Boozehound Unfiltered: Loonshine

A fantastic Christmas gift from the Missus, Loonshine Liquor is the first offering (launched in 2014-- though- they've done more since then) from Loon Liquor of Northfield, Minnesota. Just looking at the bottle, they already kind of had me: locally sourced organic ingredients? In a whiskey? Sure. I'm all in. Gimme. But when you go their website and read their story- it gets even better. These two guys launched a microfunding campaign that raised $11,500 which enabled them to get an SBA Loan and then in November 2013 they became the first two people in Southern Minnesota to get Federal permission to produce spirits in over 100 years.

Organic. Locally sourced. And small, locally owned business that literally started as an idea two dudes had? What is not to love about this? Well, if the details don't get you interested I'm happy to report that their product more than lives up to the hype. Loonshine has a barley and wheat grain bill and is filtered through in-house crafted birch charcoal. Here's what I got when I did my tasting:

Color: Pale and almost clear, there's just a hint of the palest shade of yellow when you hold it up to the light. Honestly, this is probably the lightest colored whiskey that I've ever tasted that's not straight up moonshine. The color gives you pause a little bit just for the moonshine factor... you're honestly kind of bracing yourself for a real nice kick in the face, as Moonshine is often inclined to do- but with Loonshine, you get a pleasant surprise instead.

Nose: The nose on this is hard to figure out-- if I had a guess, I might point to the barley used in the grain bill because there's a savory, almost grainy smell to it but the more you smell it, there's an underlying sweetness to it as well. It's not harsh at all-- the alcohol content doesn't singe my nose hairs or anything, but it's intriguing. After a lot of sniffing, I settled on 'spicy grain' or maybe rye bread of some kind. The nose on this is one of the most complex and unique I've ever encountered.

Body: Oh man, this is nice. It's well balanced on viscosity but it just melts in your mouth. Buttery smooth mouthfeel and there's a little bit of spiciness there, but it's not at all harsh. No burn here, just seriously gorgeous delicious stuff.

Finish:  Oh this is nice... so nice. So smooth. It warms gradually and just goes down a treat. It's like buttah! But whiskey, which makes it better.

Overall: Delicate, smooth and buttery this is one of the best whiskies I've had in awhile. I love the fact that it's locally owned, locally sourced and organic- and best of all, it's all because two dudes just sort of decided to make some whiskey one day. Amazing story, amazing product. My Grade: **** out of ****

The Psychology of Masculinity

A minor internet brushfire erupted a few days ago when the American Psychological Association announced it was issuing it's first ever guidelines for practice with men and boys. On the face of it, it didn't seem like that big of a deal- I dug a little deeper and actually read some of the APA's summaries of the guidelines and it's less bad that it's being made out to be. Consider this 'graph from the APA:

But something is amiss for men as well. men commit 90 percent of homicides in the United State sand represent 77% of homicide victims. They're the demographic group most at risk of being victimized by violent crime. They are 3.5 times more like than women to die by suicide and their life expectancy is 4.9 years shorter than women's. Boys are far more likely to be diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder than girls and they face harsher punishments in school- especially boys of color.

Seems eminently reasonable, right? Certain segments of the Right have been banging on this drum for years now. There's a 'War On Boys' in our educational system. Men commit suicide more. Men work in more dangerous jobs. Men are on strike. It doesn't take much digging to find the 'won't somebody think of the men' segment of the internet- so I don't understand why the hell these guidelines are causing such a shit fit. The APA seems to be acknowledging, 'hey, there's a problem here and we should probably figure out how best to tackle it.' Isn't that what these people have been wanting for awhile now?

"Grown Men Are The Solution, Not The Problem" proclaimed the National Review. The APA was declaring war on 'traditional masculinity.' "So long, masculinity, you're a relic of unenlightened times," proclaimed another headline. Psychologists have become 'activists, not healers' and you only have to look at the demographics of psychologists to see the real problem! As a field it's becoming overwhelmingly female!

