I’ve been hearing a lot about the idea that our current situation is the fault of the American voters, some even suggesting, in this paper and elsewhere, that the public can’t be trusted with the task of participating in a democracy. Given that this week covers the inauguration and return of a very divisive president, I think it’s worth addressing something often overlooked in this line of thinking: No matter your opinions and criticisms of democracy, we don’t actually live in one of those. Our political system is essentially an unrefined, centuries-old version of British parliament, where, thanks to the electoral college, a handful of senators represent vast areas of land — not people — like a modern House of Lords. We are tethered to something invented by men who basically lived medieval lives: Traveling by horseback, writing by candlelight, unaware of the germ theory of disease, evolutionary biology, and the wonder of cartoons, movies and the music of Miles Davis.
G.K. Chesterton wrote, “Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of classes: our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead,” and he meant it in a positive way. But that’s really the core of the conservative project: Rule by aristocratic ghosts and vampires overseeing decaying institutions that are increasingly lethal to the living. This causes desperation, desperation breeds fascism and our delusions of representation are a byproduct of both.
We are living through the full realization of a feudal system where electoral influence is purchased in key states, and small, reactionary populations have outsized power. You cannot blame the voters for this. By the time of Reagan, you had a senile figurehead whose ship was helmed by players made up of cutthroat political operatives, religious zealots, and “deep state” military and intelligence types whose entire project was the domination of American capital interests over the wellbeing of most of the planet’s people. FDR’s legacy of protecting American capitalism from itself by creating a state invested in its own citizens had to be dismantled, and without Cold War communism as a political counterpoint, that machine has turned inward to eat itself. Every president since Reagan has been a servant of that consumption and largely ineffectual as individual leaders. The special interests that control the system are various factions of wealth accumulators and are unaffiliated with the interests of the general American population, beyond the extent to which they can use us as servants of extraction. There are no boundaries to this project, nor is there anything precious or taboo that cannot be exploited, mined and destroyed in the process. We are blood bags, slaves to deluded pharaohs who have confused several lifetimes of accumulated wealth with immortality. This is a death cycle that, ever increasing, will destroy everything we recognize as life unless we collectively reject it.
So, in a sense, the inauguration of 45 into 47 should be among the least of your concerns. Get to know your neighbors and find a way to bond. Our only hope is to vote by abstention from the system as a cooperative body politic, with the sole interest of the dignity of universal humanity as our goal. Culture war and identity grievances must be put aside in favor of unseating the sickening class corrosion that has fully become the structure of our Republic.
Have a nice week.
Thursday
Greensky Bluegrass is a quintet from Kalamazoo, Michigan who have, for the last quarter century, been building a large following through constant touring and high-profile appearances on the festival and jam band circuit. As the name suggests, the group uses a bluegrass format from which it deviates into the light show theatrics and noodling passages more familiar to fans of Phish and the Grateful Dead. Tonight at 7:30 p.m. at the Blue Lake Casino, you can dabble in this world of precision pickin’ and jamberoo-ing for $50, $40 if you get your tickets in advance. To drive the jam band point home, local Dead celebration act The Magnificent Sanctuary Band will be playing the afterparty in the Wave Lounge starting around 9 p.m.
Friday
The Basement is the place to be tonight for a sultry ride on the jazz train from downtown to the up-tempo neighborhood with stops all along Funk Street. Swizlo’s Mystery Lounge is the name of this joint, which will be helmed by the eponymous key-master from Object Heavy and beyond. Also on tap will be some special members of our own Humboldt Hip Hop community, including one of my favorite doods, the talented Mr. Flo J. Simpson himself. It’s at 8:30 p.m. ($10).
Saturday
The Arcata vintage shop Redwood Retro is an interesting up and coming venue, filling a much-needed spot on the scene with an emphasis on the DIY, casual nature of a town whose offbeat charm and mushy beauty seems on the verge of evaporating in the face of high rents, poor management and lowering imaginations. The best things in life are free, or at least very close to it, and tonight’s show at 7 p.m. is a prime example. $3 (and NOTAFLOF as well) is the dictum of the door, for the opportunity to hear some fine and loud electric stringed sounds and beating drums courtesy of the mighty Black Plate, The Breakfast Collection and Monkey Business. This one’s all-ages, too, which is just right.
Sunday
If you missed yesterday’s performance at the Calvary Lutheran Church in Eureka, fear not, you need only head over to the Arcata Lutheran Church to enjoy a 3 p.m. matinee performance of chamber music courtesy of the Borromeo String Quartet. Expect a casual atmosphere for this gig, as the music of Finland’s national composer Jean Sibelius will be punctuated by opportunities for open-air chit chat between the players and the listeners, which sounds just lovely for a Sunday afternoon in midwinter ($20, $5 students).
Monday
Donald Trump is getting sworn in as president on MLK Day. Take in that information however you will.
Tuesday
Asbury Park, New Jersey, is considered a working class, garage rock mecca, despite over a half a century of time passing since The E Street Band and all of its satellite musicians and bands formed into concrete reality and moved on up into the land of rock ‘n’ roll mythology. However, the town still seems to be minting new musicians, including rising jam band Dogs In A Pile, who will be gracing the stage at the Arcata Theatre Lounge at 8 p.m. Tickets are going for $25, which suggests that the group has an audience but has plenty of room for a few more folks.
Wednesday
Tonight is the first of a two-night residency at the Arcata Playhouse for the Jamie Baum Quartet. Headed by the namesake flautist, this is modern jazz played about as good as it gets, as the CVs of each member is a who’s who of the big players out there making and defining the genre in the post-Miles era. 8 p.m. ($20, $15 students and seniors).
Collin Yeo (he/him) supports choosing your words carefully in this era of widespread illiterate violence.
This article appears in ‘A Big Family’.