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Jan. 30th, 2020
From Both Sides Now
Jan. 30th, 2020 08:50 amMy political approach comes from Robert Anton Wilson: The Right says cruel vicious things about the State; the Left says cruel vicious things about banking and big business; both are essentially correct.
That belief remains unshaken, but I fear that a similar approach is required for populism and elitism. Of course, those who remain Left Populists after Brexit and Trump are demonstrating a heroic ability to rise above mere fact, but consider that San Francisco, the technological elite’s City on a Hill (or many hills) has decayed to the point where people are crapping in the streets. (Somewhere V.S. Naipaul is chuckling.)
I suppose I must mention an alternative theory: Another thing San Francisco is famous for is acceptance of a great variety of sexual orientations, and some say their god is punishing them for it. But that, to cite Wilson again, requires believing that the entire Universe was designed and built by something so mean and petty you wouldn’t trust it to put together an outhouse.
That belief remains unshaken, but I fear that a similar approach is required for populism and elitism. Of course, those who remain Left Populists after Brexit and Trump are demonstrating a heroic ability to rise above mere fact, but consider that San Francisco, the technological elite’s City on a Hill (or many hills) has decayed to the point where people are crapping in the streets. (Somewhere V.S. Naipaul is chuckling.)
I suppose I must mention an alternative theory: Another thing San Francisco is famous for is acceptance of a great variety of sexual orientations, and some say their god is punishing them for it. But that, to cite Wilson again, requires believing that the entire Universe was designed and built by something so mean and petty you wouldn’t trust it to put together an outhouse.