How beautiful indifference was
in a world that was not indifferent,
     in a world that was different, convulsive
          and contradictory, with stakes and passions.

Back then, the indifference of the mind
could turn into a stake or a passion,
in total opposition to the world.
It could anticipate the indifferent future of the world
and turn this indifference into an event.

Today,
     it is difficult to be more apathetic,
          and more indifferent than the facts themselves.
The world in which we operate today is apathetic,
indifferent to its own life, without passion,
and deadly boring.
There is no point in being dispassionate
     in a world
          without passions.
Being dis-invested in a world without investment
makes no sense.

That’s how
we have become orphans.

Excerpt, Radical Thought by Jean Baudrillard, La Pensee Radicale published fall of 1994

This is our final day in Eagle River.  I take joy in the expanses of pine woods, the silver birch trees, the deer which are seen at dusk.  The north woods is a place of retreat.  Downtown Eagle River consists of several blocks of small locally owned businesses.  To my eye Main Street seems much the same as it did many years ago when I first visited.  The area economy is dependent upon the “tourist trade” the summer vacationers who come for the fishing, and resort-life by the lakes.  In winter when the snow is deep, snow mobile devotees come for the long trails.

Tomorrow we depart west for Minnesota.

Eagle River and perhaps most of Wisconsin, with the exception of Madison and Milwaukee would be considered Republican in political allegiance.  The passion for “gun rights,” freedom from government, no-one-is-going-to-tell-me-what-to-do is evident in many small ways.  Driving the highways, and through town the American flag is prolifically displayed.  In recent years, patriotism/love of country is equivalent to conservatism, to displaying the flag.  And there was the smallish blue sign displayed at the head of a driveway.  Make no mistake antipathy, the will to obliterate the present administration, and indeed all of the Federal government percolates under the surface for some.

In my imagination I wonder what it must have been like to live in a past time, a time when the stakes were clear cut.  For example what were the stakes for our ancestors who lived in 13 colonies, for leaving British rule, repudiating the overlordship of King George?  Britain was the super power of the day.  Departure would be paid for in blood.  They knew what was at stake.

And what about our great great grandfathers who lived in the 20 years or so before the outbreak of shelling of Fort Sumter in April of 1861.  The stakes were evident:  abjure slavery, an economy built on human trafficking or leave the Union.  The Southern states chose to leave.  There was no mistake about the stakes.

And what of our fathers time leading up to December 1941?  The Axis powers extended their military might to envelop their neighbors.  Given the Fascist mindset the odds were good that war was coming.   And then on a Sunday morning Japanese naval air power struck at Pearl Harbor.  The stakes were clear: fight or die.

Presently, the world is painted in shades of gray, a nihilistic miasma of depression, fear and anger — a significant minority of Americans are clutching their guns.  More are waiting for paperwork approval in order to make a first time purchase.  Business has never been better.

We are in the clutches of a resurgence of covid 19 pandemic, the Delta variant more contagious and deadly.  Yet in Florida and in Texas the governors outlawing mask mandates are willing to sacrifice the lives of those unlucky to become infected.  By decree of the governor in Florida and Texas you cannot require that patrons of your business or that your employees wear a mask.  The fact of a deadly pandemic is turned on its head by politicians willing to commit manslaughter to remain true to “conservative principles.”  For some science no longer entails any moral obligation for a common good.  We can no longer say “our faith in the truth,” — the “our” no longer exists.

We are orphans of a reality that has come too late.