THE GOBLIN NEWSLETTER 78
Added 2024-09-11 16:51:24 +0000 UTCPart of my rules for writing THE GOBLIN NEWSLETTER is to not write about current events, mostly because there are millions of people commenting on whatever is to the fore during the day. I watched a commencement address given by documentary maker Ken Burns that was great until he started to talk about how this election is an existential threat to the country. The election is a symptom of how screwy this country is, it’s not the be all & end all, it’s a pinch point. Because of my decision to not commentate, I’m not engaging in the click-bait of the news du jour. I feel like these topics are designed to keep people in a binary trap. This was very apparent to me while watching the debate between Harris & Trump. I feel gross even bringing their names in here, but it’s important for what I have to say. The day to day work of politicians is slow, inefficient & unromantic. Politics is dirty work, involves shaking a lot of hands (frequently with people you’d rather not shake hands with) & slowly pushing lots of balls forward & not letting other balls fall too far behind. You have to please your constituency & watch your back. Then when it’s election time you need to transform into a salesman & sell the public on the future (which no one knows) & how you are going to make that future good, better than the past, especially the recent past. It’s an unavoidable side effect of Democracy, the only way to improve it is to have a better informed, more educated, wise electorate. It was a lot less complicated when I was content to be in my bubble, cushioned by alcohol & able to say “fuck it.” But now I feel this responsibility to push the balls forward myself.