I haven't done a deep dive into a lot of the literature on the 'war on boys' business, but I know it's out there. As a man, I find a lot of it both interesting and annoying. Interesting because if concepts of femininity and what it means to be a woman can be explored through things like feminism, it kind of makes sense that me that you'd see similar explorations of what it means to be a man in 21st Century. That's all fine- I may not particularly agree with the notion that these explorations need to be conducted through the lens of feminism exclusively- but it makes sense. Traditional gender roles have shift a lot in the past five decades alone- dudes trying to figure out what it all means in a contemporary context makes sense to me.

Where it becomes annoying is that a lot of it seems unnecessary. I don't need to fit into a box. I don't need definitions. I believe there are many different ways to "be a man" and trying to force men and boys into defined 'boxes' of masculinity, traditional or not is an incredibly unhealthy message to send- to young boys especially. I would really, really love to never hear the words 'toxic masculinity' ever again. The idea that you're telling young men that who they are is wrong...  that it's unhealthy. It's sickening and disgusting. Any starting point needs to be there. You can't send the message that somebody is wrong. If we were talking about 'toxic femininity' or about how 'traditional femininity' was bad, people would lose their damn minds. We need to start the conversation somewhere else.

That, however, doesn't mean that we shouldn't have the conversation at all. Basically, it all comes down what I would describe as the Billy Elliot problem. Basically, if boys want to dance, they should be able to dance. I mean this is 2018 and to be honest, I'm not sure anyone should care all that much. True story: I was in ballet for like ten minutes when I was a wee lad. Didn't stick, because here I am writing this blog post instead of being the lead in a production of Swan Lake somewhere or something- but if they want to dance, let them dance. To me, that just seems like common sense- but when the Eldest Spawn who had previously claimed pink as his favorite color came home from kindergarten and announced he wasn't going to where pink any more it was kind of soul crushing to realize he was picking this crap up from the playground- because- and I had to really sit myself down and think about it, just to be sure- he wasn't picking it up from me.

The fact that he brought that home from school suggests that the Billy Elliot problem is more embedded in society than people think. (The whole Kevin Hart thing is kind of illustrative of this as well. As a comedian, his tweets may well have been intended to hold a mirror up to the preposterous and ridiculous fears we have- or they may well have been his actual fears, but the fact is that as little as a decade ago, they were real fears for a lot of men out there. They probably still are, for a lot of men, but not nearly as many men.)

If you want to fit every John Wayne stereotype of masculinity, you should be free to do so. I don't think being all stoic (though, depending on who you talk too- stoicism is en vogue in some quarters these days) and repressing your emotions is that health and someone should tell you that. You shouldn't feel like you have to hide your real feelings away. You want to cry at a sad movie? Go ahead. I know it'll probably make people roll their eyes to read this, but real men aren't afraid to feel things and let their emotions show. Taking care of yourself and keeping yourself in good shape isn't a a bad thing. Taking care of your family and your loved ones isn't a bad thing either.

Do men face problems today? Yes. Should psychologists maybe consider how best to tackle those problems? Yes. Do we have to change how we talk about masculinity for anything useful to come out of this never-ending shouting match? Yes. Does society have a lot of work to do to end the stigma of mental illness and addiction? HELL YES. Is it increasingly silly with our divorce rates, the amount of both genders in the workforce and the increasing majority of women on our university campuses to put the words 'traditional' next to words like 'family' and 'gender roles' and 'masculinity'? Indeed it is. While I'm happy that the APA has recognized that men face problems today, the debate that's erupted from the recognition only proves that the debate and discussion about masculinity today has a long way to go before anything useful can actual emerge from it.

UPDATES: Well, this seems to be the trending topic of the week...  this article makes some good points and Gillette ran into the buzzsaw of 'Get Woke, Go Broke' yesterday, which was incredibly disheartening to see. Though some of the more cynical replies have a point: their bigger problem is probably that beards are in style and there are better blades out there than theirs. I know I haven't used a Gillette razor for years now. 

