The more I hear about the new security measures in US airports and related things, the more I feel like withdrawing from the world and just doing the best I can to live inside my bubble---hang out with my friends, do my mathematics and science, play games, and otherwise just pretend I am living in a better time. The world in which we actually live just sucks in so many ways. Didn't I read about such things back in the day in dystopian sci-fi novels?
I feel like the only way to show my true allegiance is not to be a citizen of any country. I just want to take my friends with me and live in my own little world. Sigh...
I wish I could just have a world citizenship passport that states 'no country affiliation'. Sigh. They all suck. I am registered to vote with no party affiliation in the US, so why not...
2 days ago
2 comments:
I absolutely agree! I've been a political junkie for ten years now but I'm starting to withdraw from all that. Too depressing. Though I find it both amusing and genuinely surprising that apparently conservatives actually object to the recent TSA crap. I never thought there would be an authoritarian abuse they wouldn't enthusiastically support... That Democrats would not only fail to roll back or prosecute, but instead continue and expand most Bush-era civil liberties violations is sadly not surprising in the slightest. I sometimes wonder if I should be looking for jobs in Germany, the Netherlands, or Canada rather than looking into buying a home here in Pasadena.
For what it's worth, Lord of the Rings Online has been quite handy for this "pay less attention to the real world" adjustment. My wife thinks I'm an addict. :-) I finally see some of the appeal of the MMO concept...
I like political science as an academic field and feel that applying mathematical and computational techniques to it is extremely fascinating, but the closest analogy of that relationship to politicians would be Jane Goodall and her chimps. The only political stuff I actually enjoy following is related to that, and it's nice to occasionally get extra fodder for my snarky remarks. But, yeah, these people all suck. I have noticed that irony as well.
I greatly prefer the scanners (which I don't like) to padding down (which I abhor), as I am extremely uncomfortable with people I don't trust touching me. I put up with this shit for because I am unwilling to sacrifice my career, seeing many of my friends, and experiencing interesting places---all of which require travel. I might well do some plane versus train trading, but that isn't always practical, and I am expedient enough (and, frankly, insufficiently willing to sacrifice certain things) to put up with it even while disliking it.
As for paying less attention to the real world, I'm usually pretty damn good at this, but this has been all over my Facebook wall and hasn't been particularly easy to avoid.
I am seriously pondering the future of my citizenship, however. That would be one way to express my distaste without sacrificing things that I don't want to sacrifice. But I have been padded down in Heathrow airport, so it's not like there isn't shit elsewhere---hence, my desire for not being a citizen of any country! And I would do that if I could get away with it. If I get to keep my old passport book when it expires, maybe I'll take both passports with me and rip up the old one in front of the TSA people? (Actually, I am pretty sure that the expired passport books don't get returned if one wants a new one.)
I want to keep some of modern technology, but I yearn for simpler times...
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