St Louis, MO
January 16, 2018
Contemplations from 35,000 feet above a world that Allen Funt would envy…
Disembarking reluctantly from our cruise last week, we were immediately reminded that the furious shuffling of deck chairs continues on dry land.
Upon landing in Atlanta, our first mistake was not having dressed to withstand a 70 degree temperature decline from what we had experienced much of the prior week.
Our second was to scan the headlines for any worthwhile news we may have missed while away. We discovered we missed very little, but were spared quite a lot.
We were pleased to see self-righteousness humbled a bit as Justin Trudeau earned some welcome come-uppance when caught rummaging thru the Canadian tax-payers’ cookie jar to pal around with the Aga Khan.
On this side of the border, the CEO of the US Government tweeted that nuclear buttons are yet another feature to which his hand size is apparently not reliably correlated.
Congress, meanwhile, as if forcing a subpoena on an unsuspecting witness in the middle of the night, delivered a new tax bill as the door slammed on 2017.
While we have never met a tax reduction we didn’t like, we admit we have not yet become closely acquainted with the fake money injection, deep state debt propagation, and crony spending bamboozles associated with this one. Regardless, the bill has now been passed, so over time we will no doubt learn what is in it.
With that, we turned our head forward and faced squarely into 2018.
It did not take long to disappoint.
Last weekend being the Feast of the Epiphany, the world outside the US Government was enlightened to the geopolitical concept of the “Sh*thole” country (pardon our co-opting the CIA-quality cryptography so prevalent in our prudent press, but this is after all a family email).
After initially interpreting the designation as referring to Kennedy Airport, we were relieved to learn the reference was to foreign Sh*tholes rather than to those closer to home.
Of course, that is a problem with Sh*tholes: their sheer ubiquity and fluidity.
After all, East St Louis, West Oakland, North Philadelphia, and South Chicago are current Sh*tholes that at one time were viable centers of industry and commerce that wobbled initially under the invisible hand of the market and ultimately succumbed, like the dying embers of a cigarette under a gang-lord’s heel, to the dead hand of the State.
Years ago, having recently arrived in Philadelphia and caught by herself in a disorienting snow storm, Rita inadvertently drove north rather than south on Broad Street from Philadelphia City Hall.
Gunshots, menacing glances, and fires emanating like Etna from the mouths of oil drums were not the comfort she sought.
Likewise, in the days after 9-11, I accidentally spent time in the favélas of Rio de Janeiro, so we are among the fortunate who know a Sh*thole when we see one.
Conversely, Beijing and Moscow were once prominent latrines in the world’s garden, but now boast cosmopolitan convenience and high-tech luxury on par with what can be found in the arrondissements of Paris, and far exceeding those of its banlieues (now those are real Pays de M*rde).
Honolulu, not traditionally known as a Sh*thole, was for half an hour this weekend terrified that it was about to become one at the hands of another one.
While the announcement of an incoming missile was a false alarm, it did bring a couple genuine considerations into sharper relief.
As Rita noted when we heard this news, if ever the “Are You Sure?” prompt was warranted before sending a message, we’d think this might have been the occasion.
Moreover, the feigned outrage our conscientious pundits and politicians direct toward a Head of State who refers to certain places as Sh*tholes is curious given the sincere accolades they invariably bestow when that same Head of State orders that bombs fall on, or turn a place into, a Sh*thole.
Perhaps this merely confirms that true Sh*tholes, like nineteenth century Communist movements or twentieth century Modernist philosophy, are characterized less by borders, bombs, and labels than by the ideas and world-views that flow thru them.
JD
