Music N' Other Drugs

“Half the world hates What half the world does every day
Half the world waits While half gets on with it anyway” – Neil Peart

Leave it to a Canadian to encapsulate the irremediable state of American society in 2024. Peart wrote those lyrics for Rush’s “Test for Echo” album back in 1996, but they feel heavier and more apropos now that both sides have made it clear that coexistence is futile. I, like most citizens of this once-virtuous nation, watched last week’s presidential debate in a state of disbelief regarding how far the standard has fallen and how little can be done about it at this time.

The Biden Administration has spent the past few days denying the inevitable and pretending that his 36% approval rating is as flawed as Enron stock exceeding $90 in 2000. While I don’t blame him for refusing to back down, his inner circle should be savvy enough to know that such stubbornness could cost him at the polls and be willing to take the keys away when needed. I would have more respect for him if he bowed out gracefully rather than continued on as if our minds were playing tricks on us, but we live in a world where self-awareness is secondary to self-interest.

All that matters to the extreme left is preventing another Trump term by any means necessary, so I’m not convinced that Biden’s presence is even needed for them to execute the plan. He’s a placeholder until the real candidate gets installed, which should be any day now.

As a 36-year-old millennial, I’m supposed to be all-in on the progressive agenda like the majority of my college classmates were, but the past 15 years have pushed me closer to the other side than I’ve ever been before. I can’t even say that it’s the policies as much as it is the smug disregard for anyone not in the club that has put such a sour taste in my mouth, because, when it comes down to it, I couldn’t care less about what Chuck D. calls “the jackass or the elephant.” We knew what Trump was about the moment he hit the scene as a real estate developer back in the 1970s and his rise is a byproduct of the perception, fair or not, that an entire bloc of traditional hard-working people was being left behind in favor of the new groupthink.

Just as age, felony convictions, and overall wellness factor into the FBI’s hiring process, the same should go for the highest office in the land. Neither candidate would pass muster there, so why are we lowering the bar at a time when corporate media is quick to promote the narrative that this is the most important election in our lifetime?

Perhaps the joke is on me for expecting the presidential race to play out any differently than what is happening in every other aspect of our culture, because the softening of standards has become commonplace. No one wants to work, no one wants to push themselves beyond what is expected, and no one believes that personal responsibility should play as significant a role in our lives as it once did.

I was one of those sickos for whom the New York State Regents Exams provided a welcome challenge to score as high as I possibly could despite the tests being designed to trip you up, but, in the name of equity and inclusion, the board has now decided to go in a different direction. Instead of strengthening the meritocracy, we’ve provided students yet another way to get out of doing something that previous generations thrived on.

While I understand that not everyone learns the same way, my parents also didn’t instill in me the desire to blame external forces whenever I didn’t get my way. The Games of the XXXIII Olympiad are set to open in Paris this month, but they’ll never be more popular than the victimhood Olympics that so many Americans participate in on a daily basis.

As a father of three boys under 10, I’m constantly at war with the prevailing mindset that men are the enemy and adherence to identity politics is the panacea for all of one’s ills. I’m a firm believer that I can raise them to be respectful and responsible human beings without embracing the nihilism that the mainstream has come to view as sacrosanct. Despite ongoing efforts to de-emphasize the importance of the family structure, most sociologists would tell you that my wife and I are still their primary agents of socialization.

I don’t really have a circle of friends and I don’t spend time that much time in public places outside of grocery stores or concerts these days, so I’m not all that concerned about how this piece will land with other people. I’ve said from Day One that this site was all about truth and transparency in the face of insanity, but, as The Smiths asked back in 1984, what difference does it make?