About two years ago -- maybe just a year ago -- time goes by quickly -- I "felt" that my disposition (for lack of a better word) had changed dramatically.
For seventy years, I have considered myself to be whatever I am, but one thing I was not: I was not particularly cynical about the American public. That all changed in the last year or so. I'm not going to go into the details because I don't need the pushback: I'll just say this -- I used to have "heroes." I still do, but there seem to be fewer and fewer. I "held out" for Lance Armstrong to the very end (that was decades ago, it seems) but when he finally admitted he lied, I realized how naive I was: I was duped by a "hero," but I accepted it (I was naive -- still am -- but hopeful) and moved on.
A digression: I wonder how far "naivete" is from "hopeful" in the dictionary? "Misplaced hopefulness."
Most recently, the tipping point, Aaron Rodgers.
He was just one among many, but at some point, a tipping point comes.
A reader asked about my thoughts on the southern surge, the illegal immigrants crossing the Mexican - US border, how that was affecting Texas, and/or affecting me personally. Up until recently, the situation was affecting me only in the "emotional" arena. It hasn't/hadn't affected me -- and I don't think it has affected 99% of Americans -- in any noticeable tangible way. Briefly, I mentioned that the southern surge is (no longer) on my radar scope.
But now, like Aaron Rodgers, with the southern surge, I have become quite cynical in my thinking, or at least in my response to the issue when asked. No sarcasm, simply cynicism.
The cynicism, by the way, with regard to the southern surge, is related directly to the Covid-19 vaccine rollout and the unemployment story in the United States. I connect those three dots -- the southern surge, the Covid-19 vaccine rollout, and US unemployment -- in a very direct manner in my thinking, but in a way that would leave most of my readers perplexed. There is no utility in explaining my convoluted thinking on a blog that is devoted to the Bakken revolution.
Just to help make things clear: I sympathize with and empathize with those at the southern border. Read that carefully. My heart goes out to all all of them. Not enough to help out ... so I'm part of the problem. A small part. Americans -- I use the word as most Americans, I assume, use the word -- seem inconvenienced when power goes out for a couple of hours due to an electrical storm; imagine your life if you had no electrical power for twenty-seven years. Or five years. Or one year. Or six months.
A digression: I wonder how far separated "cynicism" is from "reality" in the dictionary?
As recently as late evening yesterday I was concerned about my cynicism regarding the American public. But with the story and video at this link I don't think my cynicism is out of place.
This cynicism to which I now admit with regard to the American public will not affect the blog as it pertains to the Bakken. I remain inappropriately exuberant about the Bakken.
On another note: I don't plan to post anything on the Bakken blog today; I'm working on a huge project that will take me all day, if not longer. Hopefully it goes well.