If Odysseus landed in modern-day Washington D.C, he would be viewed with the darkest suspicion, photographed and finger-printed, his iris-print recorded. He would be handcuffed and interviewed by the Department of Homeland Security. He would be lucky to escape electrocution as a common pirate, a fate he probably richly deserved, and would very likely be accused of money laundering and terrorism, especially if he had his traditional beard and ancient Greek dress, and lodged sine die in Guantanamo Bay.
There is no room for the swashbuckler, adventurer or eccentric in these grim days of scaring the public to death. Nor is it wise to wisecrack or joke to a security official, be he ever so humble (actually, the humbler the less cheerful and normal they are). Thus have we passed the stage when you could call the system bourgeois and we have entered the era of the disagreeable, unimaginative and preposterous. Take me back to the Garden and rationality…
It used to be said that Britain bred eccentrics, but I doubt this is the case now. Eccentrics flourished in a more comfortable age, when people knew better who they were and what their society stood for. It was also a lot easier if you were well-off and didn’t care what others thought of you. Now, in this age of so-called meritocracy, there is too much insecurity to allow people to be eccentric (unless you count political and religious nutters as eccentric). The world, and especuially the United States, is so conformist, and the funny thing about it is that they don’t even realize they are conformist. If you want proof, just walk around my neighbourhood, close to an expensive and prestigious university. Everyone walks and talks the same and keeps their heads down for fear of not getting that well-paid job on Wall Street on graduation. Where is the passion, where is the fury over war and mis-management? Global warming, extinction of species, the huge national debt, their greedy elders? Not in any university in my town.
Well, I try to be Epicurean and strive for contentment and peace. But at least I have been politically involved, passionate, committed. These young people seem to be committed only to magazines about personalities. Old before their time. PLEASE— tell me I am wrong!!!!