History Teaches Us

Smalltown, America.  A pretty place.  People who live here don't want it to change much.  If they are comfortable and not on the outskirts looking in.  If they are alcoholics instead of crack addicts.  If they haven't just moved here and don't have their eye on getting rich through new development.

The world prepares for war.  Don't kid yourselves otherwise.  It is true.  It seems to want it very badly.  Many already have it.  The rest seem desirous, even in our own country.  If you are smart, you will prepare for it.  The haves think things will get better rather than worse.

Ideologues on both sides are going to get their asses kicked until all the smugness is gone.  There will not be trophies for everybody.  One side will win.  Victors will write the history.

It remains to be seen.

In the meantime. . . enjoy.

Had dinner and drinks last night, craft beers and bison burgers with eggs on top.  Walked about with my little Leica which I am learning to love.  It is a fantastic thing with which to walk around.  You don't even need to take pictures.  Just having the thing. . . you know?  It is bling of a higher order.  It is fetish to the nth degree.  It makes you want to be more. . . you know?  It is a symbol of a creative impulse, an outward sign of artistic desire.

You know what I am saying.  I'm a bit of a fop.  Remember the pen I wanted?  The Mount Blanc Meisterstuck Rollerball?  Guess which pen Trump is using to sign all of his hideous decrees?  That's right.

Great minds think alike.

Before the Great War comes, I am going out to see the end of the world.  Heading to a spring today to see the alligators and the manatees.  It is not a contest--just nature.  Afterwards we will go to another little town and have a good Mexican lunch, and then we will go to the art museum there.  It is a good one.  And Ili wants to buy more records at the record shop there.  Last night after dinner we went into a record store where she bought Santana's first album.  She is enjoying the record player I bought her for Christmas.

There are more trips coming up as well.  We must see what we can before the doom.  We are not One Percenters, but we are in many ways members of the privileged elite.  I mean, we will survive a 20% Mexican import tax.  We will still eat avocados.  But the other stuff. . . nobody will survive that.

Everything I read recognizes how radically unstable and stupid Trump is.  That is not all that is out there, though.  Trumpettes are excited about his first week in office.  They speak a different language.

Fortunately I know the language having grown up with it.  I will maneuver as best I can among the throng.  Like Balzac, I will design escape routes everywhere I go.  Like Balzac, too, I know they will be coming for me.  I will wear a disguise because I know that in the end, no one will try to save me.  Disguise and escape are the only options now.  History teaches us what will happen to the brave.