"The world is a looking-glass, and gives back to every man the reflection of his own face. Frown at it, and it will in turn look sourly upon you; laugh at it and with it, and it is a jolly kind companion; and so let all young persons take their choice."
-William Makepeace Thackeray (Vanity Fair)
"All that I shall repeat after her, must be true, without any intermixture of falsehood, but where I may happen, without intending it, to introduce my own conceits."
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau (A Discourse Upon The Origin And The Foundation Of The Inequality Among Mankind, 1762)
I heard the term, "OK boomer" for the first time last year, when reading about an exchange between a young woman and an older male, both of whom were politicians. The latter had begun to interrupt her speech, and she replied with the phrase. I hadn't realized it had been around for a while, though it wasn't a surprise that it was.
There's always been "generation gaps," and it's obvious that there is one now. One sees labels like "snowflakes" directed at Millennials, forgetting that parents (who generally aren't boomers) really can't claim credit for the younger generations successes and escape blame for their failures.
It doesn't help that more than a few boomers want their childhoods to be recorded by historians as a Golden Age with music as great as Mozart and Beethoven, with deeds of courage and faith that helped to raise mankind's philosophical and political IQ to new heights, and made the phrase "Peace and Love, man" the rallying cry for a life free of materialism, war, and long prison sentences for pot smokers.
One out of three isn't bad...keep in mind, I'm oversimplifying for brevity, and know it's all a lot more complicated than my essay makes it.
...the media and the single image...
The media coverage of the so-called testy exchange implied that it exemplified the gap between Millennials and baby boomers, which is a type of generalization often used in the arts and media. The general idea is that an attitude or situation can be encapsulated in a single image, or "truth" that the audience can relate to (or the bias). That concept is sound when communicating a feeling or sense of what an situation is about, but can quickly degenerate into bigotry when used as a label or description of an entire group or subculture.
In the case of the Boomer/Millennial gap, it's probably no different than generation gaps throughout history, and they probably aren't fighting or being hostile to the extent that this or that media writer suggests. In this case we're talking generally about grandparents and grandchildren and that bond is historically more amiable than with parents.
Most artists and reporters aren't consciously trying to create labels. The various forms of media work under limitations of time and space; the necessity to ensure a two hour movie or two minute news feature make perfect sense to an audience. That can require that the point be kept simple (or exploitive, but that's a different subject).
But like religion or politics, the temptation to insert one's conceits into the message can be overwhelming, and often end up saying more about the creator than the subject of the work (or to become banal in order not to offend advertisers).
The woman's retort could be more fairly described as an assertion that her statement needed to be respected as an adult opinion and not the ramblings of a young whippersnapper needing an older person's (generally male) approval. If I was her grandfather, I would have approved. Others boomers might think differently of course, but I'm sure more than a few who read about it felt a sense of pride that this young woman had shown some real gumption.
...playing devil's advocate...
However, if I, who is (as a matter of disclosure) a boomer, can play Devil's Advocate, and luckily my comments section is moderated; a more cynical view might be that any Millennial's supposed attitude problem is due to knowing that they'll be inheriting a world that still has plenty of wars (that they have to fight in as soldiers), where women and minorities are still trying to achieve equality, governments with more commercial sponsors than a NASCAR driver's jumpsuit, and in the US, a massive national debt that will probably make prosperity attainable only by a lucky few.
One could then say that "OK Boomer" is a pretty mild retort, and certainly more gentile than "tear down the walls motherf----r," "steal this book," "everybody must get stoned," or the immortal "hippie chicks are easy, just tell them it's uptight to say no." That last phrase might not be worded correctly. It could be "make love, not war" so both are included here in the interest of adhering to Internet levels of accuracy.
Millennials are heavily featured in my book. Not because they were all paragons, but because many of the characters are in that age group. They are a diverse lot; baristas and retail workers, gang members, runaways, drug couriers, groups that harassed the homeless, suburban kids slumming with homeless teens, druggies, and even illegal street racers that operated in the same late night hours as the meth heads and hookers.