Netflix & Chill #56: Sorry To Bother You

Watched On: Hulu
Released: 2018
Directed By: Boots Riley
Starring: Lakeith Stanfield, Tessa Thompson, Jermaine Folwer, Omari Hardwick, Terry Crews, Patton Oswalt, David Cross, Danny Glover, Steven Yeun, Armie Hammer
Rotten Tomatoes: 93%
Pick: Mine

I can't remember when I first saw a preview for this movie, but the fact that it centered around a telemarketer sort of intrigued me. Having done a six month stint as a telemarketer and two rounds at Wal-Mart over the years I can confirm that there are some truly shit jobs out there and a movie that tells the story of one of them made me interested at least- but Sorry To Bother You is more than just another story of another workplace we haven't seen before.

Cassius Green (Lakeith Stanfield) lives in his Uncle's (Terry Crews) garage with his girlfriend, Detroit (Tessa Thompson) who is an artist. Struggling to pay rent, he takes a job as a telemarketer at a firm called RegalView. He has some trouble connecting with customers until an older co-worker (Danny Glover) advises him to use his 'white voice' to make sales- Cassius does so and his success goes through the roof.

His co-worker, Squeeze (Steven Yeun) is forming a union to rally the workers for better pay and working conditions and recruits Cash, Detroit and their friend Sai to the cause. They launch their initial protest and Cash expects to be fired, but gets promoted to the elite 'Power Caller' position. He gains access to the luxury Power Caller suite where's told to always use his 'white voice.' He learns that RegalView secretly supplies arms and unpaid human labor from the corporation WorryFree. He's initially uncomfortable with the job and using his 'white voice' all the time, but he can afford a new apartment and pays off his Uncle's home. His hours get longer and longer  and he stops participating in the union and his relationship with Detroit starts to fall apart...  when he crosses the union picket line he gets hit in the head with a can of soda, which goes viral on the internet and becomes an internet meme.

Invited to a party with WorryFree CEO Steve Lift (Armie Hammer) and Lift offers Cash what he thinks is cocaine. Looking for the bathroom, Cash finds a horse-human hybrid who begs him for help and learns the truth about what he thought was the cocaine. Lift reveals that WorryFree wants to make their workers stronger and more obedient by making them into the horse-human hybrids that Lift calls 'equisapiens.' The powder that Cash thought was cocaine, was, in fact, a powder that genetically modifies the user to change them into equisapiens-  Lift assures him that what he snorted was, in fact, cocaine and Cash refuses a $100 million offer to become one and act as a false revolutionary to keep the employees in line.

Trying to get the news of the equisapiens out there, Cash goes on television shows to try and get the video played, but it backfires. The hybrids are hailed as a scientific achievement and WorryFree's stock goes through the roof. Cash apologizes to his friends and leads a final stand against the Union. He reconciles with his girlfriend, Detroit and they move back into his Uncle's garage- but then Cash begins to grow horse nostrils and full transforms into an equisapien- once he's fully transformed he leads a mob of hybrids to Lift's house and breaks down the door.

Initially, I was somewhat skeptical at all the critics and buzz hailing this movie as a 'powerful critique of capitalism.' The longer this movie has sort of sat with me, the more I realize that I sort of agree with that. In a lot of places, workers are treated as little more than commodities. Maximization of profit is king, consequences be damned, the life blood of your company be damned. What makes Sorry To Bother You so damn effective isn't the unionization or the fight better working conditions or salaries or any of that- anyone with half a brain knows that a good job and good benefits are increasingly hard to come by for a lot of people- especially people of color or those fortunate enough to be born into the right socio-economic class. What's chilling to me is the idea of the equisapiens: it's pure magical realism absurdism science fiction, whatever you want to call it- but you know damn well that some corporation somewhere leaned back in their chairs and said... "hey, that's not a bad idea, actually." And that to me is the true power of this film: it illustrates what's a fundamental problem of our modern economic system today: for too many companies today there is nothing they wouldn't do, no worker they wouldn't exploit to make more money for themselves.

Overall: Dark, absurdist comedy at it's finest this movie grew on me quite a bit, the more I thought about it. Excellent cast, great story and one hell of a directorial debut from Boots Riley. My Grade: *** out of ****

This Week In Vexillology #279

Our grand tour of the counties of England continues with our next two counties up- we're heading back east across England to my home county of Cambridgeshire and it's next door neighbor of Suffolk!

