Overload

I spent a month organizing and advertising a presentation by Colombian social leader Yaneth Perez here in my little community. Eight people showed up. In my introduction I was on the verge of exploding into a rant on the pathetic nature of our society (fortunately ,I held back) and I left angry and embarrassed that she had travelled so far, risked so much, expended so much energy to try to reach us and ask for some help. At the end of the talk I sat down next to my friend Julie and noticed she was crying. She said "what is going on in the world?"

Now as I reflect on this I remember my own analysis, that we are indeed pathetic but we are collectively traumatized to a point which has not yet been adequately explained. We are now in the middle of our own Clockwork Orange and people have retreated to their televisions. Even our "anti-war" protests are pathetic.The War , the school shootings, global warming, the violence in Africa, Colombia, the only logical and human reaction is Julies. We should all be crying. Or we could watch Survivor, Deal or No Deal, The Apprentice perhaps, or American Idol.

There was a meeting in Wyoming yesterday to discuss the "de-listing" of wolves from the Endagered Species List. The news described it as "raucus" and I can imagine the cowboy hats and the collective ire aimed at this reviled creature which eats their cows and the Federal government which tries to protect it. I know if I really wanted to put together a "raucus" crowd here in this little town I would need to put on a Monster Truck rally with country western singers with large breasts. Some Spectacle with no meaning, no social or political import, something which better exploits the shift in the structure of experience, the hollow facade through which we grope each day. 113 killed in Mogadishu yesterday. Perhaps a tent Revival?