Into the red
Things come in lumps. I think everyone’s experienced this. Of course, it’s more a psychological phenomenon than a material one, but no matter. You become aware of some topic, and suddenly it’s everywhere! It’s great when it’s things like awesome dogs or complexity or cryptography or something else really cool. But the interesting thing about this little psychological phenomenon is that - it appears to me - you don’t consciously choose this topic that then innundates your life for a short while.
So, let me get to the point. I’ve lately felt swamped by statism. I seem to run into it at every turn. First, I see V for Vendetta. I really let myself mentally walk on the streets of a nation like that, and it was terrible, even though I knew the good guy would win. The whole prospect that America had totally disintegrated in 20 years, Britain was a statist state, etc. just depressed the hell out of me, because I know that it’s possible, that this isn’t Hollywood hype. It’s already happened, many times over in the history of the world, and the slow slide towards it again is evident to me.
I go to see the Rach 3, and the program has this long article on Shostakovich and his two-faced communist-artist ways. Disconcerting, but interesting. I start reading We the Living, and I know it’s a tragedy. What an ugly society, and Kira’s so beautiful, and I just know it’s going to wreck me in the end, because I hate when the good guy dies.
And now I’m headed to China. I’ve been looking forward to this since last summer, and I am somewhat excited, but in between all the sights and sounds and conversation, part of my mind will be on a kind of recon mission - I’ll be in a communist country, something completely foreign to me, and hostile to basic principles I hold. How will it be? What’s different? How do they juggle the contradictions they have? What are the people like? What’s the business like? How do they sell their ideas to the people? Will I even notice anything at all?
Plus I’m doing taxes.
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