[Seth Says] Five Things That Aren't Doomscrolling
Writing this as much for myself as for any of you because I am also a human being with empathy and thus also dislike reading about the constant advances of fascism (not that you could tell by how much time I spend scrolling to do it). But as I was saying to a friend the other day, despair helps no one but fascists hoping their opposition is dispirited, so here are five things that aren't that:
1) Food is delicious!
There was a sale on steak tips (STEAK TIP: marinate it overnight), so last night we made Loc Lac. (I like loc lac! I lick loc lac!) This is a dish I first had at a restaurant in Cranston some decades ago and it was one of the first "fancy" (read: not spaghetti or burritos) dishes I learned how to make. It's pretty easy (I'm not that fancy)(although I do fancy loc lac), and pretty tasty, and even strikes a nice balance between tasting light and refreshing while being hearty and satisfying, warm beef and cool lettuce, all perfectly balanced. Really the only downside is that when steak tips aren't on sale they're too damn expensive.
Also this week we made chicken korma (main advantage: can tell everyone you have some hot dates) which is also tasty, so we continue to eat and live well thanks to the benefits of the valuable contributions of people from other countries.
2) Spaceballs 2: The Search for More Money
Look, I grew up on Mel Brooks. I love Mel Brooks. I watched History of the World Part 1, Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, the Producers, Men in Tights, listened to the 2,000-Year-Old Man, watched Sid Caesar (for whom Brooks was a writer)... and Spaceballs was my favorite movie for like a decade (until I saw Brain Donors). I watched it an unreasonable number of times, and the fact that the movie itself talked about Spaceballs 2 makes this announcement decades later even more exciting.
Will the sequel fail to live up to the original, both as a movie and because the magic of watching something as a child cannot be matched by the experience of watching something in your 40s? Of course it will. Am I still happy it will exist and eager to watch it? 100%.
3) No Parents Allowed!
(Please imagine this section header scrawled in crayon with one letter backwards, on a piece of paper poorly taped to a door.) (Also, I realize many of you are parents and you're allowed, but to defend my own parents from crushing disappointment I should warn them not to read this section or this week's column.)
My parents are strong believers in the importance of lawn maintenance, to the point that when I bought my current house (avec more yard than the old Victorian)(aka the HotRP)(where I actually tried for a few years to see if I could get the postal service to deliver without a street address purely by writing to "House of the Rising Pun, North Adams", but alas it didn't take), I got the strong sense that their primary concern was whether or not I'd keep up with mowing the lawn. (I got this sense from their words worrying about the lawn; just because I have empathy doesn't mean I'm an empath.) And now years later I can confidently say:
I totally didn't keep up with the lawn! And it's okay because it doesn't matter! I'm allowed to let nature grow wild in the backyard because I like the animals, and then mow the front lawn annually to keep it neat. Life goes on. And my lawn is the subject of my latest column:
Just because I'm not watching network TV shows these days doesn't mean I can't make bad puns based on their titles. (Although it does mean I had to Google to find out what the modern spinoffs were called)(I briefly thought I'd do a violets/violence thing, but apparently that's not what the V in Law&Order:SVU stands for)(all of this was easier back in the day when there were only 3 TV shows and everyone watched them)(although realistically it would actually be much harder since there was no Internet for me to use to research or submit my column)(also conceivably not being born yet could be an impediment to writing a humor column)("why wasn't he born yet?" "Inconceivable!")
4) Better Living Through Arts
I mean yes, science is very nice too and also valuable and worth defending (preferably with a trebuchet). But I think that while technology has made at least some appreciation of science in limited ways a pre-requisite to existing in the modern world (not that you'd know it from recent appointments), too many people seem quick to write off the arts (and humanities)(and humanity) as unnecessary. But indeed, the arts are a celebration of being human and a reminder that our shared humanity should be celebrated, and occasionally commiserated, but always recognized.
So I like that I have friends who are artists of all stripes, painters and cartoonists and poets and writers and musicians and actors, and the value of that isn't just in the work itself (although the work is frequently great - check out this painting of a spot 2 blocks from the old HotRP), but that I have friends who are engaged in the project of being human and understanding our connection to the world and other humans. And I don't know a producer of art who isn't also a consumer of art; the poets and musicians and artists and actors attend poetry readings and love going to see musicals and I used to go to lots of gallery openings and even my friends who aren't artists themselves tend to have an appreciation for the arts which I suspect is not coincidence. Hooray for the arts!
5) The 3.5% Rule
Okay, arguably "rule" is a bit of a stretch, but as a final item that isn't doomscrolling I wanted to offer a brief antidote thereto. Which I guess is hope? There's a BBC article from a half-decade ago circulating again recently which claims that when 3.5% of a nation engages in sustained nonviolent protest, change is most often achieved. It’s a ray of hope.
Because like you I am also disheartened to learn just how many Americans seem fine to throw out empathy, democracy, and the proverbial (immigrant) baby with the bathwater, BUT I still also believe that many people still would like things to be better instead of worse for their fellow human beings and think democracy is still preferable to authoritarianism or at bare minimum didn't really want to pay more for groceries and defund both the early warning system for catastrophic weather events like hurricanes and also the emergency management to recover from said catastrophes so that a very entitled birthday boy could get a parade and send more cash to his friends.
So even if the number of people who are fine with fascism seems unbelievable, I think 3.5% is still achievable, a small enough number and low enough bar that perhaps it can offer hope even amidst the everything.
That's all for this week. As always, I thank you for reading, will be back in two weeks with another column, and if you haven't had delicious Cambodian beef in a lime dipping sauce, then you lack loc lac luck.
I hope this was a pleasant respite from the doomscrolling and a reminder that it's not like if we stop reading the news for one night that we'll miss some major catastrophe. I'll just check my feed now and... oh. I'm gonna need another bowl of tasty Indian food, stat. (tasty Indian food stat: korma is Britain’s favorite curry, the top choice of a full 18% of those surveyed.)
Korma korma korma korma korma chameleon,
Seth