Max
did say one thing that I thought was absolutely spot on: “The most obvious sign of depression is when people stop taking care of themselves.”
This is kind of an interesting thought because it introduces economics into a psychological equation. By “taking care of themselves,” what’s meant, I suppose, is showering regularly, brushing and flossing, eating nutritiously, exercising regularly.
Etcetera.
But these things have a monetary
cost.
If you don’t have a pleasant bathroom, for example, if your shower stall is cramped and dark, if your water smells funny, if the bathroom is
dirty, you are far less likely to want to take showers.
(I am moved once again to reiterate my First Rule for Dealing With Depression: Don’t go into therapy; just
clean your fucking house.)
If your food budget is only $10, you are far more likely to buy Doritos and candy than you are to buy kale.
If you don’t have the money to visit a dentist and have your teeth cleaned professionally, plaque is likely to accumulate on your teeth, predisposing you to cavities. And once your teeth start to go, you’re a permanent resident of the underclass: Teeth have absolutely replaced accents in 21st century America as the class significator.
The underclass in America is permanently
depressed—in both the psychological and economic senses of the word.
###
We also have to make a distinction between sadness and depression.
I’m not sure what that distinction is except “depression” feels
chronic somehow. Or perhaps
systemic is a better word.
###
The rampant homelessness I saw in California made me very, very sad, but once my eyes became opened to it, I started seeing the same thing
here. I don’t know why I ignored it for so long or gave New York City with its cadre of desperate subway riders and corner lurkers a pass. The homeless are
everywhere. And their numbers are growing—despite the fact, as we were informed by yesterday’s employment figures, that America’s economy is
booming.
It’s not as though I have a solution, of course.
“Well, they come from all over!” one person tells me earnestly. “They come from the Midwest! Like they’ll pick up someone on the street in Milwaukee and
buy them a bus ticket to New York or San Francisco!”
“They’re all mentally ill,” says another person. “They’ve marginalized themselves. And they’re all addicts.”
I don’t know whether either of those things is true or untrue.
All, I know is that to me the homeless phenomenon represents the beginning of a
profound breakdown in the social and economic fabric. We last saw a disconnect of this magnitude during the Great Depression, right?
In my mind, the phenomenon is related to
cocooning and the rise of social media although I would be hard put to articulate that connection at present.
The rising numbers of the homeless are evidence to me that America itself is
depressed—in both the psychological and economic senses of the word.
###
In other news, the Tax Bwana people had asked me whether I would consider becoming a site coordinator this year, so I showed up at the site coordinator meeting yesterday.
The meeting was so boring and the people in charge so unwelcoming that I’ve decided to table my dreams of executive power.
Tax Bwana-ing is gonna be a mess this year anyway. Apparently last year, some site coordinator in Connecticut ran into a Starbucks on her way home and left the engine of her car running. When she got back outside, the car was gone—along with all the computers from the site, which contained God knows how much sensitive personal information.
What kind of a fucking idiot leaves her engine running outside a Starbucks, I would like to know?
Anyway, the size of the breach is not known and was certainly not reported upon. Presumably the types of people who avail themselves of Tax Bwana services are not the types of people whose personal information commands high prices on the Dark Web.
So,
this year, they are replacing all PCs with Chromebooks. Chromebooks store everything on the cloud.
And they are forcing all the sites to install proprietary WISP routers, which oughta be a fucking nightmare.
So. Not a great time to be a midlevel functionary in the great Tax Bwana bureaucracy.
###
Also watched
Marriage Story. Well-made movie about white people problems. Presumably the story of Noah Birmbach’s divorce from Jennifer Jason Leigh.
The movie made me inexplicably irritated though I’m not entirely sure why. Possibly because Greta Gerwig—an actress/director I actively
loathe—had a surrogate in it: Merritt Weaver as the bumbling, wonky sister whom the audience is supposed to find
adorable even though there’s nothing whatsoever adorable about her.
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