By
Jay Fox
Brooklyn, NY, USA
My generation gets traumatized for breakfast – Summer Smith
Future generations will no doubt
stare back in wonder at our time. To say that the Trump administration has
changed the face of the United States would be an understatement. The damage
that he has done, and continues to do, is something that will be studied for
decades. However, it's not policy that concerns me. What I find to be the most
destructive facet of Trumpism is what it's done to our bearings within the
world of facts. It's nothing short of astounding.
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Jay Fox |
While Dostoevsky famously wrote,
“If God does not exist, everything is permitted,” the Trump era has created an
equally profound and disorienting sense of vertigo with regards to knowledge.
For us, it seems, there is a feeling that if Donald Trump is president,
everything is believable. It doesn't matter how conspicuously absurd the news
is, you will inevitably find people who believe it. In fact, even rational
people, people who follow the news and are well-read and have studied politics
and history, may be lured into the sense that something utterly fantastical is
possible.
As America goes to bed tonight, all
of the very serious people who are paid very well to be the thought leaders of
the two dominant political parties of the world's sole super power are arguing
about a piece of satire that claims that the President of the United States
spends whatever time he's not mowing down cheeseburgers and drowning his
sorrows with a bottomless cocktail of Fox News, vitriol, and Diet Coke or
blasting off tweets that may either continue a feud with a C-list celebrity or
destabilize an entire region ordering previously recorded images of gorillas to
attack each other.
You have to ask yourself at this
point: Is this real? Are we living in reality or is this all just a simulation
created to appease the American Caligula? (Random fact: Caligula is Latin for
“little boots.”) Is it possible that Trumpworld is actually just a virtual
world that was created by some evil genius who plugged Trump in and allowed him
whatever his heart desired, thereby meaning we're just strings of code under
the illusion of consciousness?
This may seem like an absurd
question, but I am posing it at a time when Americans are expressing
uncertainty about everything from evolution and climate change to whether or
not the world is flat. This is a time when conspiracy theories have oozed from
the furthest fringes of the internet and onto the History Channel and the front
page of formerly reputable publications, fueled in part by provocateurs who see
no harm in exploiting rubes to make a few bucks and Russian bots hoping to
foment political discord via tweet. Yes, if Donald Trump is president,
everything is believable, but you would think that there would be a limit.
Our culture has become mired in
fictions and absurdities, and anyone who immerses themselves in it long enough
can't help but become mired in a perpetual state of outrage. At best, they end
up raising increasingly captious arguments that would seem petty to a
kindergarten teacher; at worst, their sense of trust becomes so pliable and
tribalistic that they only believe what reinforces their existing opinion and
reject everything else. Such an environment begins to take a toll on you. Every
day there is a new monstrous thing that comes creeping out of the sewer of the
internet or the White House, and eventually you have to make the decision
between becoming wholly absorbed in it or cutting yourself off by finding
something else to occupy your time.
For a lot of people, this outlet is
Netflix. It's understandable. There's a lot of good television being produced
right now. For me, however, it has become playing music—on top of writing
actual fiction. And I feel that I'm not alone, especially when I play out with
my band, High Pony, at a place like Brooklyn's Alphaville (140 Wilson
Avenue, Bushwick).
I would like to say that Alphaville
holds a special place in my heart, but I think that such a statement would be
premature. I've only played there twice, and it's far enough away from my
apartment that it's not a place that I frequent with any regularity. However,
the last time I played there I sensed something special.
Even though we arrived to play on a
Thursday night in the direct aftermath of a blizzard, and even though every
other venue this side of the East River had canceled their shows for the night
because there was an understandable concern that owners would lose money from a
lack of attendance, Alphaville not only stayed open—they managed to attract a
sizable crowd. In fact, I've played Friday nights in places with better access
to trains and without a foot of snow on the ground and had a far worse turnout.
This tells you that the venue
itself has a draw, which is important to any community of musicians. It's
because it allows for a space where an event is possible. True, it's not a
revolutionary event in the sense of Badiou or Deleuze, but it's something
similar. This is where you come to learn about new bands, even if you don't
know anyone on the bill. It's where a musical community begins to form a
spontaneous identity, which is beginning to happen. (Think of the New York City
punk scene in the 1970s and how it had its roots connected to places like Max's
Kansas City and CBGB). While it would be wrong to say that Alphaville is
uniquely capable of being a place where a new breed of rock can spawn, it is
really one of a handful of venues that has any real gravitas in Brooklyn now
that Shea Stadium has closed.
Such places are necessary if a
musical community is to flourish, and, perhaps more importantly, they are
absolutely necessary for people who need to get the hell out of Trumpworld, if
only for a night.
I believe that people can escape it momentarily without losing sight of the larger and more difficult projects that lay before us. After all, if Donald Trump is president, everything is believable.
I believe that people can escape it momentarily without losing sight of the larger and more difficult projects that lay before us. After all, if Donald Trump is president, everything is believable.
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Jay Fox
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Jay Fox is the author of The Walls and a regular contributor to Stay Thirsty Magazine.