Reading, Watching, Listening 11/8/2024
A few words about bowling
So the worst came to pass. The sad truth about the world is that however bad things are, they can always get worse. That also means things can get better, and they often do. It takes time and work. I don’t know if that counts as wisdom so much as obvious statement of fact, but it’s where my mind has been at the last few days. But life goes on, because it has to. I’ve got no analysis to offer of the election. I’m suspect of anyone who claims to have answers, especially so soon after when results aren’t even completely in. Recriminations are flying fast already. I could not imagine a more pointless use of one’s time. The truth is, I don’t know how things will go. Politics is weird. Things can realign faster than expected, while other efforts take forever and stall out. Donald Trump is a fatuous asshole with fascistic tendencies, leading a posse of all the worst people in the world, and supported by millions of Americans. He will do hideous damage to the country’s institutions and its people. How hideous is an open question, but I don’t think it’s a stretch to assume the pain will be very real for a lot of people. Here in Canada, we’re likely to follow the U.S. and any number of other countries whose incumbent leaders have been ousted recently amid inflation woes, replaced by right-wing shitheads.
Something I’ve been thinking about a lot recently—for years, really—is our social atomization, which has increased and increased and increased. The internet and social media fascilitate amazing ways of connecting with people across borders, but these are not solid connections. They are relationships lacking weight, serving individualist impulses of branding, transaction and self-satisfaction, divorced from an environmental context attched to the real, physical space we occupy. We’re meeting people, but not meeting the people we live with. There’s a political problem here, as we become alienated from our actual neighbours while finding common cause with random, disconnected people. Whatever concentration of power builds in that situation has only the expression of the mob. Real power exists locally, but for many of us, the local been almost totally outweighed. Yet, I would not say the core problem is a political one. Our souls. That’s what I’m concerned about. Who are we as human beings if we are not developing community with our neighbours? What does that do to us? How blinded do we become? How selfish?
Robert D. Putnam published Bowling Alone back in 2000. He was making a pretty simple argument at the time. The decline of American social and civic institutions—like bowling leagues, union halls, volunteer organizations, etc.—had undermined civic engagement in democracy. He called it “Bowling Alone” because he’d identified an interesting phenomenon. In the previous 20 years, the number of Americans who went bowling increased, but membership in bowling leagues had gone down. They were bowling alone. Now, of course, there are criticisms to make even of that premise. Were people bowling alone, or enjoying a night out with friends? Still, there’s a difference between going bowling on a lark, for a good time, and joining a club where you form new, perhaps long-term connections based in common affinities. It’s not about making friends so much as building community. Putnam named many potential causes for the decline of this kind of social interaction, but the only one that seemed consistently applicable was the intrusion of electronic entertainment in our lives. That was 24 years ago. It’s only gotten more true.
Which is, I suppose, a longwinded way of saying I think I’m gonna go find a club or two to join. Probably more productive than firing off tweets about how the Democrats can win the next election or some other such nonsense.
This week on the Substack has been a light one. I published a piece wrapping up my Late Eastwood series with words on his latest, Juror #2, which is among the year’s best American films.
I also recorded an episode of Jesse Hawken’s Junk Filter podcast about Eastwood and the film, and I interviewed screenwriter Jonathan A. Abrams for an article. Both of those should be out soon, so keep an eye out.
Reading, Watching, Listening
As you can imagine, my media consumption took a hit this week, though I did encounter a few things of note.
Fantasy Mission Force is a “Jackie Chan film” with a funny backstory involving a the Triads and a favour Jackie owed some people. He’s not actually in it a ton, though he gets a few great fight sequences. The rest of the movie follows the assembly of this Fantasy Mission Force. Nothing about the plot makes sense. It gets super strange, and it’s super funny. A great movie. Will Sloan hosted a screening of the film at the Fox Theatre on election night, and it was nice to was something so silly and fun instead of worrying about the end of the world.
“A Beirut Record Store Owner On Life During Wartime”, by Akram Herrak is a great interview with Diran Mardirian, the owner of Beirut’s Chico Records. It’s a fascinating interview, in part because it’s so rare to get a ground level view of what it looks like to try to maintain a daily existence under the worst of circumstances. “Do you ever think about moving the shop to a different location?” “Never. Roots, man. They’re important. And it’s a very special neighborhood.” This is real life.
Catch you all next week!