Goodbye 2023

It is an interesting and terrifying intellectual exercise to imagine what this country might look like this time next year. It is quite possible that we will freely elect, as our nation’s leader, a man who once tried to become a dictator, and who has quite openly declared his intention to be a dictator if he takes office again. And that we would elect him, not because we think he doesn’t mean it, but because we really want our liberty to be replaced with tyranny.

Trump stated that he would only be a dictator “on day one.” What he meant by that is that he would illegally force what he considers necessary reforms on the nation, and then go back to following the rules the next day.

Anyone who believes that a one-day dictatorship is a possibility hasn’t read any history books. Anyone who thinks that it wouldn’t be so bad doesn’t understand what “dictator” means. Anyone who thinks that Trump doesn’t really mean it has a very short memory.

What Hamas did in southern Israel was horrific and not remotely justified by anything in Israel’s treatment of Palestinians in the occupied territories. What Israel is doing now in Gaza is horrific and not remotely justified by anything Hamas has done.  It is collective punishment on a massive scale. Israelis are traumatized and rightly enraged by what Hamas did on October 7. That must not stop America from using every diplomatic, political and material lever at our disposal to stop our ally Israel from making more Palestinian civilians suffer and die.

It is appalling to me to see that our government’s support for Ukraine is flagging. Politicians try to justify material support for Ukraine and Taiwan as being in our “national security interest.” I think that is a rather abstract argument, and somewhat dishonest. If Putin’s tanks rumbled through Kiev and enormous portraits of Chairman Mao adorned the Taipei 101 building, I don’t believe the safety of American citizens would be affected, or even that our economy would suffer much damage. I think we should support Ukraine and Taiwan because it’s always the right thing to help a democracy survive against a tyrannical aggressor. And we’re not talking about sacrificing American lives (or at least not great numbers of U.S. ground forces), but just tax dollars. Why is that such a hard sell?

This post may not be insightful, eloquent, or exciting, but at least it is entirely composed by a human being, without the aid of an AI engine. Really, I swear.

Does it matter? I think so, but I’m not sure why.

Speaking of AI, I’ve noticed a new, unpleasant phenomenon lately. We went to have lunch at a restaurant we like, not only for its food, but for its pleasant, cozy ambience. There would be jazz ballads or bossa nova chestnuts playing softly in the background. And so on a recent visit I heard some piano jazz ballad playing in the background. Something soothing: a slow-striding rhythm on the bottom and lush chords or scale runs on top. It sounded like the long improvisational interlude in the middle of a jazz standard. As we waited for our food to arrive, I listened and waited for the music to resolve itself into something like “I Get Along Without You Very Well” or “Blame it on My Youth.” But it never resolved into any melody at all. It just went on and on and on, a pleasant-ish and never-repeating string of chords and runs.

Now, I was probably the only one in the joint actually listening to the sound coming over those little speakers in the ceiling. It was intended to be just background music, after all. But having started, I couldn’t stop hearing it. And getting pretty creeped out.

I’ve become an unwilling student of teeth in old movies. It started a few years ago when I watched the Disney chestnut Old Yeller. In this brightly hued Technicolor presentation, I found myself annoyed and distracted by Dorothy McGuire’s conspicuously yellow teeth. George C. Scott’s grin as the title character in Patton is a suitable death’s-head gray. The film version of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum is in a class all by itself. The comedy relies largely on close-ups of the slave Pseudolus, played by Zero Mostel, mugging for the camera. Mostel appears to have subsisted on candy, cigarettes and coffee, without the benefit of regular dental care.  (Fairness compels me to state that I do not have a marquee smile. My lower teeth in particular comprise a periodontally healthy but unaesthetic yellow jumble.)

After one publishes a novel (or, as in my case, a translation of someone else’s), one is initially worried about getting negative reviews. Or only getting positive reviews from personal acquaintances to whom you’ve sent a free copy. Then a couple of weeks go by. And a month. And one day you’d be grateful even for a negative review from the dentist you gave a free copy to.