Well, That Decade Sucked

(shot of Saychev Peak on Matua Island by NASA's International Space Station)

The roaring Two-Thousands sucked. Period.

War, terrorism, economic upheaval, grandiose thievery, increasingly fucked up weather, narcissistic pop culture, and leaderless leadership.

Wait. Sounds like every decade, doesn't it? Well, then yes, by my logic all of history has been one continuous romp in the mud. Fan-fucking-tastic. This is the first decade I was old enough to remember in entirety, and god damn it has set the bar low.

I just finished reading The Zero by Jess Walter, and I feel like that novel satirizes a large portion of the shit-show of the Two-Thousands. Taking place in New York City immediately after the September 11th attacks it's a detective novel in which the detective has no idea what he's detecting, in which consciousness and memory contain abrupt gaps like burnt scraps of paper thrown to the wind, in which right and wrong lead to the same place, in which agents of authority plot against one another and cause the very acts they seek to prevent, in which grief and tragedy is monetarily quantifiable, in which family equates liability, in which no one can control even their own actions, in which pain and loss is inevitable, in which there is nothing to gain for anyone.

Yep. Sounds like the Two-Thousands to me. My kind of novel. Brilliant and funny and honest. There are so many hilarious moments, such as a boy morning the death of his father whom is still alive:

"Ask yourself this: what separates me from some kid whose father actually died that day?"

"The fact that I'm alive?"

"I've been through all the stages of grief. You can't want me to go back... Anyway, I don't think I can go back. Not now. Not after I've finally accepted your death."

Hilarious.

Anyways, my point is this decade was bananas. And the fact it was the decade I graduated high school, went to college, and started working makes me feel like a newborn baby surrounded by bear traps. I feel like so much utter nonsense went on in this country during these pivotal years of my life that I've been desensitized to the crazy shit-show of life.

At the same time, by all logic and intuition, I have a feeling the crazy ain't stoppin' here.