Living in the Theatre of the Absurd

Z-Man, in an otherwise happy post, brings us a few reminders of Absurd America.

...At lunch the other day, the economy was the topic. One person would mention the bad news, like the rising cost of most things. Someone would counter with the stock market or the supposed hiring spike. This went back and forth until someone finally said, “You know, none of this could be true at all. No one knows what’s going on because we can’t trust anything we’re being told.” Again, I detected that detached bemusement that comes when you stop pretending it matters.

I think the thing that did it for me was when I checked out some clips from the Chauvin trial the other day. The state had called a doctor who was supposed to be an expert on cardiovascular issues. The guy was such a ridiculous ham, that it felt like satire. He clearly went to the William Shatner School of Acting. He did a dramatic performance of lifesaving doctor for the jury, but then the defense lawyer asked, “So what you are saying is George Floyd would be alive if just got in the police car?”

I think if I were on that jury, I would have bust out laughing. Everything about that trial feels like a joke on us by the people running this simulation. In fact, that is true about most everything these days. Joe Biden as President would have been a punch line to a joke not so long ago. Men in dresses playing girls’ sports? You just have to step back and admire the absurdity of it all. We cannot know what African scholars will call this time, but it will most likely focus on the silliness of the age....

"Silliness" does not convey the reality as well as "absurdity."  So I'll send Z-Man a note about that.