investigation of his immigration status, because I am of the strong belief that he is an illegal alien, and he should be deported from the country immediately.”—Trump’s Ex Steve Bannon
Add to that Trump’s going after Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett, and to a lesser extent, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh (all three former flames), it seems that our president is going through that phase when his ex-wives and booty calls are turning in receipts and he’s on the ropes. I’d suggest my approach and Trump should just get rid of all of those photos he and Musk took together (especially the one with Musk’s kid in the Oval Office).
Maybe he should try Hinge?
A FRESH ANGLE ON AN OLD STORY. With the latest chapter in the ongoing war between Israelis and Palestinians (you know, the war that has raged on in form or another for centuries) folks on both sides of the most extreme rhetoric are doing their damnedest to frame the narrative in their favor. Makes sense even if it annoying and disingenuous.
The other night I caught September 5 on Paramount+. It’s a retelling of the Black September terrorist kidnapping and subsequent slaughter of eleven Israeli nationals during the 1972 Olympics in Munich. What makes it different from the many other filmic takes on this incident is that this one takes place almost entirely in the ABC Sports control room and paints the picture of the first worldwide live broadcast of a horrible car crash that 900 million people couldn’t turn away from.
In my double bill fetish, I immediately rented Spielberg’s Munich which is a far better movie than I originally thought and, with a slightly different context on the events, made for a very interesting evening.
Slim pickings this week because I have been slammed at the office!
Have a phenomenal week, gang!
Yep, all events likely have both and neg aspects. But often—maybe even usually—one aspect is irrelevant...imo, anyway.
Trump & Musk should have a good, old-fashioned duel—but not with pistols, with grenade launchers—in which both lose.
Have a grande weeke, Bud!
I agree, the simplistic division into one group or another on every parameter with nothing in between is nonsensical & counterproductive to civility. (Long gone are my days of seeking peace &/or bliss. These days I’m making do with civility.)
For the past year or more, I’ve been thinking about what a destructive, purposeful tactic it is to divide everything & everyone into two categories: essentially this or that.
I’ve been listening to many different cult & high control religion sagas from ex members, against the current political backdrop. And it is all eerily the same. It makes no difference whether it is a long established traditional religion, a creepy ass cult with a psychotic leader, a group of murderous teens in the woods killing someone for their made up beliefs, or a malignant narcissistic political stooge & his minions, it all starts the same way:
We are this, they are that.
We are good, they are evil.
We are right, they are wrong.
We are right, they are left.
We are the ones who will go to heaven, they are the ones who will burn in hell.
The players are different, but the playbook is the same. Someone or a group of like-minded someones makes a bunch of arbitrary rules to keep themselves in power & those who agree are the chosen special ones. And the rest are not worthy, imbecilic, non believing heathens who will be left to their fate, which usually is synonymous with death.
At its core, it all reminds me of kids in a clubhouse, keeping everyone out who doesn’t know the secret knock. It’s like living amongst a mass of toddlers whose growth was stunted immediately after they learned their deck of opposites flash cards. And for the rest of their lives they are filling in the blank cards at the bottom of the stack with their own ideas. (I realize this is a bit of a tortured metaphor, but I’ve no better at the moment, so let’s just pretend it fits right in with the era we are struggling to survive.)
Historically it leads to the demise of too many people. And for what? Power, lust, & greed.
I was raised in a fundamentalist high control religion & household & knew squat about anything else, until after I got married in the church I was raised in & then bid religion a fuck you adieu.
I’m not saying that everyone in the religion was bad or good. That’s too simplistic & not useful. But enough were wolves in sheep’s clothing including my father. My mother always says that “churches are filled with imperfect people” which is her excuse for justifying crimes as long as they call themselves Christians (preferably Southern Baptist).
At some point I decided that I was no longer willing to take spiritual advice from liars & people who abused children & then covered it up. But I do know that when you are immersed in a religion or cult (especially since birth), you are already primed & groomed to accept a “good people vs evil people” mindset. Everything & everyone is divided into Godly & Satanic.
What a fucked up way to live. If your religion facilitates helping others, loving others, etc. & has helped you in your life, more power to you. But in my experience these are the outward trappings of an elaborate facade for fraud & abuse.
I have no summarizing wisdom today. (As if I ever do. Who am I, a fucking prophet?!)