Wildwood – Page 2 – The Burning Platform

WINTER OF OUR DISCONTENT MEETS FYRE FESTIVAL

“When a condition or a problem becomes too great, humans have the protection of not thinking about it. But it goes inward and minces up with a lot of other things already there and what comes out is discontent and uneasiness, guilt and a compulsion to get something–anything–before it is all gone.” ― John Steinbeck, The Winter of Our Discontent

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Sometimes I wonder about strange coincidences. In an email exchange with Marc (Hardscrabble Farmer) in the Fall, he mentioned he had begun reading Steinbeck’s Winter of Our Discontent and planned to write an article about it. Coincidentally, I had just bought a used copy of the same novel at Hooked on Books in Wildwood. I didn’t plan on buying it, but I’ve read most of Steinbeck’s brilliant novels and felt compelled by the title and our national state of discontent to select it from among the thousands of books in the store.

Marc had posted his Steinbeck-esque article in December, but I didn’t read it until I had finished the novel. Marc’s perspective on the value of money and his diametrically opposite path from Ethan Hawley, the discontented anti-hero of Steinbeck’s final novel, was enlightening and thought provoking. I’m sure it impacted my consciousness as I wrote this article.

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WORLDS MADE BY HAND

Having recently finished reading The Harrows of Spring, the fourth and final novel of Jim Kunstler’s World Made By Hand series, I couldn’t help but compare and contrast his dystopian post economic collapse America versus our current warped egocentric pre-economic collapse America. His world made by hand is forced upon Americans who have survived some sort of conflict resulting in the destruction of Washington D.C. and Los Angeles by nuclear blasts.

The Federal government has ceased to exist. The nation has splintered and varied factions are vying for power in autonomous regions of the country, but the small community of Union Grove, New York has been left to fend for itself. The four novels detail the trials and tribulations of average Americans in a small rural town after the implosion of modernity, as the world is stripped of its technological oil based comforts, devastated by terrorism, racked by epidemics, and having endured the ravages of economic collapse.

Kunstler’s dystopian future isn’t as bleak as the dystopian visions of 1984 or Brave New World. If dystopian means a world characterized by dehumanization, totalitarian governments, environmental disaster, or a cataclysmic decline in society, then Kunstler’s World Made By Hand series doesn’t match that characterization. There is more humanity and hope in his novels than you would expect in a dystopian vision of the future. The novels focus on various types of societal segments who represent the different courses society could chart after a breakdown of modern social norms, enforced by central authorities. Living through a national catastrophe and stripped of the modern conveniences provided by cheap plentiful oil, the citizens of Union Grove see their community falling apart from neglect, natural decay, disease, and lack of hope for the future.

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THE SHAMROCK IS LIKE A BOX OF CHOCOLATES

You never know what you’re gonna get when you go to the Shamrock. We had a short three day stay in Wildwood this week. I had to replace the busted TV stand, rehang the sliding doors in front of our washer/dryer pulled down by a previous tenant, and have the air conditioning company fix my one year old air conditioner that froze up on a previous tenant.The joy of being a landlord never ends.

I have a few random anecdotal chocolates gathered over our short stay. The crowds were thinner (not literally) as college students and even some high school and grade school students were already back in school. There was also less riff raff, as only working people can afford to stay for a week at the shore in August. Shockingly, we ended up at the Shamrock all three nights. When we walked in at 10:30 on Wednesday night Billy Jack was playing Brown Eyed Girl on his stage in the middle of the bar. As soon as he noticed us, he yelled out our names in the middle of his song. It feels like Norm walking into Cheers.

We’ve become friends over the years and once someone told him about my blog articles about Wildwood and the Shamrock, he has become an occasional reader of TBP. He enjoyed my articles detailing the crazy stuff that happens at the Shamrock on a nightly basis. He now broadcasts to the entire bar that they should read my blog. I do not tell people about TBP when I’m out socializing. I work under the assumption that most people do not want to read about corruption, government malfeasance, libertarian-ism, the hopelessness of our political system, or the coming downfall of the American surveillance state empire of debt.

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