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So this is what things have come to: at top US administration level we are bluntly referred to as Europe's leading drug country, with the front page of Het Parool on 6 February returning the compliment by stating that these are times where "a large part of the world considers the United States as an evil nation rather than a king-size country". Don't ask me who started this argument, for that particular tug-of-war arguably gets you even less far, but if you too are wondering whether I can still see light at the end of the tunnel, my answer is a resounding yes. If you take into consideration that even the most turbulent and seemingly indiscriminate processes are exquisitely well-ordered at statistical level - sufficiently so as to render the word chaos obsolete if we're not careful - it can only be regarded as a precondition for experiencing maximum bliss that one should also have wallowed in the mire, again and again from exactly the same perspective. This insight took me a while to digest - and that's exactly the trouble with thinking: it's something one does for fun. Problems are things that one thrashes out. Thinking by contrast is the Nouvelle Cuisine of leisure, after art. Problems shouldn't be thought about too long - they should be fixed. A little thinking in between doesn't do any harm, thinking being the spice of life and all that, but there comes a time when one simply has to act. And one thing we need like a hole in the head is for thinkers to avoid Action as if it were a chore. Of course it is just that, and that's the whole point: who needs it? This is something that seems to have faded into the background lately. The general public are evidently having to reappreciate that representing them has much more to do with hard graft than it does with any sort of privilege. Of course it's perfectly alright to voice an opinion on emissaries who consistently fail to get you anywhere, but examples abound of thriving dramatic culture - with or without extras - without this phenomenon, so where does one draw the line? In all honesty I think I'll think some more. I have to, for I can't stop myself. |