Rum Doings Episode 156: I’m Too Tired, And Perhaps Faithful
by John Walker on Mar.27, 2014, under Rum Doings
In our 156th ever Rum Doings, our topic is isn’t it about time we went to war with Russia?
Recorded across the Atlantic, on an overly-loud laptop mic in San Francisco, and Nick’s echo chamber in London, Nick naturally insists on talking about bloody videogames. John was at GDC at the time of recording, so despite wanting to talk about anything else, Nick must be obeyed. There’s also talk about San Francisco itself – a peculiar and unsettling mix of opulence and horrendous poverty.
As John struggles through his cold, Nick expresses his hatred of women, and we give the latest news on the death penalty. And hash browns. Mmmmmmm, hash browns.
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March 28th, 2014 on 08:25
San Francisco proper is as milquetoast and unwittingly entitled as any generic Midwestern city and its elite are as devoutly adherent to the libertarian finance-cult as those of the world’s other narcissistic financial entrepots (NYC, London, Hong Kong, Tokyo). Hell, Silicon Valley epitomizes that sociopathic ethos!
The rest of the city was never a pluralistic progressive wonderland, let alone a hippie utopia, let alone a principled-if-flawed left-leaning stab at hope. In totality it was and is none of those things, though idealistic movements did ebb and flow (n.b. the ethnic and socioeconomic makeup of the city’s burbs and neighbors, contemporary and historical, and contrast that with the city’s supposed progressive sentiment).
… but don’t take my word for it. I suggest Rott365’s A New Yorker’s Take on San Francisco:
http://www.bigsmokestreetcorner.com/?p=2492
http://www.bigsmokestreetcorner.com/?p=2503
http://www.bigsmokestreetcorner.com/?p=2513
He critiques and praises San Fransisco more insightfully than I ever could. But yes, one notices a few glaring qualities in San Franciscans which sadly relate them to most other Americans: 1) strong autosegregation and general unwillingness to bridge cultures and all the knowing and subconscious othering and tribalism this engenders, and 2) “welfare” conceived of as an idealized and thus forgettable justification for taxation, i.e. “something politicians handle”.
The actual American Dream and the Randian one are distressingly convergent.