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Sunday, August 20, 2017

Perspective?

Scott Adams,  the creator of Dilbert, the comic strip.. (That I am really not familiar with) has posted a theory that deserves attention. 

 http://blog.dilbert.com/post/164297628606/how-to-know-youre-in-a-mass-hysteria-bubble
 (Please copy and paste to see this)

Whatever a 'mass hysteria bubble' is, and I'm not totally clear about this.. Certainly, there's something odd happening in the United States and in the world that has the capacity to create hysteria. Having just sat through Kathryn Bigelow's film DETROIT, witnessing what mob violence can do. What prejudice can do. What being out of control can do. What hysteria does to us and is doing, is frightening.  

The first analogy that comes to mind is seeing someone you know and love who is drunk. Drunk with power? Drunk on alcohol. Tripping on drugs? Crazy in Love?  They (or we?) do not behave the same way when not under the influence.  Even if our friend knows that he/she is 'out of it,' their behavior is different from when they are "with it."  What Adams seems to be saying is that the world may be in this 'bubble of hysteria' or maybe only some of us who are deeply affected by the events that are currently unfolding in the world today, coupled with the incredible blow dealt to the USA when this president was elected last November.  

On that horrible night, November 9, 2016, I huddled with a few dozen folks I had never met in a church in Pasadena. It was clear that the world was about to change radically.  Radically.  It was a wake. It was a memorial. It was a way to be with human beings who felt as I did.  Adams posits that when within this 'bubble' it's difficult to think straight. Like being drunk or stoned, our behavior is wonky.  At least a different type of 'wonky' from how we behave when not under the influence.   Making decisions when under the influence (getting a tattoo or even married?) may be a mistake.  

That said, I hope that reasonable folks who are under the influence of the eclipse, the times, a bad president or gout or indigestion or mourning the state of the world, will take a step back from radical and hysterical ideas... not to lose them, but to just put them into perspective?   Is that tramp stamp really what you want to live with for the rest of your life?  The drunk who hands over the keys is, at least, somehow smart enough to save his own life and maybe the lives of others.

Just sayin'...  

michael sheehan
August 20, 2017

Today may be Connie Swanson's birthday. 
Happy Day, Connie.

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