Many in those aforementioned groups or subcultures showed a nobility that would shame a career politician, and also there were those who were broken or twisted by the sins of their elders, who exploited or abused them.
...one set of differences...
One difference between the Millennials (in the book anyway) and the older age groups was that they did their acts of kindness to the homeless without calling attention to it or outing them. In one coffee house, for example, the night manager and crew gave up the perk of keeping the near expired food, and near closing time passed the packages around but made sure the homeless got extra.
It eventually became obvious when I came in to work on my laptop that two or three packages (always a meal and a desert) would be given to me. It was never explicitly said that it was because I was homeless; it was just described as a treat for customers. Many of the clerks would remark that I was such a good regular that they would give me a free coffee that evening, and again, it was done so casually that I didn't realize it was to help me.
I later found out that many in the night crew were volunteer homeless activists who could quickly spot people like me. Their discretion protected those homeless who could pass for a regular, as the other customers were often quick to complain to the day manager about those who looked obviously homeless.
...two worlds brought together...
In a sense, they brought me into their world, protected my dignity, and made sure my lifeline to wifi and electricity was secure. More importantly, being able to sit among the other customers without harassment kept a sense normalcy in my life.
That's why the portrayal of the young is sympathetic, with admiration for the decency in so many, and sadness about the fall of others. The good in those coffeehouse workers was potentially in every one of them, so the loss of those who fell short or went bad seemed all the more more tragic.
When I learned that Millennials dismiss the crabbing of older generations (it's not just boomers who call them snowflakes in unmoderated comment sections) with a phrase like OK Boomer, it struck me that they had probably had begun to find an identity, like the hippies did in the face of ridicule by many even in their own age group, and that's not a bad thing. If they respond with Molotov cocktails and bombs, then we should worry.
The twenty-somethings will certainly make mistakes and learn, but most will be worthy of our trust. Believe me, retired boomers in an increasingly troubled world will need them to be, and luckily, most Millennials love their families and will rise to the task.
"One of these days, when you hear a voice say: 'come,' where you gonna run to? You're gonna run to the rock for rescue, but there'll be no rock."
- From the reggae song "Johnny Too Bad" (written by Trevor "Batman" Wilson, Winston Bailey, Roy Beckford, and Derrick Crooks, aka The Slickers) Note: authorship of song differs in other sources.
Power worship blurs political judgement because it leads, almost unavoidably, to the belief that present trends will continue. Whoever is winning will always seem to be invincible."
- George Orwell
(Continuing on about power from earlier blog entries)
Any undercurrent of force and power has to be "respected." That's not the same as agreeing with it, but realizing that notions of what power is exist and are a reality if people believe it. Most romantic ideas about street life are really exercises in power worship, an old concept that Orwell discussed now and then in his essays.
Orwell never actually defined "power worship" in his various essays. The clearest description was "a fascination" or "fascinated admiration" as described in his essay, "Second Thoughts On James Burnham." Burnham was a writer who felt that power is a primary motivation or drive. Orwell felt that it was really only a "belief," saying that "power hunger, although only dominant in comparatively few people, is a natural instinct that does not have to be explained, like the desire for food."
Orwell's observation is that such statements are more likely to be a clue to the writer's belief or motivation. In the case of Burnham, Orwell felt that the theory about how power is a primary motivation was described in such a way that it indicated a unspoken fascination and even admiration for those who successfully use force to further their aims.
...looking about...
In one early scene in my book, I'm sitting in my car, observing a new area and a picture unfolds about what the social structure is. In spite of having read Orwell in the past, I still made the mistake of seeing my surroundings in terms of power; that is to say, a macho food chain like in the movies. Yet my perception was at least a little correct because it was a reality that many of the participants ascribed to.
