Merry Xmas, Wafers-
With New Year's just around the corner, it's time to take stock of how blessed we Wafers really are. If you didn't see that post of the link to videos of the frenzy and fist-fights over the release of a new pair of sneakers, now would be a good time to view and contemplate them.
These are your neighbors! Can you imagine living like that? And what future does a nation have in which personal identity hangs on footwear? Can you imagine the scenario that will ensue--and it will, mes enfants, don't doubt it for a moment--when the system breaks down, and there's no food or water? During the Fukushima disaster in Japan 2.5 years ago, 40 workers were trapped in a freezing basement overnight with only a single cup of ramen to go around, and they quietly sat there, each person taking only a spoonful for him- or herself, no muss/no fuss. Can you imagine Americans behaving that way? What portends for a nation whose citizens have no sense of individual dignity? It ain't gonna be pretty, amigos; of that you can be sure.
When I was in New York last month, I had breakfast one day with a colleague in the publishing industry, a very successful and respected guy, and we were talking about the "progressives" and their insistence that positive radical change, or even revolution, was possible in America. My friend just laughed. "All the government would have to do to take the steam out of it is provide everyone with a few more cable channels," he said. Or expensive sneakers, I might add. The truth is that no political program can give the citizenry a sense of personal worth; and if the latter depends on sneakers, then the program can only wind up in a strange and unhappy place. As NMI's, Wafers do what they can; but they are also a bit philosophical about it all: historically speaking, it's America's turn to decline, and foot fetishism is just a symptom of this process. That civilizations rise and fall is the way of the world, end of story.
But amidst the ruins, there is only this, for those who are interested: love and truth. I wish all Wafers a large dose of both in 2014. Merry Xmas!
mb
