Interlude: negative affects of tv

Savage Neighbors Part 4

Then the mob returns. The mob returns to burn books. The mob returns to start to throw stones. The mob returns to lynch someone or a group of someones. The mob returns to build a wall.

If the notion of belonging to a group, a religious organization or a political party is not a frighten thought, then the prospect of being in a mob has got to be. The slow moving, nearly glacier like activity of a church does not illicit the immediate danger that the wildfire mob invokes. The mob comes, like army ants and destroys everything in its path.

The mob riots. It's the collective passion boiled up to unreal, unseen emotions. Then boom. It seems reasonable to demonize one book over another, or all books written by a certain person or group of persons. Fire can disposes of books instantly, what about governmental or cultural censorship? There is no real difference between the burning of a book and condemning it.

Mobs are notorious for the violence but they are generally localized and short lived. The systematic banning of books and ideas is far worse. This sort of thing is more permanent and less noticeable.

I felt like it was something that was nearly unseen after the turn of the century and before 9/11. It was this attitude of I'm ignorant and damn proud of it I thought I kept seeing. Then after 9/11 it was like no one wanted to travel anymore, not inside or outside of our borders. Then it seemed like all the shopkeepers in my neighbor who I knew were from other countries started to go out of business. Then it seemed like the late night coffeehouses and the activities in such places started to end earlier and earlier and earlier. Then it seemed like it was over, all of it was over.

It seemed like there was this undercurrent of fear that I was not privy to. Then it seemed like the topics of conversation all included words like stress and anxiety and depression. Then the entire place seemed to empty out. The entire country seemed to empty out. And empty further a few years later. And now, well, now, I don't know where everyone got off to. I could be way off. But I no longer recognize most of my neighbors. Many of the neighbors I do recognize, I don't understand.

Savage Neighbors Part 3

Control. It's all about control. Missionaries come to my door. They have paperwork. They have handbills and they have the GOP or the Apocalypse to sell me. They have something to do me good, to save my soul or my freedoms.

I tell them I don't believe we have a soul, but each of us are entitled two soles. And my soles, still intact will always deliver me to freedom. This is oftentimes not understood. I don't care for the organized things that come to the door complete with pamphlet or propaganda.

I mean, seriously, what? There are those people, generally on a street corner, who quote passage after passage after passage from the bible and they have a ministry. I like the bible. I mean, who wouldn't? With all that war and rape and murder and double crossing, how can anyone not like the bible? But it's not the end all of books. I really like J.D. Salinger. Now if I stand on the street corner and quote passage after passage after passage of The Catcher in the Rye, I will not have a ministry, I will have date with the county health care workers. The bible. The Catcher in the Rye. They're both books. I fail to see the difference between obsession when it comes to either one.

Savage Neighbors Part 2

I have no real aversion to someone taking drink on occasion. I don't have any real aversion to this only because I have the predilection to take a drink too. Although I don't not approve the nearly obsessive use of marijuana, I am unfortunately trapped in the dead middle of dope smoking country. I do not understand the illicit drugs that seem to transform the users into monsters. I fear the pill shakes that those pill poppers have and when you see these people in public, they seem more like zombies or sub-humans rather than someone I could talk to.

It always makes me scratch my head. Perhaps I have just been overly lucky. I have never had the cause to take pills, prescriptions or otherwise. I never had need to take any more drugs than the occasional experiment in college. And as far as the booze goes, I have never wanted to drink so much that it interfered with my ability or my time to write. I suppose, I am lucky on this point too, that the writing has always been more important than a buzz.

Savage Neighbors

I have always, since a very young age, been a creature of the night. I wish there were better things, darker things, deeper things to say about the creature of the night statement. I have often been called a vampire, but being awake in the night and being uncomfortable in the daytime is where my similarity with vampires end. After all, I am not a blood sucker and oftentimes lean to vegetarianism.

I suppose what I like about the night is the quietness that generally comes with it. Even in the nightclub districts and the bar scenes of my youth, there was a certain bustling activity and sound associated with it. But, a few paces off the nightclub entrances, the city was always fairly quiet, less cars, less people, less noise at night.

At a young age, I was safely tucked away in a suburban area. I would find my way out of doors all summer long, all night, every night. I was a meandering miscreant who never really found any trouble. Only very occasionally would I find another young traveler of the night. Sometimes, I had a planned excursion with a friend. And then, we would wander the streets until very late and postulate on the existence of man.