The real laws of nature assert themselves over the course of the book and as the various apex archetypes were revealed to be actually prey, I had to make course corrections in my survival strategy, rejecting the quasi-religious notion that "the streets" are a omnipotent power that crushes the weak and sinful.
In other words, I could see that being a tough guy or entering into their world would get me into trouble, and being "street smart" was really a matter of not playing the game, or staying off that grid, so to speak.
...the streets, and the prepper life...
Hollywood movies and TV shows like to show "the streets" as an hierarchy ruled by alpha types such as gangsters, dealers and pimps, with the exception of macho heroes who kick butt, and all other life forms in descending order with women at the bottom (though one could be redeemed by finding the right man).
What I found, after becoming homeless, was that a large part of street life does look like that on the surface. That hierarchy ruled by alpha predators does exist but that social order depends on the participants agreeing it does, either consciously or unconsciously.
I saw that street myths have a different reality, that the power of such images is fueled by agreement (albeit with coercion too). I think that drug users, for example, have to accept that a pusher is closer to the top of the food chain out of need. The drug scenes are an environment that can imprison you, yet the key to the locked door is in your pocket. That escape, quitting drugs, can be a tough nut to crack, but it's there.
A good analogy that explains how to stay out of trouble (in most cases) on the streets is that you do have to step into that room to be affected. If you stay out, very little happens. That was often easier said than done, but it was a principle that could help keep a person out of trouble, or at least minimized it.
Which incidently, is at the core of Prepping or survivalism.
...off the grid...
The term "prepper" has come more into view in the media due to the Covid crisis, and the food and supply shortages caused by the resultant panic buying.
The stereotypical view that Preppers are all paranoid doomsday hoarders hiding out in the boonies is, of course, a media creation. Kind of like making the homeless seem like a bunch of meth heads who poop on sidewalks. It's a sort of clip art image for lazy reporters and writers to plug into stories on tight deadlines, and doesn't offend advertisers and gentrifiers.
The truth is, or at least in my sympathetic opinion, that prepping is actually a wide, sprawling scene made up of diverse individuals and subcultures that only have being prepared for the worst as a common thread. It can range from normal people who know that poop happens and stock up, to those convinced that society is going to break down into a morass of anarchy, strife, and famine.
The irony of extreme survivalism is that it can only be practiced in a stable society that leaves them alone with their massive stocks of food and supplies, because in reality, such a hoard would be a prime target for well armed gangs and individual predators. Those who create private farms to escape anarchy and live off the land would quickly become serfs allowed to keep only a small portion of the crop, assuming that they're allowed to live.
That's not conjecture. Just take a look around the world at those societies that have broken down and it's obvious that there aren't many survivalists sitting around with personal supply dumps.
...the grid...
That doesn't mean the concept of "living off the grid" isn't without merit. In fact, the idea of increased self reliance that most Preppers ascribe to is a sound one. As we've seen, much of the panic buying that has occurred lately (particularly in the US, where else...) is essentially a knee jerk reaction to the fear of supply shortages that Preppers faced and mastered a long time ago.
Also, the idea of living off the grid doesn't literally mean isolating oneself from society. It's really a flexible principle that can encompass avoiding manipulation by various types of groupthink or propaganda, nonconformity, emotional independence and common sense.
In the previous essay about street life, the idea of avoiding entanglements in drug scenes and trouble spots is a clear example of spotting a system or mentality, a grid of sorts, and avoiding it. That's not an obvious point, as homeless camps and drug scenes have elements that can appeal to those who are addicted, feel overwhelmed and lost out
It's a discipline or outlook that stresses preparation, and is definitely an acknowledgement that Murphy's Law is a real thing. However, like with any system of thought, it's subject to misinterpretation, corruption, and in well off cultures, commercialization and consumerism.
For example, it has to said that the United States has done to mainstream prepping what it does to pretty much anything it touches; make it a boutique industry that sells a lot of overpriced items like four dollar packs of ice cream flavored deserts and expensive accessories like bad ass survival knives that only do one tenth of what a cheaper Swiss Army Knife does. In other words, for more than a few, it's become a cult lifestyle complete with accessories and toys to fit any doomsday fantasy.
