Austin Dispatches | No. 195 | May 7, 2017 |
As if I don’t have enough
disappointments, the woman with the best girlfriend potential is likely
unsuitable. “Jacqueline Ferrera” turns out to be a
committed anti-Trumper, an event organizer of four
such groups in four different municipalities north of Highway 183 – serving
Austin, Pflugerville, Round Rock and Cedar Park. I wondered why I
hadn’t seen her at salsa dances lately.
Fortunately, I found out her
views by consulting meetup.com, rather than a devastating but more dramatically
interesting account of her berating me at a social after I said the “wrong
thing.”[1]
Imagine if she inquired about my views. “I have this Webzine….”
A pity. She’s a Northeastern
transplant, chic and smart, and even laughs at my jokes. Many love affairs have
flimsier foundations. However, my sense is that a couple with starkly different
worldviews only happens as a hackneyed romantic comedy trope.[2]
Everyone Else Gets It Wrong
Yet if we did date, and
entered a political discussion, one idiosyncratic aggravation is that I’d be
hindered in advocating libertarianism because nowadays the libertarian movement
is insufficiently libertarian. Justin Raimondo recently summarized it perfectly:
Libertarianism today is a
confused jumble of leftist "lifestylism," virtue-signaling, and emotional
impulses disguised as a political program. You just have to take a look at the
Gary Johnson/Bill Weld farrago to see this. On the one hand, the pro-drugs "live
and let live" rhetoric, and on the other a declared adherence to a vague
"centrism," brewed a counterintuitive amalgam of "rebelliousness" and pandering
to the Establishment. Thus you had Johnson blathering on about the wonders of
pot while Weld was endorsing Hillary Clinton. A more disgraceful campaign—in the
name of "libertarianism"—would be hard to imagine.[3]
A greater pity. To contrast
the realm of libertarianism from the early ‘90s, when the ideology represented
the most consistent, coherent and optimistic counterforce to varieties of
statism that were in rapid decline, discredited, on the defensive, or soon to
reside in the dustbin of history,[4]
to that of today, when libertarianism in aggregate has been slouching, and
sometimes lurching, in the wrong direction since 9/11,[5]
is to confront the realization that while we may be experiencing a “libertarian
moment,” it’s a too-familiar one of declension instead of triumph, with the
added frustration of being self-induced.[6]
During this same period,
“libertarian” has gone from a term almost nobody else understood to a term
self-proclaimed libertarians don’t understand. Worse, some libertarians – still
too many at that – can’t distinguish their views from that of the
corporatist,
managerial-therapeutic, warfare-welfare state.
That, or they’ve forgotten their own good insights.[7]
These problems exist beyond the Libertarian Party, which I’ve addressed most
intensively.[8] They also
exist in other significant subgroups within libertarianism.
I believe the source of
these weaknesses is a common misapplication of libertarianism from a political
philosophy, dealing with the proper size and scope of civil government (short
answer: as limited as possible) to social matters, where libertarians misapply
critiques suited for the State against social arrangements that, among other
benefits, serve as intermediary bulwarks for the individual against the State.[9]
Or to put it more bluntly, too many libertarians have eschewed their natural
constituency – the American bourgeoisie – to misemphasize fringe lifestyle
fripperies, such as sodomy and sensimillia, as the foremost issues.[10]
By doing so, they're helping to gnaw at the necessary sociocultural
preconditions for libertarianism.[11]
Sublateral Move
I could discourse at length
about the flaws of libertarians and psudeolibertarians, as further notes toward
a reconstruction of libertarian politics, but I’m distracted by a pending move.
After 17 years’ residence in
the same apartment, the landlord declined to renew my lease so it could remodel
the unit to resemble a low-budget version of interior décor from luxury hotels
about 20 years ago. Even my real estate brain trust had never heard of such a
rationale.[12]
As the best bad option, I should be
moving into a similarly remodeled unit one building over later this month, but
not before the leasing office had aggravated my worries with its
miscommunication and incompetence.
Until the office finally
offered a lease on a new apartment, with a $300 “concession” off the first
month’s rent – that’s how much the property owner values my “loyalty” – I
experienced an extended, simultaneous bout of two seemingly contradictory
worries: being uprooted and dispossessed like a peasant or gypsy, and of
remaining trapped in what was supposed to be a temporary abode, albeit the
longest I’ve lived anywhere.[13]
And after 17 years, I’m rusty at moving my worldly possessions, simultaneously
too many and yet not enough.
These anxieties derive from the threat of downward mobility.[14]
As the barnburner once said, it’s as if every decision and achievement to date
was nothing more than a set-up for your current predicament. At best, your
previous success was just a fluke.[15]
The apartment manager told
me the changes were necessary to compete with The Domain, though I couldn’t help
but notice being competitive involves charging me more rent. Maybe that is the
competition.[16]
To think for years I dreaded the possibility my apartment complex would be
converted into condominiums.
Incidentally, I learned from a leasing consultant the manager is likely to lose
her job after having enraged both the tenants, and not just the ones being
forced from “classic” units – we were never properly notified – and the property
owner management for botching the exterior remodeling project, beset with
delays. Also, she has no people skills.
