Do I Ride to Escape Reality?

Glad I’m Not Young

In a culture obsessed with looking, acting, and being young I’m definitely off course and on a different road. It’s taken some time but I’m comfortable in my skin and with the circumstances of each moment as it comes along. I’m not saying I don’t care about how I look or take care of myself but I’m not on the social rollercoaster to deflect the onslaught of time on my body or try to convince anyone else that I’m not a 71-year-old man. My days aren’t driven by a desire to fill every moment with meaning or to chase an adrenalin or dopamine fix to be satisfied that I am living. I’m not trying to escape reality.

Meandering on a Vespa the the hills and dales of home provide me time to think, reflect, and enjoy the breaths I take without any weight of performance or requirement. Just me walking on the earth feeling in balance with life. And in the particular moment standing in the woods I was glad I’m not young.

Damn The New York Times

I subscribe to The New York Times. And for the past year also The Wall Street Journal. A little research project to determine how different the news is reported between a left-leaning and right-leaning legacy media outlet. I won’t bother you with the project but the executive summary goes like this:

For news their reporting is remarkably similar. Each may have a different perspective but nothing I would call manipulation or propaganda. For their opinion pages they are far apart and illuminate the left-right, liberal-conservative bias. But each are thoughtful, well-written, and are part of an intelligent discussion. I don’t always agree with things on both sides but I appreciate the perspectives.

And last, I trust both. I don’t trust politicians of any stripe, form, or identity. These media outlets are staffed with professionals and the journalists I have known in my life chase the story and not the politics. And from this comes a commitment to not get any news of any sort from social media. It’s not curated, edited, or to be trusted. And certainly nothing from the mouths of political babes.

Anyway, how this relates to the ride and escaping reality. I read a story called “Silicon Valley is Bracing for a Permanent Underclass.” Simply put, the long summary is that AI is going to rob a large swath of people of their economic leverage and relegate them to a permanent underclass and unable to make progress in the manner we have always believed in the free market.

I can’t predict if any of it will come true. But the ideas infected my mind and has me thinking. As the complexities build so does my desire to escape reality and go for a ride.

Fiddling While Rome Burns

With even a modicum of imagination and curiosity it doesn’t take long to create a dystopian world where there are more people than jobs. Granted a long term problem but with a Government that thinks in two-year re-election cycles it is beyond their ability to address in a timely fashion. But even the most conservative legislators in Congress are beginning to whisper the dreaded socialist-communist-satanic phrase “Universal Basic Income.” Never fear though. They can’t even address Social Security. Everyone reading this will be long dead and turned to dust before they can tackle that.

I’m old enough now not to be too concerned but that New York Times story got my brain rolling in a way I don’t like. Takes up too much time and energy and space in my head for no good reason. So I ride to escape reality.

Am I the only one?

The Underclass and Obsessive Music

One of the benefits of living in a more rural area is generally whatever social disasters occur they’ll start in cities. And that will give the rest of us some time to prepare. And the preparation is where the crazy begins. Buying gold actually thinking if the dollar collapses you’ll be able to go down the street and buy a quart of milk with gold. Water and bullets will likely be more valuable during the apocalypse.

What’s remarkable about this stop to take a picture was how badly I wanted to stop thinking about the ramifications of an underclass created by AI. I don’t dislike artificial intelligence but the humans developing certainly should be suspect. And it would be nice to think the Government was caring or intelligent enough to deal with it.

I think that’s where my brain snapped and started playing music. “Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm” by Crash Test Dummies to be exact. Loud and on repeat because the ride wasn’t helping escape reality.

Have you ever had a song in your head that will not stop? It certainly can erase everything else.

Grateful to Be Out of the Storm (Sun)

Say what you will about agriculture but it puts food on the table. Plus a lot of other stuff. And for now, even in the most industrialized parts it relies on humans and their actions. I always smile when I see these lone trees standing out in a farm field. They’re beautiful and trigger a nostalgic view of the world for me. And they reflect a decision a farmer made a long time ago when plowing with a team of mules or horses. They provided those animals shade at midday when the farmer would have lunch. There’s no reason to keep them otherwise because they eat up space that could be put into production.

I’m glad when a landowner allows them to stay. Some are nondescript. Others become iconic in a community and are mourned when lost to lightning or development.

Standing there thinking about those horses in the past I was hoping some similar human kindness remains in place as technology moves towards whatever it is going to create. I’m glad I’m not young. I don’t have the energy to embrace a brave new world. I’m grateful that I’m out of the storm and can ride to escape reality rather than have to wrestle with the unpleasantness of the kind of change that New York Times article triggered.

Maybe it’s all just a dystopian fantasy.