But you can't eat a survival knife. I know, because I was silly enough to buy one and later ended up selling it off for gas and food. I will admit though, it was a pretty cool blade that made me feel like I could take on a forbidding wilderness and make a fire in any environment. The problem was, any open fire in an urban environment will draw complaints and cops like flies and so my blade never reached it's potential.
...about Preppers...
In my Swiss Army knife of a book, yes, I do talk about Preppers. The book is essentially two parts or cycles, and the first ends with a stay in the Sierra Foothills where Ivy and I were given the opportunity to live in a trailer home for six weeks.
The primary theme of that chapter is actually PTSD, but in that remote area there were several people who were living off the grid and were a truer picture of what prepping is all about. They didn't make any pretense about being prepared for the end of the world. Nobody who's serious about the apocalypse is going to live in an RV or trailer home with thin walls that could barely stop a BB and live close to main highways.
The various homesteads lacked the style that Internet road warrior bloggers show off on social media, but to a discerning eye, it was obvious that many properties were laid out well, allowing for possible flooding and access during snow season. Sheds and other storage areas where in good repair, orderly garden patches were common, and satellite dishes were used to stay connected to, you guessed it, the grid.
I was sympathetic to this lifestyle as the same principles of common sense applied to living in a car. By the time we arrived in this area, what was kept in the car had changed a great deal. Gone were the various toys and trappings of my old life, and my trunk now contained a supply of as much spare food and water as possible, and gadgets that were actually useful.
It wasn't fancy. A lot of the survival cupboard was food most people would turn their nose up at, or think was inedible. There were bricks of granola bar rations each good for two weeks of meals, spam, canned beans,fruit and vegetables, dry dog food (which Ivy hated but would eat if hungry enough) and water. Very plain, but affordable in large quantities, and in the case of the fruit, each was also a backup source of drinking water.
...no matter how bad...
That supply had one very important purpose; I knew that no matter how bad things got, we had food. I saw people make a lot of bad decisions because of hunger or anxiety over it, and knowing there was a one month emergency supply of food in the trunk was a very real comfort. I kept it well packed and out of reach to ensure it was never used casually.
I knew one other thing that many people don't know; that when you're hungry enough, all that emergency food was going to taste just fine. Even more important, quantity trumps five dollar single servings of dehydrated beef stew. When food is scarce, that's ten cans of beans versus one pack of boutique food. That's a few days versus one meal.
There was another reason why I respected those Preppers. It goes back to being a Boy Scout in the 60s, when it wasn't a particularly upscale activity. We went on inexpensive campouts and pretty much stuck to basic outdoor activities and woodcraft. I remember practicing map reading and trail signs, where we were blindfolded and taken to a random place and then had to find our way back to camp using only a map and compass. It's main value was not so much how to read a map, but to know how to stay calm, and use common sense.
The core of clear headed thinking is preparation.
That philosophy came in handy when I drove up into the Sierra Foothills to find that trailer home. The phone cut out, and with it the GPS and the map, and I became totally lost. But I did know the approximate compass bearing of the property because of seeing the google map image and because of instinct or whatever, I remembered the site being on a direct line northeast of the entrance to the foothills. That was because of my habit of closely studying any map being used for directions (due to not always being able to afford GPS).
...follow the arrow...
I happened to have a compass, not because I expected to need it but because one of my private identities out there was "Boy Scout" or "always prepared" (or at least try to be) and it was a token of that. I pulled over and got out of the car and looked down the compass needle to the north east and spotted a large bare cliff well off into the distance.
To make a long story short; I took any road or turn that headed towards that cliff, or at points where the forest blocked my view, where the compass indicated NE. I knew that in this sort of country, that there'd still be wrong turns, but as long as it was in the general direction of that cliff, I'd get there.
