Feline Warrior

For those of you old enough (or just darned hip enough), that title will have you singing a Sex Pistols song for the next hour or so.

I looked up “anarchy” today because I keep using that as a descriptive when watching people completely disobey traffic laws. According to Wikipedia:

“Anarchy, has a popular meaning of disorder^[1]. However it has a more precise meaning in political philosophy to describe any human society which exists without a state:

• societies where an existing state has collapsed;
• societies where no state has ever existed;
• societies, whether real or speculative, where the state has been consciously abolished.”

That made me wonder about the state of our, well, state. We certainly have had a state. It hasn’t been consciously abolished, but perhaps it is in the state of collapse. So I think it’s fair to say that, at least for now, we do have a state. The fact that someone’s in charge and I’m not happy with that person lends more proof, if you will, that there is in fact a state.

So then, lest you are worrying that all I think about is the bamb dastards who drive with their heads placed firmly in their buttocks, I don’t. I think about those folks, true, but I also think about when in the heck can I eat something GOOD? (Besides applesauce and other mushy foods.)

The thing about people in cars doing whatever the heck makes them happy is merely a symptom of something bigger. I’m certain that I’ve told you about these concerns before, but what the heck, I am the Feline Warrior, it says Feline Warrior at the top of this page, so I can say whatever I want as often as I want!

Something bigger - you can almost feel it in the air. It’s that stuff I’ve talked about, the sensation of closeness and the convenience of not-so-closeness. It started with a hold button, then mute, then backspace, delete, web cams, buddy-block, email filters, voice mail, camera phones, caller ID, call-block… it just goes on and on. And no, none of those were in any particular order - just a random list.

The “sensation of closeness coupled with the convenience of not-so-closeness” [I invented that! You’re my witness, ‘case I need you for backup on Judge Judy!] - that is a duo. It is the Pisces of modern day relationships. It’s a theory based upon observation and candid -random- interviews.

It’s easy to enjoy the above-mentioned duality (now, perhaps, SCC-CNSC) on a regular day. Let’s look at this example: Sam is driving along, talking on his cell phone. Ah, the beauty of the cell phone, the handsome accompanying Bluetooth and all those roll-over minutes… As Sam approaches an intersection, he sees that the light is yellow and about to turn red. (Red means “STOP!” - just a review.) As he continues his conversation, he zooms around the cars preparing to stop (as they should) and speeds through the light.

In real life, the usual ending to the story is that the cars that start to travel through the intersection on the green light have to slam on their brakes to avoid hitting Sam, probably honking their horns. Sam, in turn, would shout through his open window some choice words towards the horn-blasters, then presumably would apologize to the person on the other end of the phone for hollering cuss words in his or her ear. (But maybe not, because Sam is a bamn dastard who only cares about himself.)
The end to the story I’d like to see is Sam getting pulled over and given a pricey ticket along with a stern talkin’-to by an officer of the law.

Okay, so the phenomenon is SCC-CNSC; symptoms are similar (but not limited) to the story above; and the cause… technology? Technology moving ahead faster than our culture can mature - a culture already sadly lacking in standards and values?

No, I don’t think that’s it. It might be part of the puzzle, but it’s not all of the pieces. People do have standards and values -we may not all agree with the other’s- but they are there. The SCC-CNSC thing -phenomenon or syndrome or whatever you want to call it- seems to be multi-layered. Like most of the stuff that fills my head and causes my headaches and insomnia, there’s a lot to it. Not just technology, not just selfishness, not just a slipping, perhaps, of social graces (if not standards and values) - but what?

I’m afraid that I will explore this until the day I die and may not ever fully understand it. But that won’t stop me from trying. Not me -I’m not just a warrior, I’m the Feline Warrior!