Today I had to head out for a work training that I wasn’t looking forward to. I mean, Saturday? What is this the 1930s? And then I thought, yeah, it kinda is.
And in addition, yesterday the ZMan’s “power hour” podcast failed to materialize for almost the first time I can remember. And it didn’t show up today either, something about his work schedule. So, I was even more out of my routine for this point of the week.
But every day we have on this Earth is a good day in some sense so I figured I’d see what would develop. Well, the training was not what I’d call interesting but studying the people turned out to be amusing. It’s funny how small towns seem to perpetuate “types.” There’s the politician who’s always doing his schtick and the police officer who immediately sizes up the people in the room. And you can recognize school teachers and small businessmen and doctors and tradesmen.
And each of these different types approach their time in the group differently and somewhat as adversaries. Their differences of opinion are extremely predictable and almost stereotypical. And I’m sure that goes for me too. Anyone who has been trained as an engineer will fall back on a predictable way of approaching a problem or a project. I’m sure that the selectman looks at me as a sort of obstacle when any kind of technical issue interferes with something he’s working on.
And so even though the subject matter wasn’t something I wanted to spend my Saturday on I kind of enjoyed interacting with a room of my fellow humans. It reminded me of that famous Alfred Hitchcock WWII movie “Lifeboat.” You have a bunch of people who have escaped from an American passenger ship that was sunk by a German U-boat. They include a cross section of American society from the millionaire industrialist, to the working-class sailors of the sunken ship, with a female newspaper columnist, and a love interest for one of the sailors thrown in to make the movie interesting for the women viewers. And, of course, they include a German sailor that escaped from the U-boat that also sank. Watching the “allied” passengers aggravate each other over social differences is even more interesting than the conflict with the Nazi “prisoner” who eventually becomes the leader of the castaways.
I guess if my politics had been known to the other participants some of them at least would probably have likened me to the German U-boat commander. But regardless, involving yourself with the people around you is a good and necessary thing. I think a big part of the problem with the blue states is that the Right has refused to get involved in local politics and so by default, it has been taken over by the Left. How could that not turn into a disaster? And even in the Red States, allowing other people to make decisions that you’re too busy to worry about is a recipe for disaster.
Of course, for someone in New England it’s all academic. All the big battles have already been fought and lost. Our scope only remains in the local town decisions. And even these are sometimes almost completely circumscribed by state and federal mandates. But fighting the good fight is still the better way. Just ceding everything to the Left is lazy and crazy.
So, I returned home feeling somewhat energized instead of drained as I thought I would be. It’s funny. People taken one at a time are mostly not so awful. Obviously, there are the horrible exceptions but I think a lot of those are found in the upper strata of society. Regular people tend to be regular. They’re all full of tics and habits and mannerisms and sure they’re all a little crazy at least. But most of them are kind of hard to truly hate. I guess the real problem is we’ve never figured out a way to keep the mob from running our lives. I guess the trick is to be in charge of the mob.
Well anyway I managed to escape from the Lifeboat back to my cozy island here in Dunwich. And hopefully tomorrow I’ll have some subject more profound than this to expound upon. Watch out for those U-boats.