Silly Walking in Alameda

I don't know if I need to repeat it, but we are living in quite uncertain times. Anxiety is running high due to dropping stock valuations, high unemployment, and the people dying part. We entered this crisis already in an age where the structure of our society was causing a rapid rise in the diseases of modernity; anxiety, depression, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, suicide. We as a people, entering a pandemic in this state, would be akin to a national government entering a recession with already low interest rates and massive budget deficits because it refused to pay off debt and manage its budgets when times were good. 

Shit.

And you might ask why Congress, with average ages of 57.8 years in the House and 61.8 years in the Senate, isn’t more concerned about the long term financial health of the nation. For a quick detour, here are all of the congresspeople who were born prior to 1940: Don Young (lol)(born 1933), Eddie Bernice Johnson (1935), Grace Napolitano (1936), Alcee Hastings (1936), Hal Rogers (1937), Bill Pascrell (1937), Nita Lowey (1937), Maxine Waters (1938), and Steny Hoyer (1939). That is a lot of people in the high-risk group for coronavirus.

When I was young, I was taught that the Democrats were the party of high taxes and large spending on programs and the Republicans were the party of low taxes and small government. I quickly learned that was bull. The Democrats only care about their programs and the Republicans only care about cutting taxes and they usually both get what they want. Our government works like a couple where one spouse is in charge of buying all the goods for the family and the other is in charge of working to make money, but the first spouse has expensive tastes and the second has no valuable skills and is kind of lazy.

So what do we need to do to resolve this issue of having a government incapable of planning for the future, who can’t even balance a budget when the economy is roaring? Well I say, Monty Python. We live in an absurd, surreal world and the only way to deal with that is with the absurdist humor of this ridiculous group of humans.

Wandering around Encinal Market I saw this flyer tacked to a post a few weeks ago.

And a few days later found the epicenter at a house just south of the bridge.

So thank you kind stranger for trying to remind us all that we live in a stupid world full of absolute absurdity. There are things we all can and should do every day to improve our lives, the lives of those around us, and to push our governments toward responsible policy, but sometimes the best thing you can do is silly walk, return a dead parrot, or pay for an argument.

Also, RIP Terry Jones.