Further thought

It occurs to me that the continual need for competitive adaptation–the very real fight to be cool, which seems to be very acute in cities like Seattle and Portland and San Francisco–is tiring.  This itself would lead to the longing for stasis of the sort created by totalitarians.  Time stopped in Cuba, didn’t it?  This mythic longing was perhaps well expressed as well by Dormammu (?) in the Dr. Strange movie.

They called them “hippies”, because being cool, being “hip”, was in their very genetic profile.  It was interesting for a time, but the obsession with novelty fades, and is replaced with a need to stop.  But it is unclear where or how to do that.  One cannot return, and one cannot create something new without the trauma of creating boundaries, of creating non-negotiable demands.  So it seems, I think, to many.

I sense that perhaps many feel Islam represents a possible solution to this quandary.  It is categorically inconsistent with Western ideals, but very consistent with the need for perfect fixity and the final and complete absolution of individual moral conscience and struggle.  One can finally merge with a herd which in principle never changes.