MISCmedia by Clark Humphrey » Blog Archive SOME RANDOM THOTS FOR TWENTY-OUGHT-SIX

»
S
I
D
E
B
A
R
«

SOME RANDOM THOTS FOR TWENTY-OUGHT-SIX

January 2nd, 2006 by Clark Humphrey

1. Thank goodness for Saturday banking.For various reasons I won’t elaborate here, I was out of cash on NYE afternoon and didn’t have a debit card. But the Washington Mutual branch in the Harvard Market complex was open until 4. Hence, I was able to attain my required potluck-dinner contributions.
2. Be careful what you wish for.With a little time to kill between the bank’s closing and the potluck’s start, I found myself at one of the Pike/Pine Corridor’s newly smokeless bars. Among the few patrons was a local guy who’d moved to New York three years ago to pursue an acting career. He admitted to having been one of those Capitol Hillers who’d snootily despised everything about Seattle that wasn’t sufficiently New York-esque. “I used to hate the way Seattle drivers were so timid and cautious when I lived here. Then on my first day back, I was walking across the street and almost got sideswipedâ€¦ Something’s definitely different about Seattle these days.”
3. Am I getting old or what?The potluck took place in a beautifully restored duplex on east Capitol Hill overlooking the Arboretum. The other guests included musicians, painters, arts promoters, grad students, and public-school teachers.
In prior years, this gang’s range of conversation topics would have included aesthetic theory, global politics, unfair state budget cuts, and whether the local economy would become any less pathetic in the coming year.

This time, the group (including myself) was pretty much obsessed with such more mundane subject matter as real estate investment, career schmoozing, and the best private schools to ship their own kids to.

When I was a young adult in the 1980s, I’d scoffed at the characters in the movie The Big Chill as examples of what I would never, ever become. Am I becoming more like that anyway?
4. New Year’s resolution number one: Don’t become a Big Chill person.
5. New Year’s resolution number two: Be kind to Big Chill people.The coming year might, just might mind you, bring a long-overdue opportunity for political change in this nation. If it’s to occur, it’ll have to be from the ground up, not from the politicians down. That means we’ve got to build an all-inclusive popular movement. And that means we left-O-center types have got to reach out to the widest possible swath of potential compatriots. And THAT means sacrificing one’s own sense of subcultural superiority.
In other words, treat people who are different from you as your equals. Yes, I mean “those” people too.

Even people who watch television, drive cars, and eat meat.

Even straight white males.

Even football fans.

Even people who live in less funky neighborhoods.

Even people who don’t want to have sex with you.

Even your co-workers.

Even timid drivers.

Even people who like to talk about real estate at New Year’s parties.

I don’t say it’ll be easy, just necessary.
6. Expect a lot of strangeness in the coming year.The path of history isn’t always linear. There are reverses, backlashes, and unexpected developments out of nowhere. Twenty-ought-six might be one of those turning-point times. This nation’s long march toward censorship, bigotry, war, greed, and inequality could get at least partly turned around.
But even if that happens, it might not be pretty.

Many innocent people could be caught up in political and corporate scandals. More soldiers and civilians will die in meaningless wars. Whole sectors of the economy could get wrenched, particularly if oil prices go back up or if the so-called housing “bubble” goes boom.

But you know the old curse, “May you live in interesting times.”