Sunday, October 27, 2024

Dancing with disaster

With the upcoming presidential election I got to thinking this morning about what I would do if I were elected President of the United States. Or maybe king of the world. While lying in bed this morning, I thought up a list of rules that I think would make our world a better place. Here are some suggestions I have for a better world:


  • No internet

  • No smartphones, smartwatches, or any other “smart” devices

  • Bring back manners

  • No pollution

  • All restricted to two flights per year

  • Wave/Solar power made success

  • No large corporation companies, only family or employee owned

  • No death penalty

  • Legalize voluntary euthanasia, maybe try something like ethical suicide parlors as they had in Vonnegut’s Monkey House

  • Melt the guns

  • Organic only produce

  • No political advertisements

  • Politicians are selected at random like jury service for one year only

  • Stop all the wokeness. I'm not saying we should discriminate against anyone or be noninclusive. Everybody deserves and needs to be treated with love and kindness. I believe in equality. However, I think we've gone too far with things like the "Black Lives Matter" movement and "Pride" month. This is doing more harm than good.

  • No transgender boys (biologically born males) allowed in girls' sports

  • No drugs or blood doping in athletics

  • Stop cancelling road races for silly reasons (TCM 2023)

  • All prisoners will work for community

  • No burning books- I recently finished reading Fahrenheit 451 and now I’m paranoid

  • All pay taxes

  • A garden is compulsory

  • Graffitists will have the same image sprayed in their house

  • No boss will earn more than 10 times as much as lowest paid employee

  • Remove smoking bans in all pubs, clubs, and restaurants

  • Speed limit 25 mph

  • One car per family

  • Better yet, get rid of all automobiles and motorized vehicles


In short, I think we should just go back to the bronze age. Keep things primitive.


Go tell your stale friends

Go tell false prophets and drug traffickers

Not to try to push our bodies any faster

We’re dancing with disaster

And the first will be the last

It’s nearly Africa



Heck, I wouldn’t mind it if we completely did away with the whole timing system. Can you imagine that? Think about it. Just think about it. We could all wake up when the sun rises and go to bed when the sun sets. Nobody would be late to anything. Runners wouldn’t worry about hitting a certain time mark. We would just race for the pure fun of racing. Or as Prefontaine put it “to see who has the most guts”. This would eliminate so much stress. Nobody would know what time it is. Nobody would even care.


I really do think the world was a better place before the whole technology boom took off. It has gone too far already and it’s only going to get worse. There is something Jean Shepherd said back in September 1972 that captures the essence of this quite well:


*The hectic pace of modern life, the age of the emerging Machine, of rampant Automation, of mind-boggling space shots, of brain-numbing traffic jams, not only takes its toll of us, the hapless human beings who created the monster of Technology but also those simple innocents who have the bad luck to inhabit a planet also populated by Man. We are in the midst of a giant struggle that goes on day and night all over the world. One day the battle will be over, the machines will have won, and few will remember the early days when the victims were falling.


Also, here is a “Straw In The Wind” and Shep’s comments:


FORT WORTH, TEXAS  (AP)  The telephone rang as Mrs. F. A. Farnum was vacuuming her canary’s cage.  She wheeled to pick up the phone and—whoosh—up the vacuum cleaner nozzle went Joey Boy with one desperate “cheep!”  Mrs. Farnum jerked the bag open, grabbed out her canary and desperately shook off a little dust.  Joey Boy was still unrecognizable, so she put him under the faucet.  Then, to be sure the bird didn’t catch cold, she put him under her electric hair dryer.  “He hasn’t been singing since then,” Mrs. Farnum said, “he just sits hunched over and stares a lot.  But he’s eating well.”


Ah, how like us all, hunched over sitting, staring. But eating well. Not much singing but a lot of staring.


I’m feeling a bit like Joey Boy right now. Sitting hunched over, staring. I have a cold- the sore throat and a runny nose. The only thing that seems to make it feel any better is ice cream. I have been eating copious amounts of ice cream to soothe my throat. It helps for a little while, then my throat hurts again, so I eat more ice cream. It’s a maddening cycle.


I didn’t do any running today. The last time I went an entire day without running was over four months ago, in the days following Grandma’s Marathon. That might be a new record streak. Not that I care. The reason I run is because I enjoy it. It is a fun thing to do. Running isn’t any fun when you’re sick. Nothing’s any fun when you’re sick. The weather outside is gorgeous, but I can’t even enjoy it.


Seaquake by morning

Says QUAKE-TV

Rogue wave comes high

And it breaks all over me

They may fix

The weather in the world

Just like Mr. Gore said

But tell me what’s to be done

Lord - ‘bout the weather in my head



A wave of futility has suddenly swept over me. I am feeling very futile right now. Nothing that I’ve said really matters. I was born and it doesn’t matter and then I die. I really am just a leaf blowing in the wind. So much of my life is controlled by things I have no input in. I sometimes think I have input, but I’m only fooling myself.


In some ways, futility can be a good thing. Because sometimes I overthink and try to over-manage everything. It would be better if I just relaxed and let life take me along. I’d probably end up in a very similar place, without continuously punching myself in the face. So I think futility can play an important role in life.


By the way, if anybody’s wondering, I’m voting Jordan for President.


Not that it really matters.


A little boy asked me should he put his vote upon the left

A little boy asked me should he put his vote upon the right

I said it really doesn’t matter where you put your vote

Someone else will come along and move it

And it’s always been the same

It’s just a complicated game   


                                    Complicated Game:




* Shepherd, J. (1972). The Ferrari in the Bedroom. Dodd, Mead & Company.

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