Mark reflects on wealth and poverty while travelling through the USA.<\/p>\n
Author:\u00a0 Mark Seymour.<\/p>\n
Date: 11 August 2019.<\/p>\n
Original URL: https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MarkSeymourOfficial\/posts\/2089523787820616?__tn__=K-R<\/p>\n
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Article Text<\/p>\n
The Imperial leather soap ad. 1970 something.<\/p>\n
\u201cTahiti looks nice!\u201d she says as the billionaires buckle up in their gold-plated baths and swing the learjet towards the central pacific.<\/p>\n
It got to me.<\/p>\n
A screaming teenage socialist.<\/p>\n
How dare they flaunt their wealth?<\/p>\n
Silly and fun you say. Why do you have to take everything so seriously?<\/p>\n
But see the thing is, irony may be good cover for straight out self-indulgence, but there\u2019s always going to be someone who\u2019ll take wealth seriously. Who believe that wealth is a mark of character and that\u2019s the thing. Millions do.<\/p>\n
The dark art of creating envy. it works. Wealth sells itself.<\/p>\n
To annoy is to be noticed. Make enemies. Win friends. That\u2019s capitalism.<\/p>\n
and the very notion that there are people so rich that they can walk the earth and remain utterly detached from the grinding poverty that surrounds them\u2026<\/p>\n
well, truth is, punters usually defer to rich people.<\/p>\n
And there are places where it\u2019s not hard to look rich.<\/p>\n
Like the gas station in Winnemucca Nevada at 7 am..<\/p>\n
In a Calvin Klein T shirt.<\/p>\n
Look out below\u2026<\/p>\n
In Nevada you\u2019ve got to pre-order your fuel because they won\u2019t take credit. People can\u2019t afford it. It\u2019s that simple. You\u2019ll get noticed though, in a nice way, simply because, you\u2019re not from around here are you? You\u2019re overdressed, your accent is strange and clearly you\u2019re not going to work…<\/p>\n
But kindness and respect quickly follow.<\/p>\n
Is that American? Or just common decency? One thing\u2019s certain. The deeper you go the less you certain you will become. The thing about travel is that you can\u2019t assume anything. And you certainly can\u2019t assume anything about America. A search for meaning? Oh dear. There\u2019s nothing more transparently foolish than the sweeping statement. And if this journey has taught me anything it\u2019s that.<\/p>\n
Observe. React. Learn. That\u2019s it.<\/p>\n
How many Americas are there?<\/p>\n
Moving deeper west, following the \u2018Immigrant Trail\u2019. U.S. 80, from Utah into Nevada. The casinos start-up right on the border, like a giant desert \u2018bird\u2019 to the Latter Day saints.<\/p>\n
Salt lake was clean, pristine and apparently safe, despite the billboards down town warning punters against the evils of pharma addiction..<\/p>\n
But Nevada is flat out \u2018kick arse jerky\u2019..<\/p>\n
Beyond redemption.<\/p>\n
Out here, they\u2019ve crossed the line and there\u2019s no way back.<\/p>\n
At the gas station, workers in dirty hi-vis gear, line up to pay for filter coffee, donuts and gas. Heads down, already weary, mumbling thanks before moving out into the early morning light, to drive off in their rusty Silverados.<\/p>\n
Someone I\u2019m very close to told me before I left, that America would \u2018bore me to death\u2019..<\/p>\n
Boy. How wrong you were. To even quibble about the credibility of one destination over another strikes me now as utterly pretentious, peculiarly western and deeply elitist.<\/p>\n
But there\u2019s one thing you can\u2019t fail to notice. And not to judge. No matter how huge and glittering the monuments are, how brave and confident the display, declaring to the world, that yes, America is great again, but still, the poverty just keeps rising up, snarling like a vengeful beast.<\/p>\n
The homeless will not lie still.<\/p>\n
We rise and fall through the ranges, great vistas of grassland opening before us, full of promise and opportunity for the millions who rolled west over the centuries, searching bravely for freedom and happiness, until finally California arrives, in subtle colours, shingled mountain top holiday condos, spectacular freeways, real coffee, Teslas everywhere, and at the end of the road, Alcatraz on your Iphone.<\/p>\n
And there, a deranged teenager pushes a shopping trolley past, filthy matted hair and a dog that needs feeding. We keep loose notes now. Jo gives him one.<\/p>\n
Emaciated bodies lie comatosed on hot concrete outside the San Francisco museum of modern art,<\/p>\n
the camps in central Santa Barbara.<\/p>\n
shopping cart pioneers.<\/p>\n
And you\u2019re faced with the same dilemma as everyone else who can afford to reflect from behind plate glass as you eat your superfood salad. To discuss or not? The rigours of mental illness, drug addiction, freedom of choice and the minimum wage..<\/p>\n
Do the reasons matter anymore? Homelessness is a fixture. No longer a phenomenon. It just is.<\/p>\n
A mediaeval dream. Born again.<\/p>\n
\u2018Every one chooses their fate\u2019 the Uber driver said on the way to LAX.<\/p>\n
\u2018Let that one go\u201d you think as you wind your swiss watch forward one hour.<\/p>\n
Pacific daylight time.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Comments<\/p>\n
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Mark reflects on wealth and poverty while travelling through the USA. Author:\u00a0 Mark Seymour. Date: 11 August 2019. Original URL: https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MarkSeymourOfficial\/posts\/2089523787820616?__tn__=K-R Article Text The Imperial leather soap ad. 1970 something. \u201cTahiti looks nice!\u201d she says as the billionaires buckle up in their gold-plated baths and swing the learjet towards the central pacific. It got more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":9456,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-10255","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P5xhjD-2Fp","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/humanfrailty.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/humanfrailty.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/humanfrailty.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humanfrailty.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humanfrailty.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10255"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/humanfrailty.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10255\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10259,"href":"https:\/\/humanfrailty.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10255\/revisions\/10259"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humanfrailty.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/humanfrailty.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}