Clarissa's Blog

What’s at stake right now is whether there is going to be anything at all to politics beyond backroom deals among oligarchs. Nobody is naive here. I’m not running a blog for naive, wide-eyed little bunnies. Everybody here knows that backroom deals are an unavoidable feature of politics in all societies called democratic. Such deals are not necessary in totalitarian regimes because there is no need to hide in the backroom, of course.

But there has always been something beside backroom dealing. The will of the people has never been an entirely empty sound. There have been efforts, struggles, victories and achievements, and they – as opposed to the formality of holding elections – are what constitute a democracy. Today everybody has elections, so what? Does Russia have a democracy just because there are all formal characteristics of one? The answer is obvious.

When theorists of neoliberalism say that the greatest danger of neoliberalism is that it destroys democracy, they don’t mean that elections will be canceled. The danger is that demos – meaning people, us, all of us – will step out of the political process. And the saddest, saddest thing is that they won’t do it saying, “Hey, I just don’t give a toss. All I care about is making money, spending money, and having fun.” Oh no, they’ll disengage by believing they are the most engaged people in history. 

My university just opened a master’s program in “diversity and social justice.”

But wait, there’s worse news. We also started an MFA in “creative writing.” 

Quotation marks are mine because I can’t take this shit seriously.

The blustering self-righteousness of today’s progressivism aims to mask the vacuum that lies at its core. “We can’t offer you anything, but at least we’ll make you feel good.”

And now they are saying that Lee was “a terrorist.” No, it’s not a comedy show. And no, the participants are not third-graders.

Oy. 

I just heard several people argue on TV that Robert E Lee was just like Hitler and then belabor the point for a while. 

If I were still a drinking person, I’d quit because I would inevitably decide that I’m hallucinating.

I’m just afraid that this will all collapse into meaningless buffoonery once again, just like happened as a result of the global economic crisis of 2008. 

On TV, commentators are celebrating the rosy future where “Trump and those who don’t disavow him will find it hard to sell anything to millennials because millennials are all about having a social conscience” [this is a pretty exact quote]. These idiots are useless. 

I was hoping a leader would arise out of this, at least. But the only leader who has appeared so far is Nelson Mandela. A pity he’s not available to run in 2020. 

I’m afraid that this will all end up producing nothing but a bunch of clever tweets, funny memes, and tickled palates. 

It bugs me to see Nazis in WWII referred to as “white supremacists” in these silly memes that are making the rounds. Hitler never proposed the rule of all whites. He wanted to eradicate Jews and Slavs who are plenty white. Hitler’s victims were overwhelmingly white. 

So enough with the stupid WWII memes, folks. They are not funny and they serve no useful purpose. All I’m perceiving in them is smug self-congratulation for what exactly I’m not sure. 

Nothing good has happened here, folks. Nobody has won any victories, there’s nothing to celebrate.

Finally, I met a Mommy here in town I want to hang out with. She’s Peruvian, not young (I’m finding it very onerous to hang out with 22-year-old mommies because it’s like being at work), with a 21-month-old daughter Klara really likes. It’s funny how easily toddlers make friends. After 5 minutes, it was like they’d known each other forever.

This woman used to be a dancer in New York but had to move here for her husband’s job. Which he almost immediately lost. So we have a ton in common. Again, it’s not easy with people who have only ever lived anywhere but here. They look at me like I’m trained monkey with a traveling circus. 

Meeting somebody like this was one of my summer goals, and now I feel very accomplished.

An act of terror just happened in Barcelona, it seems. A can rammed into a crowd on Las Ramblas, in a tourusty spot that’s always filled with people. Two are dead. 

Also:

Two armed men are also believed to have stormed a nearby restaurant after police said the driver had fled the initial scene. Gunshots have also been reported at the food market of La Boqueria, which is a major tourist attraction. 

Police said they are treating the incident as terror. 

The best thing about summer is that it ends. I like summer but I’m also loving the idea of going back to work. Especially since it’s only 2 days a week that I have to be on campus. I was so psyched about the beginning of the academic year yesterday that I freaked out N.

I’ve done most of what I planned for the summer except:

1. Didn’t write the MLA talk and didn’t even start thinking in that direction.

2. Didn’t finish the major house cleaning and reorganizing project. I’ve done the bedroom and the reading room but that’s it. There’s a lot left to do. 

On the positive side, I met all the submission deadlines even ahead of time. So that’s good. Came up with the topic of the new book. (Which of course is going to change a million times in the process of work).

Today is my housework day and tomorrow it’s back to work. Yippee!