Eventually I saw a sign that said the town near that trailer home site was only a few miles miles away, and could go off the compass. When I later looked at a map, I could see that I'd only made a couple of wrong turns over 30 miles and that some of the other turns that looked more inviting would have put me on the wrong side of the mountains.
As it turns out, that big cliff side overlooked the valley that the trailer home was in.
It wasn't just the compass, it was the training that went with it, and to stay calm and observant. Needless to say, Boy Scout training notwithstanding, once I got into town, I stopped at the gas station and asked for directions. While I was at it, I bought a good road map of California and put that in the glove compartment so that situation wouldn't happen again (prepping is also a empiric process).
People do have a tendency to judge things by a single impression or superficials, and a lot of Preppers have been lumped into this or that unflattering image. At its best, it's really an attitude and a philosophy about preparedness and common sense and I'm sure there wasn't a single real prepper in those supermarket crowds loading up on toilet paper.
They'd already had that covered.
"It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones.” "But the Solar System!” I protested. "What the deuce is it to me?” he interrupted impatiently: “you say that we go round the sun. If we went round the moon it would not make a pennyworth of difference to me or to my work.”
- Arthur Conan Doyle (A Study In Scarlett, Sherlock Holmes)
I was in an antique mall the other day, and asked the guy at the counter if I could look at this tray of items kept under the glass counter. I wanted to examine what looked like a vintage Boy Scout pen knife. It wasn't one, but decided to sift through the pile to see if anything interesting came up.
At the bottom of the pile was a small replica of a railroad spike with a train on it that appeared to be made of lead or pewter, and while examining it the shop clerk remarked, "It's obviously a railroad spike with a train on it, but I'm not sure what it was used for other than a paper weight."
I looked closer, and then answered, "that could be, but whoever owned it used it as a pipe tamp." The guy looked puzzled, and I added, "the top of the spike is ideal for tamping down pipe tobacco, the owner was an experienced smoker, as he obviously tamped after the pipe was lit. Look, you can see the traces of ash on the head."
He seemed amazed at my deduction, and it reminded me of an old Sherlock Holmes story where he found a small object hidden in the grass outside a yard. Watson and the client were amazed that he found it, and Holmes replied that it was an easy search because he was actually looking for it. The immortal detective knew that the situation would leave certain objects as evidence. The appearance of deductive reasoning was actually a case of training that paid off.
...deduction and myth...
Although the popular appeal of Sherlock Holmes was in his use of "deduction," seen as a mythical ability comparable to divination, the author, Arthur Conan Doyle makes it pretty clear that much of it was due to having an extensive base of specialized knowledge. In other words, Scotland Yard made assumptions, Holmes worked with an extensive database of forensic data stored in his brain and acute observation skills.
In another passage, Watson is puzzled when told that his future roommate did eccentric things like beating a corpse to see if bruising and wounds looked different after death. Decades of detective and true crime shows have made such an experiment seem less shocking than it was during the Victorian Age in Britain, which is when the Holmes stories ran in the Strand Magazine.
The surfeit of data in the modern age hasn't lessened the appeal of the prickly, self assured detective whose methods were an important precursor to modern forensic science, and with his flaws and humanity, an important archetype of the modern mystery novel hero. In fact, there's always been a steady stream of TV and movie adaptations of Doyle's most popular character.
As far as analyzing that appeal, it's a well documented subject with a large body of data on the Internet and in the various medias, and no shortage of fans and hobbyists who can explain it. A Google search will turn up enough to give the seeker many happy hours of exploration, and from that one can develop their view of Holmes.
To be honest, I rarely watch those modern TV and movie adaptations, though I did enjoy the old PBS series that starred Jeremy Brett, who was a very true to the book Holmes. Even then, I stopped watching and never finished the series.
...living in the books...
The main reason is, in my case, that for me, the great detective lived in the books, and even then, that was an imperfect vehicle as the stories originally ran as a series of episodes in the Strand Magazine, starting with "A Scandal In Bohemia," in the July issue of 1891. The only Holmes editions I read are the ones that reproduce the Strand layouts.
