- Sep 22, 2013
- 4,956
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There's been so much cynicism about immigration as it pertains to modern capitalism and the American Dream lately that I was compelled to write this politically-critical vignette about suburban values, inspired by the films Village of the Damned, The Stand, and My Fellow Americans.
Cheers (signing off),
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"My mom prayed that a Messianic character would appear in the modern world to rescue humanity from the depths of capitalism-based moral decay. Now, I saw the Matrix dystopian-films about such a character named 'Neo' and started fantasizing about what my mom was contemplating. One day, a handyman came to a neighborhood house in our suburban town to clean up the broken-glass from our shattered window-door by our dining room and patio. As this mysterious hanydman (oddly named 'Mr. Pan') did his work, I realized he was meditating and praying about what the shattered glass pieces he was cleaning up symbolized to the world around him. Was Mr. Pan the shaman-like character my mom was contemplating? Mr. Pan was right about that shattered-glass. Our modern world was based on traffic-oriented mental obsession, leading to all kinds of unforgiving cruelty towards those who 'fell behind' the heartbeat of Wall Street and Samsung electronics. We were like a giant village of hypnotized strangers."
"Mr. Pan was brushing up the glass pieces when I asked him what the pieces meant to him. He looked up at me and told me I was obviously recognizing the value of shattered-glass as it pertained to the fragility of the human psyche itself. I told him that was true and that I was blogging on the Internet about the social value of PBS on the Internet. He advised me to write something in my blog about why a glass-cleaning neighborhood handyman in suburbia would remind me of the social value of etiquette and customs in our world hampered by immigration-cynicism, even in this New World were the American Dream was ethos. Was it all related to the piracy and profiteerism of capitalism which created cynicism rather than daydreams? Why was Mr. Pan seemingly fixated on the social malady of immigration myopia as it pertained to modernism and urbanization and capitalism? Did the glass-pieces represent shattered dreams to Mr. Pan? Before Mr. Pan left, after he completed his fine work, he presented me with a gift --- a beautiful miniature sculpture of a glass-dragon, which I kept on our TV room mantle."
"Twenty years later, I still can't believe that my little PBS blog about the value of social discourse in media/entertainment in the modern age of capitalism and traffic and immigration intrigue would land me a job writing editorials for the New Yorker about the 'aesthetics of modernism.' I won the Pulitzer Prize just two years later, and TIME magazine called me the new Thomas Nast, invigorating pedestrian chatter with a needed dose of modernism idealism. This was the sort of social 'chatter' necessary to create real values-based optimism in a world blinded by the 'furies' of piracy and the 'glass menageries' of unchecked ambition, even among daydreaming immigrants fantasizing about the American Dream. All of this was inspired by my original PBS blog which I was compelled to write by that mysterious handyman, Mr. Pan. So, to this day, I wonder if that 'Messianic messenger' my mom prayed for was indeed Mr. Pan, an inspiring and eccentric glass-cleaning handyman who reminded me of the inherent value of revolutionary human customs."
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Cheers (signing off),
====
"My mom prayed that a Messianic character would appear in the modern world to rescue humanity from the depths of capitalism-based moral decay. Now, I saw the Matrix dystopian-films about such a character named 'Neo' and started fantasizing about what my mom was contemplating. One day, a handyman came to a neighborhood house in our suburban town to clean up the broken-glass from our shattered window-door by our dining room and patio. As this mysterious hanydman (oddly named 'Mr. Pan') did his work, I realized he was meditating and praying about what the shattered glass pieces he was cleaning up symbolized to the world around him. Was Mr. Pan the shaman-like character my mom was contemplating? Mr. Pan was right about that shattered-glass. Our modern world was based on traffic-oriented mental obsession, leading to all kinds of unforgiving cruelty towards those who 'fell behind' the heartbeat of Wall Street and Samsung electronics. We were like a giant village of hypnotized strangers."
"Mr. Pan was brushing up the glass pieces when I asked him what the pieces meant to him. He looked up at me and told me I was obviously recognizing the value of shattered-glass as it pertained to the fragility of the human psyche itself. I told him that was true and that I was blogging on the Internet about the social value of PBS on the Internet. He advised me to write something in my blog about why a glass-cleaning neighborhood handyman in suburbia would remind me of the social value of etiquette and customs in our world hampered by immigration-cynicism, even in this New World were the American Dream was ethos. Was it all related to the piracy and profiteerism of capitalism which created cynicism rather than daydreams? Why was Mr. Pan seemingly fixated on the social malady of immigration myopia as it pertained to modernism and urbanization and capitalism? Did the glass-pieces represent shattered dreams to Mr. Pan? Before Mr. Pan left, after he completed his fine work, he presented me with a gift --- a beautiful miniature sculpture of a glass-dragon, which I kept on our TV room mantle."
"Twenty years later, I still can't believe that my little PBS blog about the value of social discourse in media/entertainment in the modern age of capitalism and traffic and immigration intrigue would land me a job writing editorials for the New Yorker about the 'aesthetics of modernism.' I won the Pulitzer Prize just two years later, and TIME magazine called me the new Thomas Nast, invigorating pedestrian chatter with a needed dose of modernism idealism. This was the sort of social 'chatter' necessary to create real values-based optimism in a world blinded by the 'furies' of piracy and the 'glass menageries' of unchecked ambition, even among daydreaming immigrants fantasizing about the American Dream. All of this was inspired by my original PBS blog which I was compelled to write by that mysterious handyman, Mr. Pan. So, to this day, I wonder if that 'Messianic messenger' my mom prayed for was indeed Mr. Pan, an inspiring and eccentric glass-cleaning handyman who reminded me of the inherent value of revolutionary human customs."
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