Interesting Times Indeed...

November 11, 2024

Interesting Times indeed. I’ve been working more, and feeling rather worn down in general as the dark months settle in. I’m having a similar experience with writing as I do about playing the bass. There’s a desire to contribute to the conversation but an uncertainty on what to say.

As I consider what I could write about the times in which we live, I’m remembering Yiyun Li’s own recollection of her childhood in Communist China.

“‘Someone will be checking your dossier. Remember, your entire history is known. You have no way to hide anything.’ What my second-grade teacher outlined, it turns out, was not just a Communist hell, but a vision of our world today.”
— Li, Yiyun. “The Seventy Percent.” Harper’s Magazine, Nov. 2024.

Li’s piece is a thoughtful essay on the shortcomings of ideological purity and the importance of the everyday. Standing before this historical inflection point, it’s tempting to join the chorus of bold pronouncements, to carve out my kingdom on the internet and shout into the echo chamber. But I’m experiencing the immediate present as a very raw time, and I’ve learned the hard way that insights can easily incite. I believe this is a moment for nourishing connections, inviting conversation, and reserving bandwidth for independent consideration.

So yeah, I’m deferring to neutrality and introspection. Go read Li. Or Zadie Smith’s equally important The Dream of the Raised Arm about contemporary propaganda machines. They both know what they’re talking about. I’ll be here riffing until I come up with something to contribute.