When I say that he lived in the books, I mean that the Holmes that's part of my psyche was the sleuth that the author Doyle created with the written word, in a style that no visual art can duplicate. Also, as it was a serialized work, one can see that over time, Doyle slowly evolved the character and clearly decided to focus on the personalities rather than the plots (which were admittedly formulaic).
One great example is in the story, A Study In Scarlett, where Holmes confesses that he didn't know anything about the solar system. Watson is flabbergasted but finds that his friend could care less as there were more important things to know in his line of work. That's actually a trait that most geniuses share, a drive to excel in a subject or ability that can preclude wasting time on other irrelevant subjects.
Making the stories about characters was a stoke of genius, a technique that is now the bedrock of almost every TV series. There was a practical reason; the fact is over time, there's going to be a weak episode every so often and certainly there are relative flubs in the Strand stories but all are redeemed by the joy of another visit by that difficult genius of a detective and his faithful side kick.
Another element with universal appeal is the conflict between Scotland Yard Inspector Lestrade, and his presumptive and rigidly grounded outlook, and Sherlock's freer and more in the moment observations. We've all had to deal with those who try to fit situations (and other people) into rigid little boxes and attitudes. It's easy to identify with the hero.
...visiting an old friend...
Serious readers often compare the experience of reading a book to visiting another world or seeing an old friend again. Part of the appeal of the Holmes stories is that it is a process of discovery for the readers, who felt that with each installment, they came to know the characters better.
Holmes didn't enter the literary world fully formed; the Strand readers didn't know, for example, that he had a brother until well into the series, and as a rule, as Watson got to know his roommate, so did the readers. That's an element no single movie can easily capture. Even the PBS series, as great as it was, had to omit a lot of detail to fit into one hour episodes.
I was able to read the stories in approximate order of publication in the 70s when it was easier to get complete editions that reproduced the Strand versions, which were read late at night over a good cigar or pipe. It was a pleasurable experience on many levels. Of course a good cigar only cost a dollar back in the 70s, so that experience ain't going to happen now.
Sherlock Holmes is developed as a character in such a way that it can't be easily described, but to this day, I admire the stories so much that it's unthinkable to turn that love into fandom, and take in every book on the subject and watch every movie and show. The Strand version of the stories are how I enjoy it (but certainly wouldn't say that it's the only way).
A good way to describe my feelings is how I treat memories of Disneyland. I last saw it in the early 60s as a small child, and never went back. I've been asked why not, and have been told that it's now a wondrous place with rides and shows featuring incredible technology. From what I've read, I would have to agree.
However, I got to see it as a small child, and still remember how wonderful it all seemed at an age when being in the Nautilus submarine wasn't just a cool ride, but a chance to feel like I was actually in the world that the 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea movie had created. That's a feeling one can have in childhood, where the imagination and real world still exist in close proximity and there's a real sense of wonder (as opposed to it all being freaking awesome).
In other words, that was a magical moment and that's how I prefer to keep it in my mind. Sherlock Holmes lives in those stories that Arthur Conan Doyle wrote, and that's the Holmes I know and love, so that's where I go to visit my old friend.
- Al Handa
The Al & Ivy Homeless Literary Journal Archive:
There are earlier blog entries on the Delta Snake Review section of this site that aren't on the On The Road page:
http://deltasnake.blogspot.com
http://deltasnake.blogspot.com
Cover Reveal For Hide In Plain Sight
This is the cover for the upcoming book, Hide In Plain Sight, hopefully out sometime in 2020.
-Al Handa
The American Primitive Acoustic Collection by Handa-McGraw International can be streamed on all of the major services, including Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, and dozens of others.
The Music Of Handa-McGraw International can also be heard on the Electric Fog Factory on YouTube. You can hear the album, and dozens of unreleased cuts and demos, plus exclusive video of Ivy.
