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. In the spring of 2003, the Boston Herald reported a whispering campaign by unnamed Bush Administration officials in which they would let reporters know that in their opinion "John Kerry looks French." They're at it again, this time out in the open. Bush's Commerce Secretary Donald Evans has taken to observing that "John Kerry looks French." This is a statement worthy of an eighth grader, not a cabinet official responsible for international economic relations. For goodness' sake! (Source: today's Washington Post) ![]() ![]() ![]() |