We still say Happy New Year as per tradition and it is the polite thing to do. Not much point in grumbling Miserable New Year in mixed company, what was one trying to achieve anyway? But the traditional phrase grows ever more alien with each passing year, the increasingly inscrutable relic of a passing age.
It would be more accurate to say something like Tenuous New Year, or Transitory New Year, or even Downgoing New Year, as impossible and cumbersome as those phrases may be. There are still plenty of enjoyments to be had, and we're still able to manipulate the symbols in a way to still suggest some sort of tenuous collective efficacy and competency and prosperity, though those things are rapidly slipping away and everyone knows it. But the overall tendency is still, despite the solidifying knowledge, to force a smile and push it all down and maintain at least a social semblance of optimism.
At least in this space the tendency is to explore the less dominant aspect of that dialectic, the minor to the major in that relationship, which grows everyday towards an eventual dominance of its own: the deterioration of the efficacy and power of the industrial world to perpetuate itself in its ideal form. This is the less polite and enjoyable subject for mixed company, though nevertheless titillating and exciting in its own way because it is where things are going and where they will be, and then that knowledge and eventual harmony will be important for successive generations in their own navigations across this increasingly unsteady landscape.
Alas things are changing fast. The most popular holiday movie on Netflix at the moment - however controversial Don't Look Up is proving to be - is a movie about (spoilers) the abject failure of a powerful and wealthy society to head off catastrophe, where the Hollywood happy ending consists of a chosen family enjoying a quiet dinner before being wiped out, and shortly after that, the wealthy fools who ruined everything yet managed to escape the planet nevertheless getting their just deserts as they disembark onto a hostile land. Hmmm, something is in the air.
I've already said much in just these couple of paragraphs that needs a whole lot of unpacking. A lot of the early writings for this year will consist of exploring some of these things. In the meantime, it is indeed another year. Let's enjoy what is still here. Over in California, it is a beautiful crisp clear and sunny day, uncharacteristically quiet. I think I'll grab some beer and snacks and sit in the sun.
