Written decades ago, but even more applicable today.
I’m about to purchase yet another piece of whiz bang, bell and whistle rich, “creative writing” software. I need this about as much as I need another pack of Class A Filter-Tip American Cigarettes. As much as I need another hardcover- hot off the press- book concerning the hyper-partisanship of contemporary American politics.
Thinking again, I may find the software a timely and necessary get if my goal is to continue to web post about the why and what for of a poison and provincial politic. To but catalogue the ups and downs of this or that team, or the rise and fall of this or that player, or the plus and minus of the policy de jure, feels a bit like that most sure of political anachronism–the “smoke filled room.”
What was once wrought by the huff and puff of those few boys in the back room, is now made myth by the “Note” and “Tweet”, and tiny url. By b-roll and flip video, viral lie, or willful ignorance. By the clear channel boom of uncontested three hour talk, and the show ponies of long gams, deep cleavage, and grudges that go on forever.
No simple tally of OMB or CBO can add up to counter the clamor and glamor of those so aggrieved. Any reading of history, any honest try at recalling, even, recent institutional memory, is insufficient to counter the tribal claim of principal. That all one needs to understand the myriad complexities of a global political superpower in an ever changing world, is a rock solid believe in shared superstitions and the common sense one is born with.
Love as the why of a lap dance is more logical.
So when facts don’t matter, fiction trumps truth. It’s narrative versus narrative now. A dangerous place to be. I best go get that “creative writing” software.
