Categories
Life

Paradigms

From the Space Needle in Seattle photo by the author

A paradigm (pronounced pair-a-dime) is a framework used to operate something, be it a club, website, club, or society. As it happens, a free society changes its paradigms roughly every eighty years. Look it up, and you’ll see many people claiming loudly that the cyclical theory of history has been debunked. In the 1950s, the theory of plate Techtonics was said by many to be debunked. Too bad for those guys, that theory predicts so well how the world is and will be that it is now accepted as correct. Amongst historians, cyclical theory is right where plate Techtonics was in 1955. And cyclical theory predicts general trends amazingly well. Trends such as the recent surge in hard-core conservatism (which happens at regular intervals) and the general zeitgeist of each succeeding generation. There is a book that explains it all: Generations: Howe, Neil: 9780688119126: Amazon.com: Books

Read that first if you must, but since you’re here, why not just go on? This is short, I promise.

Consider prior to the 1930s, when consumerism was considered crass, and people were afraid of plastics. Then came the Great Depression, and WWII, and now darned if people didn’t embrace consumerism is a manner that is, frankly, sort of embarrassing. The so-called Silent Generation, the one just before the Baby Boomers, was all over criticizing their elders over consumerist habits, the Red Scare, and other things. But, that was the paradigm of the age, and it worked. The biggest boom in prosperity in the history of the world ensued. But just as the paradigm that consumerism replaced was becoming increasingly dysfunctional, the paradigms we have been living in are no longer working well, and the resulting zeitgeist is one of, well, you’re living in it, you tell me your words for it. It’s not fun.

Oddly, every time the basic attitudes and structures of society need rearranged, they at least partially are, to the extent that people will put up with the changes, anyway. But to do that, there are always distractors. The Great Depression and World War Two kept everyone’s attention off of the structural changes in society, such as unbelievable levels of choice for consumers (do we need all that?), increased automation and mechanization, standardization of foods, housing, transportation and other aspects of society, and others I’m sure you could list if you want to. Those things were, believe it or not, not always popular prior to those mid-century crises, but they have been incredibly popular since. Ever drive on an Interstate? Nice roads, huh? And, of course, societal attitudes toward minorities and poor people have moved away from where they were just after that war. Some cities are doing what they can to ameliorate the damage caused by an Interstate Highway through historically thriving neighborhoods of minority people, for instance. There is a reason that those who cling to the “good old days” are unhappy today. Of course they are, and you would be too if you were in their exact place. But you’re most likely not, because the world is, as always changing, and the way society holds together must change with it.

So, our country will look and sound different in another decade or so. And everybody will either be actually happy about that, pretend to be happy about that, or be dismissed as an old grouch. I know because that’s how it always goes. You should have heard what some people were still saying about FDR in the 50s! But, the change will happen, and a new era of, well new eraness will begin. And, get this, immediately following the resolution of the current crises that distract us, the next generation equivalent to the Boomers will start being born. Bet you’re really looking forward to that, huh?

Categories
Life

Life

And Other Things

The fire was a few days after this was taken. Notice the infamous scaffolding. (The cause was determined to be an electrical problem.)

I took that picture from the street in front of Shakespeare and Company, one of my favorite bookstores. Rooms follow rooms, and it is an American book store, which is a bit of a nice relaxing thing for an American tourist. Now, on the 11th of April this year, in 20 days in fact, I will fly out of Las Vegas and, with a stop at LAX, to Paris, from which I will take a train to Poitiers (the town where the famous Eleanor of Aquitaine literally held court,) from which I will drive my rented car to Lizant, where we will have, as of March 29th, a second home. If you want more details, see Follow Me to France on this very blog. By the way (BTW if you insist) the region is now known officially as Nouvelle Aquitaine, or New Aquitaine. France feels the need to rearrange internal political boundaries every so often.

I was getting rather nervous about the whole thing. After all, I do speak French now, maybe at a level B1, somewhere around there, which is okay if things don’t get too technical, but not okay for banking, dealing with tradesmen, or for that matter talking on the phone. We want to make some modifications on our house, so I must see the Maire (just pronounce it, it isn’t difficult) and get official permission from the Commune (relax, that name goes back to Napoleon and means “municipality.”) Hot damn. And then there’s the issue of hiring tradespeople to do the work, or at least most of it, because I am, as my son will point out, older than dirt. And lazy. They don’t all speak English, and I don’t know if the Maire does either, although the sheer numbers of anglophones in the area suggests that he might have to. Not everybody is so happy about learning a new language as myself. (If I live in France, I speak French; sil je habite en France, je parle français.) Also, I have to arrange for all utilities to be in our name, get cable and Internet, buy a frigging TV, and a printer for our computers, plus some cookware and other stuff. And the sellers, bless them, are leaving most of the furniture, but not the living room set, so there’s that, and well, that’s a lot of stuff to do five-thousand miles from home, it seems to me. (There are some serious modifications to the building in store, too.)

So, I was getting nervous. Then I read a Facebook post from my friend Leslie, who is one of the Oddgodfrey’s from whom I regularly repost blog items. They are in year seven, maybe eight by now, of a planned five-year circumnavigation in their 40-goot sailboat, the SV Sonrisa, which is a great name for a boat. It makes me smile to think about it. (It means “smile” in Spanish.) Unfortunately, I can’t repost it here, but the essence of it is that they had a meal in a South African restaurant that she described as “maybe the best I’ve ever had.” Yes! If you want to have lived before you die, you’ve got to get out there and do it. There’s a saying I learned from the Oddgodfreys about boats: A boat is safe in port, but that’s not what a boat is for.

By the same token, you won’t get too many surprises or difficulties if you stay home, but you’ll probably never find the “best meal of your life” either. Living life means getting out there into where life is lived, which isn’t at home for most of us these days. I mean, what’s gonna happen? I’ll need to type into Google Translate to be understood? Heck, I’ve been there before, and it wasn’t at all dangerous. Hey, I’m going on an adventure! And I think everyone should. If it’s okay to say YOLO before doing something arguably stupid and silly, why not apply that philosophy to bigger things? Pack up and move to Tibet, if that’s what you want to do. I’m sure it will scare you, but that great experience is just champing* at the bit waiting for you to show up!

*Yes, it’s ‘champing’ not ‘chomping.’ It’s a horse thing.