I think I live in an odd place, in that the people here are generally very wealthy (and very old). But there is a growing middle class millenial culture, and I don't sense despair in general. If anything they are more upbeat - our Christmas parade was bigger than ever with floats from all over. Very interestingly, the Santa and his elves walked, and came last and anti-climactically.
But the wealthiest boomers are very touchy. Maybe it's vaccine injury, but I suspect it's something else.
The one on my council I make froth at least once every meeting by pointing out macroeconomic trends. This week I knew I was being bad, but I did it anyway, and I pointed out that on on issue we were going to be bad guys no matter what, with no good decision to make because the homeowners in question were being greedy, and we had no law applicable against rank greed.
One of the developers spent the rest of the discussion twitching a jerking in an odd way, and people in the audience started breathing really heavily and turning pale. They were fighting it, but they knew.
The other councillor gave this thundering impassioned speech about people being allowed to do whatever they wanted with lands they bought - they owned it - as justification why he was voting against the motion. But I was voting for the motion, because it was the slightly least bad option; and his speech indicated he wanted to as well. Another councillor pointed this out to him. He gave another thundering speech and doubled down on why this meant he would NOT support it. The sense of shock in the room was palpable - a couple more attempts were tried to communicate, but it was impossible, everyone seemed to get frightened, and the mayor broke character and said, " We tried. I'm just calling the question."
The councillor voted against himself.
But later, he understood it instantly, and seemed really frightened, when the first councillor explained again after the meeting. It was like watching someone wake up in the middle of a sleep walk. I've never seen anything like it; one councillor who had been making frantic eye contact with me at one point said he had been worried he'd been watching a medical emergency unfold.
I'd thought our culture had replaced gold with land (Cortes' quote to Montezuma), but I think that clinched it.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2022-12-08 06:31 pm (UTC)But the wealthiest boomers are very touchy. Maybe it's vaccine injury, but I suspect it's something else.
The one on my council I make froth at least once every meeting by pointing out macroeconomic trends. This week I knew I was being bad, but I did it anyway, and I pointed out that on on issue we were going to be bad guys no matter what, with no good decision to make because the homeowners in question were being greedy, and we had no law applicable against rank greed.
One of the developers spent the rest of the discussion twitching a jerking in an odd way, and people in the audience started breathing really heavily and turning pale. They were fighting it, but they knew.
The other councillor gave this thundering impassioned speech about people being allowed to do whatever they wanted with lands they bought - they owned it - as justification why he was voting against the motion. But I was voting for the motion, because it was the slightly least bad option; and his speech indicated he wanted to as well. Another councillor pointed this out to him. He gave another thundering speech and doubled down on why this meant he would NOT support it. The sense of shock in the room was palpable - a couple more attempts were tried to communicate, but it was impossible, everyone seemed to get frightened, and the mayor broke character and said, " We tried. I'm just calling the question."
The councillor voted against himself.
But later, he understood it instantly, and seemed really frightened, when the first councillor explained again after the meeting. It was like watching someone wake up in the middle of a sleep walk. I've never seen anything like it; one councillor who had been making frantic eye contact with me at one point said he had been worried he'd been watching a medical emergency unfold.
I'd thought our culture had replaced gold with land (Cortes' quote to Montezuma), but I think that clinched it.