Hello all! (or 3)
Turns out I have readers - all of whom are my family and mentioned it at the family reunion.
Seriously though, I am always a little embarrassed to find out that ppl read what I write. Of course you don't write for nothing, but there is always the risk that ppl won't understand what you're saying, or will take things differently than you mean them. And so on.
Part of the reason the blog has been slow lately is that most of what I do at work is proprietary. Suffice it to say though that qualitative sociology can be valuable.
Another reason is that so much of what interests me structurally is still in limbo. Our energy situation has not changed, nor is it likely to in a short term. It will be interesting to watch the long term, because the structural elements are (or at least seem to be) pretty straightforward. Along those lines it will be interesting to see how our society adopts - and I mean this infrastructurally too.
The war grinds on. I still don't know why. I don't think anybody involved with it agrees why either. Either we are fighting the terrorists over there (which place had nothing to do with terrorism, or WMD, or, or, or...), or we are fighting for the oil (the net result of which is to reduce global supply, drive the short term price up, and waste 500 billion that could have moved us quite a ways toward energy independence)? None of it makes much sense.
The infrastructure continues to decay - witness Minneapolis. But we have neither the money nor the interest in addressing something as boring as bridges in our politics. Dikes, bridges, what else might need fixing? I told my dad that I was sick of gay marriage and abortion, and the first politician who mentions boring old infrastructure will be who I vote for.
And even the Protestant Ethic which I posted about so many months ago still intrigues me. I am completely turned on by listening to the motivational tapes and speeches of the MLM set (Mary Kay, Quickstar, Equinox, Arbonne) and their focus on godliness. Especially when combined with the discipline and religiosity of Dave Ramsey, you have Weber's Calvinist Protestant Ethic right here and now. There's something about the Christian right and how it interacts with businesses that is intriguing. However, that's an article that I still need to write. Someday.
Thanks for reading guys! Look forward to seeing you all at the next reunion.
2 comments:
I read what you write. But when four months go by without any action, I tend to forget you're there.
The one thing you want to keep a very close eye on is the economy - and people's reaction to it. I was channel-surfing yesterday and caught the CFO of Bear-Stearnes in the sort of screaming meltdown that would have my little granddaughter sent to Time Out and someone like me tagged as hysterical and taken off with a sedative in my arm.
I read your column. I just don't comment on it much. And because you take a long time between postings, it slips down to the bottom of the bookmarks for me. But don't assume you don't have any readers.
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