It is a time of freedom and fear, of Gaia and of borders, of many paths and the widening of
a universal toll road, emptying country and swelling cities, of the public bought into
privacy and the privacy of the public sold into invisible data banks and knowing
algorithms. It is the time of the warrior's peace and the miser's charity, when the
planting of a seed is an act of conscientious objection.
These are the times when maps fade and direction is lost. Forwards is backwards now, so we glance sideways at the strange lands through which we are all passing, knowing for certain only that our destination has disappeared. We are unready to meet these times, but we proceed nonetheless, adapting as we wander, reshaping the Earth with every tread. Behind us we have left the old times, the standard times, the high times. Welcome to the irregular times. Everyone keeps yammering on about the unstoppable Bush fundraising machine. Even on "liberal" NPR, Neal Conan could be heard exulting during Talk of the Nation this week that Bush had raised more than all the Democratic contenders put together. Amazing! The problem for Conan's claim is that the Democratic candidates have raised $98.6 million so far in 2003, more than George W. Bush. Go ahead, look it up. This is a simple fact that the media is almost completely ignorant of. Let's help the media, and the public, get this one right. Contact Neal Conan at totn@npr.org and ask him to make an on-air correction. Return to the Irregular Times Main Page
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