First up, Cambridgeshire

I was born in Cambridge, but I can't say that I have a particularly close relationship with my birthplace- it's not like I get back there a lot. But that being said, I'd like to get back there and get to know the place of my birth a bit better. I've done the usual things- the wandering through the colleges, punting on the river, etc- but if there's a 'someday, maybe' on my list, it'd be to spend a few months there and actual live there for awhile to see what the place is really like. In the mean time, my home county has a great motto: Corde Uno Sapientes Simus, "With one heart let us be wise."

How do you get there? I've always perceived Cambridge as being north east of London, but it's more straight north. Cambridgeshire itself is in the Fens and is more or less between Bury St. Edmunds, Bedford and Peterborough. Bonus historical fact: Oliver Cromwell was born at Huntingdon.

What about the flag? Well it was registered on February 1st of 2015 with the Flag Institute...  the three crowns represent East Anglia, which is the historical region of Cambridgeshire. The wavy lines represent the River Cam and the shade of blue associated with Cambridge University.

Next up, Suffolk:

So where is Suffolk? Well my impression of Cambridgeshire being to the northeast of London was wrong, but Suffolk is northeast of London-- find Ipswich or Bury St. Edmonds and you're pretty much there. Low-lying arable land it seems like Suffolk is farm country It's also got the interestingly named city Bury St. Edmonds, which is actually were St. Edmond, king of the East Angles was buried- but weirdly the 'Bury' in Bury St. Edmonds doesn't actually refer to the verb 'to bury' it's etymologically connected with the word 'borough.'

Registered with the flag institute on October of 2017 and it's a design of the banner of arms of Saint Edmund which features with two gold arrows passing through a gold crown. The crown is a Saxon crown for the martyred Saxon King and has been featured as a symbol of his for centuries.

And those are the flags of Suffolk and Cambridgeshire!

Remember, until next time keep your flags flying- FREAK or otherwise!

Free Write Friday #4: Alpha Centauri Tales

Twelve pilgrims gather in the canteen about a spaceship bound for sacred Earth. These are the Alpha Centauri tales.

The chimes echoed throughout the ship, summoning us to canteen so the ceremonial first meal marking the start of the pilgrimage. The canteen wasn't much, but then again neither was the spaceship- spartan and basic, it was little more than a long table set in a wide, empty room toward the front of the ship with huge windows to one side of it so we could all see the first glimpses of our destination.

I was the fourth to arrive, slipping into my seat and looking out at the dust and fog of the Oort Cloud that surrounded the sacred system. Soon, the fog would lift and we would be there, well- not there, our final destination would take awhile to reach yet, but we would in the sacred system. We could begin the prayers and contemplation necessary to purify ourselves before we reached sacred Earth.

I had decided to tell my tale and the tale of my fellow pilgrims. It came to me one night in a dream and I thought it would be a suitable penance to extract from myself as we journeyed into the heart of the sacred system. The majority of humanity had long since fled to the stars and over the centuries, adaptations and biological changes had grown more pronounced as humanity adapted to whatever conditions it found out in the stars. Now these new off shots of humanity were often accused of losing their humanity altogether. We had fled to the stars and created whole new species, they said. Humanity was no longer one species, many said. There was no purity left in our lives. So, we return.

We return to the cradle, our womb. Some, like myself are sentenced as penance- in my case for a life of debauchery and drunkeness as well as to forgive a debt I could not repay. I was more curious than anything else. After all, who would pass up the opportunity to go to sacred Earth?

The chimes echoed again and snapped me out of my reverie as more and more of our pilgrimage party arrived in the canteen. Soon, we were all seated around the table and food was brought. We tucked into our food, some casting glances at the windows, trying to see if the dust and fog had begun to life. Though, I suppose, if I am to chronicle these tales I should introduce the players and tell you a bit of each of them.

