Mark Morford: Dear 2010; Be not like 2009
Tom Davos
Dear 2010; Be not like 2009 / Please let us never go through sh-t like
that ever again
It was a portentous night in many ways, this particular New Year's
Eve, and not just because of the auspicious moon. It was, most
notably, the end of the Aughts, the Zeros, the Zips, and everything
they contained, hurled, dragged us down into like a Goliath tarantula
drags down an unsuspecting sparrow.
(And yes, I also acknowledge how, technically speaking, the real end
of the decade isn't until this time next year. Whatever. We're going
with feel, energy, the flip and lurch of time and consciousness. You
going to argue with that)?
Let us just say it outright: Good riddance to the Zeros. It was, as
widely noted, the decade from hell. It was easily one of the worst
periods in recent American history, upwards of 3600 days drenched in
fear and ignorance and bitter divisiveness, nipples and anthrax and
macho shock n' awe, economic implosions and endless conservative
puling about God and gays and terrorism, all slashed through with so
much political misprision and presidential ineptitude it's going to
require many more years until we the deep, humiliating scars inflicted
by Dubya & Co. are fully healed.
But at last, we now have a moment, a ripe opportunity to turn away
from that dark period, that rank era, and look ahead. What will next
the decade hold? What magic and pain, splendid innovation and
unexpected smackdown could it possibly offer up? The possibilities are
astounding. The possibilities have rarely felt so... possible. This
much we know: It almost certainly can't be worse than the last decade.
And in fact, the signs are plentiful indeed that it will be much, much
better.
Evidence: We finally have a president -- and will have a president,
for much of the next decade -- who is simply light years more gifted,
articulate, diplomatic, calm, fair-minded, astute, eloquent and
(still) downright globally inspiring than any in decades. No matter
your stance on the inherited war in Afghanistan, no matter the fistful
of failures and disappointments to date, I remain fully convinced I'm
witnessing the finest, most exciting, historic, deeply effective
president in my lifetime, and probably yours. Don't believe it? Call
me in 2020, and let's review.
The best part: We don't yet know his full capabilities, his true
range. Right now Obama remains saddled with merely trying to unbury
us, stem the hemorrhaging, recover some of the brutal BushCo losses.
Such a task can't help but be frontloaded with bad news. But here's my
prediction: once he can more fully dedicate his energies toward
creating something new, instead of repairing the old and decrepit?
Exhilarating.
Already we have a huge, historic new health care bill, the biggest
shift in a bloated, impossibly fragmented industry in six decades. No
one thought it was even possible, much less in his first year. The
bill is imperfect and gutted and contains no public option or
single-payer plans and appears to make no one happy on any side of the
debate. But the truth is, it just might actually be far more loaded
with potentially revolutionary ideas than many, including me, even
realize. Is it worth considering?
What else? Take your pick. Assuming even modestly successful
scenarios, the coming decade will see the end of two botched,
miserable, costly wars begun by a president who had little clue as to
what the hell he was doing but plenty of hawkish cronyism and false
cowboy Christian machismo to make him do it.
A collapsed auto industry is cross-breeding with a green energy
revolution and consumer awareness to create an unprecedented influx of
cool, small cars not seen since the Japanese invasion of the '70s,
plug-in and hybrids and tiny badass European models and who knows what
else, as ingenuity kicks in and automakers finally realize Americans
don't necessarily want 18 cup holders and 7mpg and the ability to
traverse a Tasmanian flood plain when all they ever do is traverse a
Walgreens parking lot.
There is no more Michael Jackson. There will soon be no more Oprah.
There will be no more Tyra Banks. There will be less Simon Cowell.
There will be far less Jay Leno (praise!) No more Jon & Kate. Harry
Potter will wave his wand one last time and explode in a shower of
Flugglewumps and repressed hormonal Zigglewaddles, or whatever he does
at the end of that insufferable series. See? Things are looking up
already.
Will Facebook and Twitter survive? Sure. Will something new and
potentially even more useful and addictive come along in a dizzying
tidal wave of confounding tech joy to supplant their power and
influence in nearly the exact the same way they supplanted MySpace and
Friendster? Count on it. Right along with an Apple iSlate/iPad
world-altering game-changer. Hey, no one thought Apple could possibly
make a dent in the cellphone world either. And then, boom: One gizmo
to rule them all.
There might very well be a revolution in Iran, on a scale and of a
fiery democratic pulse no one really thought possible, given the
oppressive, pathetic, ultraconservative regime in power. So impressive
and inspiring might this revolution be that lazy, fat America might
just sit up and go, oh right, that's how you fight for your freedoms
and hold your government accountable and push back against religious
intolerance, misogyny, dogma. Now I remember.
China will outpace the US in every category except porn and gun
murders and tongue kissing in the streets. Meanwhile, India will
finally allow its first on-screen kiss in a Bollywood movie, if they
really want to be taken seriously as a true international film
powerhouse and not a brightly colored cartoon factory. Just a thought.
Climate change will cause enough ice to melt in the mountains of
Turkey that Noah's Ark will finally be revealed as verifiable truth.
Archaeologists will discover the big ol' boat was full of Buddha
statues and Shakti icons and golden Dionysus sculptures and huge stone
fertility penises, giant wine vessels and goddess offerings and the
seeds of many hallucinogenic plants, indicating it was actually the
site the first and greatest pagan bacchanalia party cruise of all
time.
Gay marriage will continue apace, as increasing numbers of states and
nations across the planet understand that love is indeed liquid and
dynamic and evolutionary and is not, and never really was, meant to be
defined/confined by narrow-minded, lumpish religious
misinterpretation.
Will all be positive and inspiring? Will there be dancing in the
streets and recovered tuna stocks and free Wi-Fi in the Gaza Strip?
Will all brooding teen vampires shut up and die? What are you, high?
A million things could go wrong, and almost certainly will. There is
no shortage of ignorance, religious puling, teabagging deathpanel
birther Palin-esque whinebot Glenn Beck laughingstocks. But if the
'00s were the decade of alarmism and a desperate clinging to Christian
Puritan myth, let the '10s be the decade of integrity and movement,
experimentation and possibility and a complete, messy, fundamental
overhaul of all we thought we were. What, you have a better idea?
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2010/01/01/notes010110.DTL#ixzz0bNCPrbBh