I had this very bizzare, very “Santa Barbara” experience at the farmers
market today.
I was picking up the essentials (lettuce), as I am wont
to do every Saturday morning. Usually there is a vendor selling Meyer lemons
(great for salad dressing), so I found one quickly and went to pick out four of
them (50 cents each) and fumbled with three of them, attempting to reach a
fourth. This woman, who came after me, swooped in and started grabbing the ones
I was going for. I made a comment that I was grabbing at least one more and she
looked at me unapologetically, holding her $5 cup of coffee from the Handlebar,
and just said, “sorry.” (What she meant to say was, “Fuck you and your
lemons!”)
A phrase that I own and coin often is something akin
to, “I’m a socialist. But it would never work in America.” There are variations
of the same phrase that I often rehearse but the essence is there. I say this to
my chagrin because I have been influenced in my life by events that make me
pine for fairness. (Getting beat up at school, being viciously made fun of, and
raised up under unremarkable circumstances. Also, my own parents have never
even read my first book.) It has made me characteristically cutthroat and
exploitative and I often wonder if there is an alternate timeline where things
were better. At its core I’ve always felt enamored with a political and social
mindset where people shared their resources to make the world a better place.
Facebook, among other outlets, sings the same familiar
tune. (And when played backwards, you hear the Satanic inverse.) But I don’t
think people practice what they preach. I’m a god damned positivist and I don’t
practice what I preach. The socialist voice in America isn’t the same pitch and
timbre of the places where this actually works, and I think for the most
obvious reasons.
American nationalism peaked at the conclusion of the
War of 1812. Subsequent spikes are the work of foreign wars and social
upheaval, intermittent incidents in a long national history of eulogized
selfishness. Even a Christian cult emerged, Mormonism, which nationalized
religion and mythologized America’s origins, placing the United States at the origin
of the universe. (The opposite was the Jehovah’s Witnesses, a Christian cult
emerging at the height of political corruption in the United States, which
eschewed all appearances of nationalism.) At both of these peaks and valleys,
American expression remained steady in its love of self-interested wealth. Our
constitution is rooted in the Pursuit of Happiness, appended by the inferred,
“And if you infringe upon mine, why I oughta’…”
The contrast that we see in Europe, the social milieu
that makes socialism so viable, is their roots in tribalism that goes back
thousands of years. There has always been infighting between states, but
uncanny internal bonds. And while there has always been a sectarian conflict
between ethnic groups within states, once these states matured past the
frustrations of religious and class warfare, there has been a reasonably steady
peace. War has also hardened these bonds on kinship. For instance, Russia has
repeatedly attempted to invade Finland over the past thousand years, with the
Fins rebuffing many, if not all of the assaults. The shadows of Empire have
also strengthened national resolve, in the case of Norway being a property of
Denmark for nearly 500 years. (They celebrate their “independence” every
Seventeenth of May.)
In the United States where we are so blessed with an
abundance of natural resources, acquired over the centuries through many shrewd
dealings, our sordid gains have likely made us complacent. Combined with the
mentality of Frontierism, prosperity through expansion and entrepreneurship, we
have inherited a mindset from our forebears that is untenable in our exhausted
real estate. We expect wealth and receive it from the least of our peers:
migrant workers, wage slaves, immigrants, etc. Even myself, a proponent of
ensuring we invest in our citizens through community programs and education, I
have everything to gain from an economy that favors my willingness to exploit
the labors of others.
All this came to a head, flashed before my mind, as I sarcastically,
non-confrontationally, replied, “Wow, this IS Trump’s America.” It is very
likely that I will not see this woman again, but given the demographics of
Santa Barbara, she is statistically likely to be a Democrat, a social
progressive, anti-corporation, pro-choice, drive a fuel-efficient vehicle, and
pro-immigrant. Yet, at our core, we are a despicable people trained to look out
for “number one,” and like a handful of Meyer lemons, we are more concerned
about our welfare than that of others. Imagine the paradigm shift that I
experienced when I saw this complete reversal in Norway when I was able to
spend time there. I constantly compare my brief time there with my lifetime
here. And while I’m sure that Norway has its own kind of culture shock due to
its inherent bureaucracy and insistence on social conformance and enculturation
of immigrants, the underlying spirit of their social contract is present and
palpable.
Enough with myself bitching about lemons…
My second book is coming along with the first draft
complete and being out for feedback among my inner circle for notes. I am
hoping for another set of great comments from my brothers of other mothers Desmond
and Bern. Soon I can start draft two and really dig deep into it.
My daughter Eowyn continues her external gestation.
She’s doing good, and my wife also.
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