In Which We Are Depraved
In all our glories
Links are at the end, scheming.
We were talking earlier about what people are calling the gerontocracy, although I think the term might be a bit misplaced in the circumstances—the subjects were Biden, Diane Feinstein, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and the issue wasn’t so much that they are/were old as that their political and personal calculations, or lack thereof, neglect/neglected the welfare of their constituents, assuming their constituents are the great mass of us, which is not true but we were playing pretend.
But more broadly, yes, we are ruled by old people. It might put one in mind of a Soviet politburo, but many of those guys weren’t old so much as ravaged. It was a tough system in which to thrive.
Feinstein is back in town, one guesses to let some air out of the outrage balloon, but she missed her first vote back and her staff say that she’ll be working a lighter schedule than before her months-long break. How this will manifest, they didn’t say.
The usual response of lawmakers in Texas to mass shootings and killings, of which they’ve had their fair share and counting, is to ease restrictions on buying and carrying weapons.
After this most recent (I think) one, though, the state house there has passed a law raising the age at which one can legally purchase an assault-style weapon from 18 to 21. No word on whether the governor will sign it; his preoccupation seems to be with whether any of the victims are undocumented immigrants, whose deaths he can subtract from his scorecard.
Two of the people voted least likely to be held responsible for anything ever are being held responsible for something, although the cost of responsibility isn’t yet clear. That's Trump, and George Santos or whomever.
Not being held responsible are any of the people who say they think Trump is a rapist but will vote for him anyway. The worst that can happen to them is that Biden or whoever wins a Democratic term in 2024, which is not too far off the worst that can happen to everybody else, so it’s not like they’re getting terminally screwed. You can make tallow out of anybody.
Can't blame people who voted for Santos, really, as they didn't know they were voting for a fictitious character. Can blame the people responsible for pointing out the clown shoes.
Ah, depravity. We seem to be suffering a lot of the things novelists describe in post-apocalyptic societies—extreme tribalism, genocidal approaches to minority populations, naked authoritarianism or homicidal libertarianism, breakdowns in supply chains and services, and so on—but we haven’t had the apocalypse.
Or maybe we get multiple apocalypses (apocalypti?) and don’t recognize them unless we’re personally ground up. That’s probably it.
Good either way that we’re practicing; don’t want to get caught behaving civilly when our time comes.
Today is a ketamine day so I’m gonna cut this short.
Music!
A little grief and some jangle, not necessarily in that order.
The Sundays, “Reading, Writing & Arithmetic;”1 Oh, Rose, While My Father Sleeps;2
That, Comrades, is all there is
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Take care, be well.
People who complain that we are ruled by old people forget tha some of us old people don't rule anything and also ignore the fact that old people being in charge is largely the result of young people not being involved and certainly not voting.