Marxist Lawn Mowing
A couple of nights ago, I was mowing the grass — well, to be honest, the weeds that make up what we call our "lawn" — and thinking, as I often do. The steady noise of the lawnmower, plus the focus on repititive physical activity seems to create something approaching a meditative state for me. I've solved some interesting and challenging puzzles while mowing, and mentally written some stories.
I'd planned to mow the lawn anyway. The weather had suddenly become very pleasant, a rather abrupt change from the notably hot and icky summer we'd been having. And my schedule and social activities were such through this long weekend that I'd better do the mowing Saturday evening, because there would be no other time, practically speaking.
But what really prodded me into action was this: at 5pm our power went off. Clear blue skies, no clouds, no wind, no visible excuse for it. It just went off. I was thinking maybe it was a sympathetic outage in honor of New Orleans. Whatever. Nevertheless, it was an end to blogging for the moment and I set out to do the mowing.+
I think my mood for this mowing event was somewhat on the gloomy side. Partway through I was struck by the thought that my gas-powered lawnmower, which I bought just two years ago, would probably last longer than the world's supply of the oil that made the gasoline that it consumed. It was a profoundly sobering thought.
Between wondering about the End of Gasoline Lawnmowers and when our power might come back on, worrying over what seemed like the near breakdown of civil society in disaster-stricken Louisiana and the piss-poor response of a government that refused to serve its people, I felt like we — that is, the American We — were suddenly living in a third-world country.
Like I said, I think it was a lawnmowing episode on the gloomy side.
I did have one Eureka! moment. I remebered well that the current President during the last election — can you believe that was less than 12 months ago? How time flies when the economy is forever turning a corner and the people in power are so corrupt that they are the source of endlessly diverting headline and scandals — through the voice of the Vice-President, vowed that if We The People dared to elect the evil Democratic Candidate, we would be less safe. Guaranteed! I was trying to think of something that Kerry would do that would make the survivors of Hurrican Katrina feel any less safe. The best I could come up with: Kerry probably would have let disaster relief distract him from the vital business of government and taken his eyes off the all-important vote to repeal the estate tax this coming week, thus undermining freedom and democracy and making us all feel less safe somehow.
Well, the implication is that we are, therefore, more safe than we were — we've been told frequently enough that we're profoundly safer thanks to the active attentions of our dear leader. See? No terrorist attacks lately!*
So I was pondering, how is it that we are safer today but that I still feel less safe. Easy! It's just like the way average wages in America are rising. Recall: for the vast majority of workers, real income has fallen since 2000, but for a select and deserving few income has increased so much that the average has gone up.
Well, suppose that you're one of those deserving few, reaping the benefits of the fine, attentive government that you bought with your hard-earned money. What to do with the windfall from all those new tax cuts? Answer: invest in personal and estate security systems, of course. Then, even though the vast majority of us face more security issues today than in 2000, nevertheless average security has increased. Voilà!
As I said, this was a somewhat gloomy lawn mowing episode.
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+Since I never get back to it in this narrative: the power came back on Sunday morning at 2:30 am, for a total of 9.5 hours without.
*I'm reminded of that stupid childhood joke about the remarkable elephant repellant. How can you tell it's working? Seen any elephants lately?
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on Friday, 1 September 2006 at 10.45
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Very good reading. Peace until next time.
WaltDe