House of Eratosthenes

I submit that our society is going through a bit of frustration here, frustration that goes beyond the obvious conflict. It is losing a crucial distinction between what one might call “doing a something” versus “doing a nothing.”

If you hold a parade, you’re doing a something. If you’re making sure every parade is X, what you’re really doing is — this is a simple rephrasing, nothing more, no logical revision to it — making sure there are no parades that are not X. It’s a cleanup job. Inherently negative. You’re not provisioning something, like the grand marshals of the olden days; what you’re doing is taking something away.

As Boston Mayor Marty Walsh said,

I’m disappointed that this year, I will be unable to participate in the parade. As mayor of the city of Boston, I have to do my best to ensure that all Bostonians are free to participate fully in the civic life of our city. Unfortunately, this year, the parties were not able to come to an understanding that would have made that possible.

He represents a sizable movement here, and the movement doesn’t have anything to do with rights or any sort of equality. It doesn’t have to do with “tolerance”; saying so is just silly. The movement reminds us of its existence by continually refusing to tolerate things. Think of the legacy. A hundred years from now, what can we say Marty Walsh did? Take part in a parade? No. The intended legacy is “He never supported such-and-such that would have excluded so-and-so.” He-never. A negative legacy. The distinction being called out here is between a go and a stop. The thing with the gay parade is a stop.

You look for legacy-opportunities like this one month in, month out, year after year…pretty soon, it adds up to a real stretch of time, during which you’re living out your limited lifespan as a non-person, not doing things. Timidly. Some of us abhor the very idea. Others welcome it.

But, I think on some level it is incongruent with the hard-wiring within us all. I think this makes people frustrated and hungry. There is the aspect of spiritual starvation, but on top of that, there is a secular way to be starved. I think people, conservatives and liberals alike, along with anarchists, libertarians, vegetarians, feminists, MGTOWs, anti-war protesters and greenies — all have an innate need to feel like they’re accomplishing something. Squeaking on through, from one date on the tombstone to the other without contaminating anything, is not enough. We have an instinctive drive to change the state of something. We don’t want to hide the fact that we were here. We want our presence to be recorded in some way, even if our chosen ideological pursuits demand otherwise.

It has not escaped my notice that those who believe humans are a contaminant, and make all sorts of demands of themselves and others that have to do with this “leave no imprint” mania, are not soothed by their victories. The more they win, the more frustrated they become.

The goals they have for the next victory, after a time, all seem to start with that word “every.” Classic OCD cases. They’re never done washing their hands.

“They’re never done washing their hands.” Really?
They’re never done marking “their” territory, by vandalizing it.
Dog in the Manger.
Scorched earth.
The Borg
- CaptDMO | 03/19/2014 @ 07:46
“…all have an innate need to feel like they’re accomplishing something.”
That reminds me of a study several years ago that compared “giving” between political ideologies. (Pre-‘Bam) Repeatedly, the study showed that those who identified as “conservative” gave between 10 and 25 percent of their annual earnings away. Those who identified as “liberal” in the same wage bracket gave an average of between 0 and 4 percent of their annual earnings. However, in follow up questionnaires, both groups “felt” they gave equal amounts, even when showed the obvious monetary discrepancies. Liberals claimed that the time and effort they gave in protesting, politicizing, “community organizing”, and other forms of basically making everybody miserable was morally and effectually equivalent to giving away 10 to 20 percent of one’s paycheck.
- P_Ang | 03/21/2014 @ 14:38

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Every ParadeTuesday, March 18th, 2014

Every Parade
Tuesday, March 18th, 2014