February 13, 2025
These are strange and disturbing times
What world are we living in?
What world are we living in?

There are many strange, and not a few disturbing, things transpiring in the world today.

First, I remain fascinated by the CHAZistan phenomenon, the process by which six blocks of central Seattle were taken over and occupied by protesters.

I’d like to note that CHAZistan is a very unstable republic, for in a matter of days, this infant mobocracy has even changed its name. It is now CHOPistan, though I do not see the gain there. Moreover, the original name has more of a swing to it. Its sonic harmony with the word “jazz” was a happy one, suggestive of the improvisational, free-flowing nature of emergence.

But this is small stuff. What I really cannot get past is the logic of its being. No one, to the best of my knowledge, has addressed this puzzle. A group of people, some under the banners of Black Lives Matter and Antifa, wandered into the heart of a modern city and simply proclaimed that it was theirs.

There was no “conference of the parties” — to adopt the nomenclature of the largest, most continuous and useless gabfest in the modern world — to work out a deal, or reach a common understanding. It was purely a one-sided event. The various factions simply snapped their fingers, so to speak, made their claim, set up their fences and put up their guards. And presto, it was theirs.

The city officials — who are, it must be noted, a very dim and timid bunch — simply let them have it, and up to now, it has been theirs (the city tried to dismantle CHAZistan on Friday morning but appears to have given up).

[Interesting Read]

See Also:

(1) Knowing when to hold ’em, and when to fold ’em, in our poker game with China