We are at point unique in history where the old must learn from the young because the young are closest to the future
Dr. Margaret Mead
I saw that statement from the great anthropo-sociologist more than 50 years ago and never forgot it. (Alas, apparently both Google and Yahoo have.)
So when do you get smart enough to know you’re stupid? How about yesterday, last week, last year, last decade? Last century, perhaps?
As Czar Donaldov and his cartoon poltroons prove every day, stupid sells very well and good salesmen know you never change a gimmick that’s working. Keep them suckers sighing and buying.
Superstar Swedish climate champion Greta Thunberg calmly upstaged the now-defrocked president at the 2020 Davos, Switzerland, global warming summit after she was named Time Magazine’s Person of the Year. (The sicko psycho even photoshopped his face over hers on the cover. Vanity of strumpery, thy name is Trumpery.)
An old friend once noted that life is what happens while you were making other plans. I recently heard a corollary: Past 65, life is what happens between doctors’ appointments.
In recent conversations, I’ve been asked where I find hope. The answer is easy. Just quote Dr. Mead. We must learn from the young like tiny Greta and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, D-NY. They are closer the future and thus have more to lose.
They energize and make common cause with true advocates like Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-VT, and Elizabeth Warren, D-MA.
They thus light our way. Witness how folk-rock dinosaurs Neil Young and Joni Mitchell just kicked Spotify’s greedy ass over allowing murderous COVID-19 disinformation to be spread like droppings in a barnyard. (BTW: Most music streaming is old songs.) Soul singer Indie Arie and podcaster Roxane Gay, both 40-somethings, followed suit.
We live in terrifying times with wars more common than not as we plunge headlong into the twin firepits of tribalism and greed.
The young terrify the rich and comfy. They are increasingly (gasp!) liberal and thus must be kept away from voting.
Listen to the kids, dammit. Hope lies therein.
ROPE A DOPE, I HOPE. The United States has never lost a conventional war although Korea ended in an uneasy tie. We have since lost Vietnam and Afghanistan to tireless guerrillas who bled us white of blood and treasure.
The late Iraqi dictator (and onetime U.S. ally) Saddam Hussein was the only guy stupid enough to risk fighting us in a conventional WW2- style ground war.
The U.S. military today remains the baddest buncha sonsabitches who ever got into a fight.
Czar Donaldov’s buddy Bad Vlad seems intent on re-fighting WW2 over little ole Ukraine. Mr. Putin (properly pronounced “poo-teen” according to the late conservative wordsmith William Safire) has already propagandized his populace into thinking that the poor little KGB pirate is being victimized by (drum roll, please) U.S. aggression. Can’t he even think of a new PR label?
I am the most anti-war guy you will ever meet and I think the bastard is bluffing. If he invades, not only will Ukraine rue the day it ever gave up its nukes in exchange for some vague promise of protection from the west, but the Red Army will get its ass kicked.
As close as I can come to a reason for a Russian invasion is that Vlad wants to test how good our war machine is. That’s a very dangerous pre-season game.
He’s already by far the richest man in the world, according to vague intel reports, so like any corporate CEO, he wants to expand the company. He controls the biggest land mass of any nation, so maybe conquest is the only thing left that rings his chimes.
Do not ask for whom the bell tolls. W
HEN WILL WE EVER LEARN?
I think it is dangerous to confuse the idea of democracy with elections. Just because you have elections doesn’t mean you are a democracy…I’m still taken aback at the extent of indoctrination and propaganda in the United States. It is as if people there are being reared in a sort of altered reality, like broiler chickens or pigs in a pen.
Indian novelist Arundhati Roy, Barbwire 9-12-2004.
I consider myself a free-range chicken, scared to death that my country is committing suicide by ignoring the plague because of infection by our plethora of stupid pols.
KILLER JOURNALISM. I just got another report that acquitted Kenosha, Wisconsin, double killer Kyle Rittenhouse (or at least someone claiming to be him) has been seen shopping at local retail stores. All tips appreciated. I’ve chased these kinds of guys before. Sometimes, someone with a physical resemblance will use someone else’s notoriety to con the star-struck. I’d like to know if this guy actually buys anything or just struts.
HAPPY WHITE HISTORY MONTH? Stupid is as stupid does. Just got a report that a “teacher” at Bohach Elementary School in Sparks assigned a black kid to trace his family history back to the Mayflower. I am thus somewhat critical of that educator’s race theory.
RISKY BUSINESS. Local radio personality Don Darue is now syndicated to a passel of stations. In these parts, his Risky Biscuit Hayseed Hoot airs and streams weekly on NPR affiliate KUNR 88.7-fm Saturdays from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. PST. Dondo’s in the middle of his fundraising season, so help out with a little support at HootRadio. net/ Tell the birthday boy you heard about it on the Barbwire which is actually only a couple of years older than the Hoot. I need a beer.
A TOAST to my old friend (an long-ago occasional Tribune contributor) David Toll on the publication of his new book “David Toll’s Nevada,” reportedly selling like hotcakes on a cold Comstock morning. Get ‘em while they got ‘em at NevadaBookstore.org/
MIKE UPDATE. By the time you read this, my Sparks union brother and RTCRide bus operator Mike Lansborough may be home from more than a week in the hospital. He faces a long and painful recovery from heart surgery and remains sole support of his wife and son, Logan, 10, who has no lower legs due to a genetic flaw. Friends launched a GoFundMe page
Please go there and be generous. If you would like to help by check, make it payable to Michael Lansborough and send to his attention at Teamsters Local 533, 1190 Selmi Drive, Suite 100, Reno NV 89512.
Thanks to all Barbwire readers to have rallied to help. Please join them in donating. And tell your friends.
¡Sí se puede!
Take care of each other and be careful out there. Be well.
Raise hell. / Esté bien. Haga infierno.
Andrew Quarantino Barbano is a 53-year Nevadan and editor of NevadaLabor.com, SenJoeNeal. org and MississippiWestNV.org/ He is a longtime member of the Reno-Sparks NAACP. As always, his comments are strictly his own. Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Tribune since 1988.
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