The South Looks Like a Moveable Feast

The world is hellish.  It is best not to think about it.  Santorum won primaries in the southern states last night.  What's his platform based on?  Evil stupidity.  Read your Faulkner.  He didn't make that stuff up. It is real.  And there isn't much defense against it.  That's why Faulkner was a drunk.  O.K.  That's a supposition.  But it is a logical defense.

I want to think it is just "the south."  It is not that you can't enjoy it from afar, can't get a kick out of its provincial ways, its shitty food and consequent obesity.  Even the ignorance is funny if you don't live in it.  Boss Hogg is alive and well, of course, and Smokey and the Bandit was hardly a joke even if a few of you laughed.  Some of you who live in bellwether cities and who know some educated and sensible people will object, I imagine.  Your friends aren't NASCAR addicts, don't live for professional wrestling, and have sensible tastes in wine.  You may even have a bookstore and a small theater that shows "films" rather than movies in your town.  But you know what I mean.  Insulate yourselves from the hideousness all you want--it is there.

However, this is just an hors d'oeuvres on a global scale.  In Iraq, police are killing "Emos."  That is what they call anyone who looks too western, has longish hair or tight clothing, who wears t-shirts with emblems of any sort, listens to western music, etc.  Well, somebody is killing them, and it is assumed to be the police.  What the police admit to doing is arresting anyone who is Emo and doing whatever it is they do to scare them straight.  They are called "morality police."  It is considered a good thing.  If only they liked NASCAR.  The American south looks like an educational mecca if you live in Iraq.  And Fundamentalism is just that no matter where you are.

In China, they have passed a law that allows the government to keep anyone they want in secret jails for up to six months.  "What happened to Xi," a mother might ask.  The only answer she will get is "the cold twinkling of a distant star."  They are provided with a pretty strong liberal arts education in China, too.

Iran.  Whatever.  Makes Russia looks like a safe house.  Kenya.  Somali. The list isn't just long.  It is ubiquitous.

I don't know what I'm saying here, really.  Probably never do.  I'm just frustrated this morning.  I have a little voice in my head that keeps yelling, "Run away.  Run away."  But when I ask, "Where," I get this.  Perhaps I should have married a rich girl when I had the chance.