THE KNIGHT
Yes, there were knights again. The Order of St. John had re-emerged after centuries and lead the colonization of Altair. This knight, she was proud, tall and fair, honorable to the extreme and seeped to the bone in chivalry. If she had a name, she would tell none of us- but she told us plenty of how she had won her honor defending the city of Palatye on Altair against a horde of the heathen Seljuks. She had seen the new library at Alexandria being built and had been one of the four knights to light the sacred lamps that spread the light of knowledge to all the systems that Order of St. John controlled. But she carried a secret that she had promised not to reveal until we stood on the ground of sacred earth.

HER SQUIRE
Where you have knights, you have squires and this one was fresh from the siege of new Picardy, her  tresses were long, her appetites lusty and she was tall and almost bird-like, the hallmark of many who had grown up in low gravity environments. Attentive to the needs of her mistress, she was a proven fighter, an accomplished singer and, by all accounts, a vigorous lover- at least if the voyage from Proxima Centauri had been any indication.

THE MINER
He traveled alone, his eyes covered in opaque, thick rimmed glasses as he was not used to the light. A lifetime spent mining asteroids in the darkness of deep space had left his skin pale and sallow. He was a solo prospector, drifting from asteroid to asteroid, with only his robot mining machines as company. He had struck rich, an asteroid with a core of solid magratheum, which in an instant had made him a wealthy man indeed. Now, he wanted to pay homage to the Gods that had sent him this good fortune.

THE PRIESTESS
Shastra Valada, high Priestess of the First Church of Minerva was clad in her ceremonial robe of snow white owl feathers, her face was proud and regal but her manner kind and modest- if that makes sense. She looked the part but didn't play the part in the slightest. Other than her feathered robe the only other sign of office that she carried was her trident ringed with the talons of various species of owl. She was on her way to rededicate the temple of Minerva on Sacred Earth, to purify herself and prepare for guiding her followers through the long years ahead.

THE NUN
She had a nun with her

THE FOUR PRIESTS
And four priests.

THE PLAYBOY
Cornelius Archibald Vanderbilt IV, or Cav as he insisted on being called dressed in the most flamboyant colors possible, as befitted the fashion of the rich and powerful that held sway over the Denebian system. He caroused. He drank. He gambled. He was a lecher who pursued men, women and sentient beings of every gender you could name. One too many crashes of his family's pleasure barge and one too many arrests had around the ire of the family matriarch, Agatha Vanderbilt. The font of his families money, she had declared, would be cut off unless he went on pilgrimage to Earth. Whether it would mature him or reform him remained to be seen.

THE MARINE
A tall mountain of a man, Andrew Jones had a long scar running down the side of his face, which he claimed to have received fighting the infamous Pirates of Irokon, who made their home in the nebula below Orion's belt. He had seen landings at New Prague. Fought in the great war that had threatened to consume the whole of Orion itself. After that last great battle, with ships aflame in the skies above New Bratislava he had lead the assault on the Mahdi's stronghold and with his last bullet had been the man to strike the fanatic down. There, in the rubble, in the burning, fetid death of the city, he had vowed to never fire another bullet or take another life again. He was going to Earth for enlightenment and a spiritual renewal.

And there there was me, the Writer. The Gambler. The Drunkard. Trying to tell the tale of the pilgrimage to sacred Earth to pay my debts, to begin another chapter. To tell another tale. The twin suns of sweet Proxima Centauri lived in my dreams. I longed to feel their warmth again, free of the debts that were threatening to drown me. We were all assembled now. The waiters were bringing the food and the wine. And the chimes sounded one more time and we turned from glancing at the plates of steaming food to the windows behind us. While we had been watching them bring the food and wine, the dust and fog of the Oort Cloud and the Kuiper Belt had vanished. Before the ship stood the reddish heart of the first planet on our journey to the sacred earth: Pluto.

HERE ENDS THE PROLOGUE OF THIS BOOK AND HERE BEGINS THE FIRST TALE, WHICH IS THE KNIGHT'S TALE...

So, Let's Talk About The Arena

I've worked quite a few basketball games this season so far and have logged far more minutes in the bowels of Carver-Hawkeye Arena that I usually do in any given season. In general, I arrive at my scheduled time, head to my Hobbit Hole and hunker down and do my thing for the course of the game. It's not usually that big of a deal or particularly hard or stressful work. It's just work. It makes for a nice post-holiday paycheck.

