The Acceleration is Accelerating

You spend a few years as a professional driver, and you fast run out of music stations to listen to; I could go on and on about how much Excellent Classic Rock there is that never made the Top-20s chart, but you don’t come here to read about that.  Suffice to say, I’m stuck with Talk Radio as a driving companion.

The other night I found myself in the ignomious position of driving to my mother’s house to do laundry, like some sort of Univsersity student.  Not because I’m broke, mind you – though I am – I’d simply lost the damn card required in this era of Electronic Money and the Number of the Beast.  Coin-op washing machines are a faint and precious memory…

So while I was crusing along one of Calgary’s main-drags, tailgaiting an $80 000 minivan which refused to exceeded the speed limit, I Swear to Odin that the following stories came on the hourly news:

A Jewish/Muslim Alliance is protesting anti-bullying legislation which informs School Children that there are, in fact, six genders. Good Lord, I thought – wasn’t this the premise of a Heinleinian Dystopian Novel?

Next on, it seems that Helmets will now be necessary for skiing in Nova Scotia – a Province utterly free of Mountainous Regions.

Thirdly – if you drive through a CheckStop here in Calgary, and blow a 0.05 – which is below the legal limit of 0.08 – your car can be impounded for up to a month, without recourse, though you will not be arrested.

Fourthly – an MP was arrested that night for refusing a breathalyzer after having a glass of wine with dinner.

Every single time I turn on the news, without fail, it gets More and More Bizarre.  And it’s getting Bizarre at a Faster Rate.

It’s getting to the point where I’m not even angry over it anymore; nowadays I Laugh in Despair.  Truly, I am a Mad Man living in a Mad World!

And yet, in my current line of work, I’m constantly in touch with The Common Man – or at least, the common man who is also a small-business entrepreneur.  A nowhere do I see this constant insanity which seems to pervade, according to The Media.

A fellow Canadian Blogger pointed out some time back that 49% of the Canadian Population believes that we have too much immigration; a proposition which is so incredibly obvious that I once convinced a Mexican Immigrant of the Truth! of this statement, after only minutes of conversation (for the record, she was a Medical Doctor, not a Landscaper; Mexicans only landscape in places without winter) – but every political party wants to increase immigration, and your average Joe is ashamed of his Racism for being against it.

Your average blue-collar, white-collar, politically-bored and hard-working man I meet on a day-to-day basis is just as Sane as this Mexican Elite – no crazy at all!  Not a single one is as Pathologic as the nonsense reported by the Merchants of Mendacity.  What is it then, a trick?  A myth?  Normal People are Everywhere!

…at least, they are for 8 weeks.  That’s roughly the gestation cycle of The Worm.

It seems that folks will only talk sensible about what’s going on at any particular Time and Date.  Give it a few weeks, and they’ll say what the Talking Heads said; a few weeks and they’re buying it hook, line, and Stinker.

Let’s go back – waaaay back – and think about the smoking bylaws for a moment (a constant thorn in my side).  Back in the day, there were a lot of people against these things – even if they didn’t understand Private Property or other such Civilized Principles that our High School Teachers ‘forgot’ to mention…  Even years after those laws got passed, I could still talk to folks about the Insanity Of It All; and roughly 70% of the time the Signal Went Through.

Nowadays?  Bars have Always been non-smoking.  We’ve Always been At War with Islam.  That’s Just The Way Things Are.  You don’t want to go back to Monarchy, do you?  Democracy is the Wave of the Future.

Way back then, back when I was a civilian, back when the world was at peace, back when the sixties weren’t being re-enacted (this time Dirtier and More Destructive!), I used to have some Hope that the smoking bylaw would change; that me, the owner, and the other two dudes wouldn’t all have to step outside together to spark a dart, leaving his bar empty….  Surely this madness cannot last? I would say with a half-cocked grin.

It’s been 8 years.  And it’s getting worse.

Surely, we are living in the Cyberpunk Dystopia.  William Gibson is spinning atop his grave.