Let us not credit ourselves, or thank the fates that we managed to pull through this one, for the most part, unscathed - no, we should be focusing on the fact that this whole debacle has demonstrated a certain ‘lack’ within the contemporary human spirit. There are several ways to taxonimize this ‘lack,’ but I guess it’s just easier to describe it by way of pointing out it’s principal characteristics. The first and most disturbing of these is a fundamental boredom. This boredom, to be euphemistic in calling it that, is best evinced by how many people were buying into every piece of hurricane hype thrown at them. Whether this was accomplished by taping their windows, despite being more or less landlocked, or even constant sardonic reminders of the preposterousness of the situation by way of cheeky facebook statuses and the like, the point remains that many, many individuals let this storm take over their lives. It stands to reason that the fact that this happened is the result of some degree of wishful thinking - these individuals hoped to WILL irene into a monumental force by channeling their otherwise wavering energies into it. People, generally, have nothing going on - how else to explain any manner of proliferation of mind altering substance? I’m not absolving myself of this, I mean, I’m just saying, we drink, we smoke, we trip, we roll, etc.. because we don’t want to be where we actually are, doing what we’re normally doing. And that’s what a hurricane and an earthquake offered new yorkers.. A total immersion in a ubiquitous binge, and a sanctioned one, at that. One does not have to read too deeply into the myriad of facebook statuses since the ‘storm’ has abated to find a hint, if not more than that, of disappointment. Watch any news broadcast, specifically, the weather channel broadcast with the streakers, and anyone can gather a sort of grim determination to legitimize the ‘threat’ by means of discrediting those who weren’t taking it seriously… Whatever the personal effects of this hurricane were on you and your family.. To be truly horrified, one merely has to step back and assess how decadent and deplorable we’ve become as a civilization, and that will not prove a difficult task, because ‘fans’ and ‘supporters’ of a prolonged extraordinary disaster were and are everywhere.
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As the Irene hoopla mercifully dies down..