But here's the thing: I've never actually taken the time to really stop and look at the Arena. I'm somewhat plugged into the local Hawkeye Sports Commentariat on Twitter. I see the grumblings occasionally about how bad the atmosphere is in Carver, but I never really paused to consider why that might be until this past Sunday when I slowed down, took my time getting to my Hobbit Hole and kind of really looked at the Arena. I mean, when you get right down to it- what's the point of an arena anyway? There's seats, there's a court, there's a concourse with food and assorted swag you can purchase. In every respect, Carver-Hawkeye perfectly fulfills the basic requirements. You go, you watch game, you get soft serve and/or Carver Dog of indeterminate quality, you go home. What more do you people want?

I think part of the problem is age. You go from 'Historic Kinnick Stadium' which has been carefully renovated to preserve old and new, is full of brick archways and brick in general- and when you're not there for a football game, it's a pleasure just to look at the architecture of the place. (Also, they don't usually add the 'Historic' part in italics, but they sure seem to say it that way over the PA.) You feel the history in Kinnick Stadium. In contrast, Carver-Hawkeye Arena opened the year I was born. It just turned 36 actually (Happy Birthday, Carver!) so it's hard to feel the sense of history you get in Kinnick.

If you look at places like Williams Arena up in Minnesota or Assembly Hall down in Indiana, they're almost palatial and you can feel that sense of history- even if pieces of the ceiling do fall down on the latter location now and again. You get a sense that Iowa used to have that when they were still playing basketball at the Field House (which would have been legit cool to see I think- and I often wish they were able to play a game now and again over there.) Carver on the other is the soft serve vanilla ice cream of basketball arenas: perfectly servicable in every possible way and on occasion the best thing you've ever experienced.

What about logistics? This was a novel new complaint I saw on Twitter. People leave early to get to their cars and beat traffic. I can sort of understand that when we're up by thirty against a team like Savannah State. It stretches credibility that people can't park close enough for their liking. The Dental Lot is right across the street. Finkbine Commuter isn't that far away. Nor is Lot 43 North or any number of side streets in and around the arena. Curbside parking right next door isn't going to be possible for everyone. Wishing for closer parking seems kind of like a bullshit cop-out. After all, unless you're in the Gucci Lot at Kinnick (Lot 43 West) you're gonna have to do some walking to get there as well... yet curiously, people don't seem to have nearly the same issue with that there than at the Arena.

Is it kind of tucked away in a limited footprint? Yes, it is. But is there a pressing need to expand parking for the arena? Not that I've seen.

There's also the little matter of scheduling... when a decent sized chunk of your games fall in between semesters it might require a little creativity to pack the joint... things like theme nights help, but if you're a local and your kiddos are off school on winter break, the price just isn't right for you to load everyone up, go down to the arena, park, get all the kiddos into the arena, get tickets if you don't already have them, find your seats and then get the inevitable pleas for soft serve and hot dogs out of the way...  it's not an impossible sell for a lot of people, but if the price isn't right, given the option, a lot of people will just stay home.

I mean, it's not like the Athletic Department isn't trying...  there's pyrotechnics now and we had an Ugly Sweater game a few games back. (I totally forgot my ugly sweater that game and was kind of bummed.) I just feel like their sense of creativity is in about second gear (where the senior citizen end of the fan demographic probably likes it) when they should be taking the opportunity to put things into fourth. Throw the spaghetti at the wall. See what sticks. Sell out the Arena for men's and women's basketball-  that should be the goal... get some more butts in seats.

Which brings us around the chicken v egg question of it all: does the product on the court help or hurt you? I think it's a little of both. Obviously, when your team is good you're gonna have more fans in the building. But I also think there's an argument to be made that if the overall experience is fun, it doesn't matter if your team wins or loses- though obviously, the former is preferable to the latter.

We tried to go see a Hawkeye Soccer game last year and they had a Field Hockey game going on at the same time. There were inflatables, face painting and people just brought lawn chairs and blankets and people just plopped down at the edge of the pitch to watch the game. If it wasn't for the rain and the lightning, we would have spent a nice, chill and more importantly fun afternoon watching the match. Football is sort of a leviathan. Fans and alumni are going to come to town from all over the place to watch the game and do tail gating and all the trimmings. Basketball doesn't have that advantage- but some thoughtful proposals to improve the fan experience at the arena and to maximize the fun could get more people to go.

