Life As Performance Art 87

I really wonder sometimes about all this progress nonsense, Gentle Reader. You know what I mean, all this drivel about how we are all getting better, more enlightened, the world is getting better, we are all getting smarter and more clever, living longer,and all this lovely modernism and liberalism, and how it is shaping us all into evolving into little deities, minor gods and goddesses and oh aren't we all so privileged and lucky to live in these times? Yes, we have the Internet, smart phones, laptops, advanced medicine, same gender marriage, we are well on our way to winning the war on racism, we have legalised cannabis and practice harm reduction, though we are nowhere near as good at it as the folks in Portugal or Switzerland, everyone has at least one gay best friend, and aren't we all ready to just throw up right now? On the other hand, we have the rise of the alt right, the dark web, populist morons hungry for power and fueled and propped up by hordes of angry, frightened and ignorant citizens in countries all over the world, while our planet is nearing its shelf life and we are just on the cusp of massive environmental collapse, while there is an unprecedented rise in hate crimes against homosexuals and trans people, Jews, Muslims, people of colour, and anyone else whom dumb and fearful right wing mouthbreathers typically love to hate. Are you done hurling yet, my little ducks? Those are the two sides, the two faces of this lovely global construct we are all living in. And unfettered capitalism, rather than saving the day, has simply done more to destroy the environment, while making the rich richer and the poor poorer. Except, and here is one little ray of good news, that the poor are not quite so desperately poor as they were, say, forty years ago. But we still have nothing to crow about, with plenty of global and climate instability and now something like, 70.8 million refugees throughout the world (thanks, Uncle Google!) It's all getting better. And it's all getting worse. It really has become a crapshoot, and never have the stakes been higher. I can't exactly complain, by the way. I really cannot think of a time in my life when I've had it this good. Following a rather sound sleep with fascinating dreams about Colombians, I am sitting here in my little subsidized apartment enjoying the first touches of golden light splashing on the buildings across the way, while sipping a cup of Cuban dark roast coffee, and soon I will be having breakfast, likely a cheese omelette, with whole grain bread and peanut butter and jam. It is a quiet early summer morning, not yet 6 am. But for my pesky sneezing allergies, I am enjoying good health. I have friends, I have a church community, I have meaningful work, and much as I love to complain about the crappy pay, with good financial stewardship, this coming winter I will be returning to Costa Rica, for a month, and also with the likelihood of side trips to Colombia and Mexico. I really don't want for anything, though a higher wage would be helpful for cushioning things a bit, but my rent is scandalously low, because it's subsidized, and, as a senior, it is now even lower. I could go on, but I don't want to bore you. Back to this thing about history and progress. It really is going to be anyone's guess how things are going to turn out. Humanity appears to be weltering under the grip of one vast collective paroxysm of fear, and this is really making our day difficult. I do not have a crystal ball, and I cannot foretell the future. I only can say that more of us have really got to start working better with what we have, and to really stop hating and fearing each other This goes for our neighbourhoods, our cities, our country, the world. But it's not going to all happen in one rousing chorus of Kumbaya. I cannot think of a time, since the Second World War, where it will have become so incumbent on so many to work and think so much harder and pull together and work together so much harder, and to really start facing down our fear and the imaginary threats that fuel our fears and simply learn to stop hating, to start caring for others, to stop othering others, and I only wish this was going to happen, but it isn't. We have never been this polarised, even here in Canada with people being more scared of losing their jobs than cleaning up the environment. Nobody is going to suffer from mass unemployment should our political leaders actually get religion and switch overnight to green renewable technologies, and really this is going to have to happen overnight, because we have maybe ten years left before it all goes Kablooie. Sad, that so many are still caving to the fearmongering and lies from Big Oil and other beasts. But right now, I am privileged to think and write all this down as this new day begins and as one more time we search for (and might even find!) even the faintest excuse for hope. Now I am going to have breakfast.