Awaiting the distraction:
I’m not superstitious. But I’m not stupid either. All right, I can’t prove either of those. In fact I confess that superstitious ideation does enter my mind, reject it though I do as best I can. But I thought you might find this one funny.
Many years ago, and I’m sure I’ve spun the yarn before, I was invited to present my thoughts on what the next big issue facing America was, to some people who had the power to do something about it. You can imagine what my suggestion was going to be. But when I presented myself, the meeting had been canceled. The World Trade Center tragedy had occurred and the agenda was fixed already.
Then a couple of years ago I was happily engaged in working on this web log. It had started out with almost no interest, but that changed. More people were coming to have a look see. In fact growth was more than exponential. I was beginning to think that the issue would actually get noticed. Then came the “Arab Spring.” Governments were toppling at a great rate in the Muslim world. I was not quite sure whether this was good – that democracy and freedom and tolerance were sweeping the world as the main stream media were telling us – or whether this was an expression of extreme and intolerant religious views from which we had been shielded by the odious regimes we were used to. I am now pretty sure it’s business as usual; it’s just tribalism, one group hating another to the point of barbarity. At all events, the process then was accelerating and quite understandably people were drifting away from my very abstract thoughts to far more camera friendly violence. By now that acceleration seems to be over, but you never just go back to where you were.
So now a paper has been published. The gauntlet has been dropped. Will anybody pick it up? Will anybody care? A snide voice in my head says no, there will be another shakeup of historic importance. You will remain in the shadows. I hope not. Historic things generally are not good news.
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