SLOW-MOTION PENDULUM
Friday, November 6, 2020
Like watching a slow-motion freeway crash mess in slow-motion every few hours, which is then interrupted by endless hours of watching paint dry while talking-heads retell the same facts and point to the same maps over and over again – this is a slow-motion election result we aren’t used to seeing.
It’s been a source of momentary relief to turn off the news channels to hear only crinkling as I turn newspaper pages.
But then I get curious, turn on the TV and watch the pendulum swinging – as it often does on democracy, when people feel right, they get smug, and when they feel wronged, they get active, and then the political pendulum swings from left to right and back again, periodically pausing in the middle.
Watching election results is enough to drive you ‘round the bend if you weren’t already there. The one bonus about the American election dominating the news coverage’s constancy – it has pushed everything else to the margins.
COVID-19, meanwhile, rages unabated with cases up just about everywhere except Australia. And in Denmark, the mink have got it – so I expect mink coats will be on sale there soon, as the government is slaughtering a massive number of them.
Not to worry, COVID will be back on the front page everywhere soon …
Reader feedback:
Hip-hip-hooray for today’s musing Mark!, GB, Waukesha, WI
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