Hello world.
“Hello world.” A line that I have published literally thousands of times. It is something that usually indicates the successful run of a script, of a render, or maybe a LAMP stack upgrade of some sort. “Hello world” is the default first post on WordPress, the very post that I’m replacing right now. For most of my adult life, those words have meant for me to move on. It has occupied the space where rather than lingering on an introduction, it meant for me to progress forward towards my ulterior goals. “Hello world” has meant something very different to me from the words on the page.
With that said, welcome to yet another blog. Um, Hello world! Que whimpering fanfare. If anything this blog will focus on those two little words. I would like to take a moment to look at where I’ve been, investigate where we are headed, and elucidate some of the cataclysmic forces that seem to be converging on us today.
2020 didn’t give us the pandemic, but it has introduced us to the change that’s coming. Last year has given many of us real clarity on what we do not wish to see. I think that it is perfectly fitting that 2020 will go down as a turning point of vision. But each one of us has found ourselves squished directly between bull shit and hard choices. There’s a clash of symbolic languages and it doesn’t matter which direction you are coming from, Left or Right. The arguments are no longer persuasive, only confrontational, and that vision sucks.
The danger that we face is now more acute than ever. Many of the newly clarified visions are mutually exclusive. We can use this newfound clarity to tear each other apart (along with everything else) or we can use it to try and explain where we are coming from and where we would like to go. To form a more perfect Union, if possible. But for the longest time, we have suffered from a collective tunnel vision. We can only seem to see what we want to see, in so many areas. The thing that worries me is that as we develop clarity, the tunnel we are looking down looks more and more like a muzzle.
I feel like the world is locked in a 1971 Cadillac Eldorado, barreling across a dry lake bed. The culture has it’s foot down hard on the gas, so hard it can barely see over the dash, as we the people are riding shotgun looking at a map pointing in all directions, and none. The central bankers are hanging out the window trying to get the nitrous oxide hooked into the manifold, and nobody has really noticed that we threw a rod back in 2008 and the windshield is covered with oil. Smoke is pouring out of all the windows and we are screaming towards something, yelling “FREEDOM!” and “JUSTICE!” at the top of our lungs.
I would say that I’m not very hopeful. Because I say things like that. But this site is the most hopeful thing I’ve done in a while. I’ve started and abandoned dozens of blogs over the years. In most cases, I got what I needed from them pretty quickly. In truth, I’ve never really had something to say. I’ve been saving this domain name for something and I guess this is it. I intend for this site to serve as a nexus of sorts for several projects. I’m not quite sure where it will lead, but I’m going to need your help.
Hello World. My name is Josh…
