Fun, yet cynical
Had a fun day yesterday. Took a thrilling but too-brief ride on the back of skidspoppe's motorcycle to see Ronn Lucas, who is hilarious and does a "kid-friendly adult humor show" at 3pm every day except Friday at the Rio. Then we hung out with him for a couple hours. I got to sleep early so I will be all set for a night of revelry at First Friday. I just read Josh's column. I haven't seen my fellow Flint native Michael Moore's last few films, including Fahrenheit 9/11 (for which Ray Bradbury, in a spasm of ironic self-righteousness, is suing, claiming copyright infringement, but that's another story). I just haven't gotten around to it. Anyway, cateland's point is well-taken that our generation has never had the opportunity to really be proud to be part of the great cultural experiment that is America. I was jolted awake by the realization that such pride was once an authentic quality based on authentic things, not just a sort of nationalistic pep rally mentality as it seems to be today. That had never even occurred to me before. That *is* sad, isn't it?There's an anthropologist (I think Duchamel's his name) who pioneered the concept that part of everyone's personality is culturally constructed, and it seems that cynicism is built into me and other 20-and-30-somethings like an alloy. One of my first memories is of watching Nixon on TV with my parents and how the expressions on their faces were so bitter. I knew he was a bad man before I knew he was the president. And then the supposedly good man, Jimmy Carter, couldn't accomplish anything. And on and on. Can anyone blame us for having grown up clannish and suspicious?The danger and complexity of this world is burdensome and numbing. Good comedy is a good antidote, though.