It was funny to be in Denver in June, as the quarantine was being lifted, and the protests were plateauing. Jared and I checked out a couple marches downtown - teachers and activists chanted against inequality, ironically positioned around a large homeless encampment, ignoring the drifters with mental disabilites that occasionally confronted the crowds. The city hall was desecrated; I guess that counts as some sort of productive statement… And most of the businesses - hopeful to finally open after lockdown - were boarded up for fear of continued looting and riots…
I’m not sure how anarchy implies better lives for anyone, how dismantling “the system” is meant to benefit a populous… I think people forget that without a functional civilization and agreed upon grand narrative, most of us would be much worse off…(I shudder to think..) But anyway, it *is* nice to see people consciously wanting to improve things, even if the actual strategies make no sense to me. Obviously every society has room for continued, immense improvement, even while more people than ever live so much better lives than anyone in history.
I was happy to relocate from the apocalyptic vibes of downtown - full of stark poverty, angst and blight - to the “hipster” part of town (Five Points and RiNo) for a boozy, relaxed afternoon. It’s so funny how we live these dualist, compartmentalized lives: we switch between politically-minded cries against authority, then settle in for the usual idle chitchat about what we actually care about: gossip, personal lives, drinking. I guess it’s emblematic of a big city to offer options for both of these things. And I guess that makes us (or at least “me”, anyway) privileged.