In the meantime, I will keep lurking on Twitter and tallying complaints...  just to see if a wish list emerges of what people actually want for an 'atmosphere' at the Arena...

Where Does Change Come From?

I got into a Twitter discussion with The Quiet Man in early December that ended with a thought provoking statement on his part: "I always wonder if change is possible w/the current system or if it needs to be changed."

Both.

I think the answer has to be both, because that's the way our constitutional system is designed and it's also the way a hyper-connected society has more power than it ever has before. Every society and every country you can name me is going to have an entrenched elite of some kind that is resistant to change- they're at the 'top' of the heap, whatever that particular heap is for any given country and they like where they sit.

From a strictly American point of view, everything is centered around those three little words: 'We, the people.' The mechanism for real, lasting change is entirely in the hands of the voters and our representatives. Constitutional amendments can be passed by Congress. An Article V, Convention of States can be called. The problem, I think with contemporary society is that change- real, honest to goodness systemic change is pretty damn difficult to achieve. Hell, getting Congress to pass a bill feels like something of an impossibility these days. So in the age of Amazon Prime and online grocery deliver, when we're all slaves to the conveniences of modern technology.

Change doesn't arrive like magic with the click of a mouse button and free two day shipping. It takes work. It takes debate. It takes arguments. It takes consensus. All of which are in short supply these days- it's easy for people to say, 'well, our side should just be able to do what we want and everything would be better.' That's the dynamic we're stuck in right now- it's simultaneously scary and irritating all the same time. Scary because if the pendulum swings far enough and wide enough to hand one side or another power enough to actually make changes, then I could see things going sideways and destabilizing the entire country very easily. Irritating because despite all the think pieces about Congressional apportionment and the Senate, no one is willing to do the work to make the real change.

Partly this is because the system runs on talk. It's ephemera really. We shout at one and other over issues large and small. Politicians posture and make speeches. We tweet. A thousand Facebook memes are launched- and nothing really gets done about it. Part of that is a feature and not a bug... the entrenched elites benefit far too much from the way things currently work to be interested in actually solving a problem or two. The other part of it really is a bug. Social media is the worst possible medium for meaningful and substantive discussion on the issues of the day and in a country where we talk to our neighbors less and our sense of community is, if not being lost, then evolving into something we haven't quite figured out our ability to talk to one and other seems to be slipping away as well.

I wanted to be more analytical about this post. I was doing dives into Wiki-pages on William Jennings Bryan and Reconstruction. I was trying to learn about preference cascades and how common they are. A brief and totally non-rigorous glance at history reveals a few interesting things: change can happen through excess- the Gilded Age lead to the Progressive Era. It can happen through backroom deals and the shenanigans of smoke filled rooms- and not always for the better as the Presidential Election of 1876 proves. It can happen we the people decide that they've had enough and chip away at an injustice little by little until the cracks are running through the edifice of injustice and it crumbles once and for all, as we saw with the Civil Rights Movement.

So, is it hopeless? As much as you might think so, I don't think it is. Ranked choice voting is a good example of this- there was a recent controversy in Maine about it that was finally resolved- but more and more cities are using it for municipal elections. It's out there, building slowly, city by city, creeping into the public consciousness. Marijuana and to a certain degree gay marriage worked in kind of the same way...  once one state legalized it, more were bound to follow. I also think, if you cut through the noise and bullshit of everything, we're not as bad off as you might think. Social media magnifies all the wrong things. Cable news doesn't help on that score either. You'd think we were standing on the edge of a precipice to very bad things indeed, but I think...  when push comes to shove, I really think that there is more that unites us than divides us.

The system does need to change. The system can change. It's just up to us to make it happen, one way or the other. It's trite as hell to bring it back to that tired old saw by Gandhi, but it's kind of true, really: be the change you wish to see in the world. I think we could all do a better job of that.