Austin Death Watch
My preoccupation of the last
month is an example of real estate at the heart of Austin’s problems. City
plans for “affordable housing” keep stumbling over basic economic laws, to the
Austin power elite’s consternation.[17]
Moreover, a neighborhood advocate points out the schemes for increased density –
now including mid-Atlantic-style townhouses – would exacerbate the cost of
housing while destroying the neighborhoods.[18]
By extension, that also destroys another part of Austin’s distinctiveness. Thus,
we may witness Austin’s transformation into a generic Sunbelt city despite the
local power elite’s professed intentions. It would be even more amusing if the
rising cost of living didn’t affect the rest of us.
A new report confirms that
development and dangerous street people threaten the continued existence of
music clubs on Red River Street.[19]
Similarly, Carmelo’s, one of the great restaurants in town, will be replaced by
condominiums.[20]
In June, contractors will
install two free, 24-hour public toilets downtown as part of a City pilot
program.[21] The real
question here is how long it will take City officials to cancel the program
after the toilets become reeking magnets for bums, muggers, junkies and
prostitutes. There’s a reason such commodes don’t exist in the States.
Meanwhile, an audit finds the City’s massively behind on patching its crumbling
roadways.[22]
State police cited a
councilman for trespassing at a state office building.[23]
Too bad his district’s voters didn’t block him from trespasses at City Hall.
Neighborhood News
Elsewhere in the
neighborhood, an assistant police chief was stopped for speeding near MoPac
Expressway and Braker Lane. The real story is that the chief could drive 92 mph
on the uncompleted MoPac construction project.[24]
Austin police seek a rapist
who posed as a rideshare driver at The Domain.[25]
An investment bank’s study concludes Whole Foods is losing customers, probably
run over in the parking lots by SUV-driving yupettes.[26]
Five of the 25 breweries listed in the Business Journal’s Mar. 17 cover story
operate in the neighborhood.[27]
Three eateries have opened at The Domain.[28]
A motorcyclist fell to her
death from the MoPac overpass at 183.[29]
The Statesman’s Traffic Web page reported collisions at southbound MoPac and 183
on Mar. 30, at Research Boulevard
and United Drive on April 3, at Stonehollow Drive and Gracy Farms Lane on April
13, at Research and Burnet Road on April 17, at Metric and Cedar Bend Drive on
April 21, and at Parmer Lane and MoPac on April 25.
On the Town
Mar. 21:
The Old Quarry library branch experienced a
nighttime power outage and had to close early.
Apr. 15:
Nearly 20 years after I missed his last Austin performance because of a
conflicting work schedule, I finally saw jazz saxophonist David Murray at Kick
Butt Coffee off Airport Boulevard. His playing was worth the wait.[30]
Business Roundup
The head of the Austin
Technology Council maligns the American worker in the April 28 Austin Business
Journal.[31] Someone
should replace her with cheap foreign labor.
Shockingly, the Chronicle
praises something actually praiseworthy: a couple of cold brew coffee brands
that I regularly buy at my neighborhood grocery.[32]
The Chronicle staff must’ve suffering the flu to permit such a simpatico opinion
to slip in the April 7 paper.
The Mar. 31 Business Journal
reports San Antonio civic leaders fret that Austin is taking away tourists.[33]
The April Esquire skeptically evaluates a number of companies formed for
asteroid mining.[34]
Science Roundup
British newspapers report
that researchers have concluded Tyrannosaurus rex was a sensitive lover.[35]
However, this topic was adumbrated decades ago in a short story by
John Updike.[36]
Cultural Canapés
Court TV plans to add a
children’s show to its programming, “Captain Kangaroo Court.”[37]
Notes in the Margins
Don Rickles, an old balding
hockey puck who could’ve written for Austin Dispatches if he’d ever focused,
instead of wasting his time in Vegas, died April 6, age 90.[38]
Home | Archives |
NOTES
[1] Gordon,
Michael E. Trump University Entrepreneur 101: How to Turn Your Idea Into
a Money Machine, rev. ed. Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons, 2010: 125.
[2] McDonald,
Tamar Jeffers. Romantic Comedy: Boy Meets Girl Meets Genre. New York
City: Columbia UP, 2007: 118.
[3] “Four
Questions: Justin Raimondo.” Chronicles: A Magazine of American Culture
16 Mar. 2017
<https://www.chroniclesmagazine.org/four-questions-justin-raimondo/>.
[4] AD No. 44n1
(Dec. 10, 2002); Barr, Bob. The Meaning of Is: The Squandered Impeachment
and Wasted Legacy of William Jefferson Clinton. Atlanta: Stroud & Hall
Publishers, 2004; Buckley, William F. Jr. “Agenda for the Nineties.” NR 19
Feb. 1990: 34-43; Hayward, Steven F. The Age of Reagan, Vol. I: The Fall
of the Old Liberal Order, 1964-1980. Roseville, Calif.: Forum, 2001: Ch.
3; Johnson, Paul. Modern Times: The World From the Twenties to the
Nineties, rev. ed. New York City: HarperPerennial, 1992: 729, 758-763,
765-768, 781; O’Neil, Patrick H. Essentials of Comparative Politics.
New York City: W.W. Norton and Co., 2010: 35-38; The Rise and Fall of the
New Deal Order, 1930-1980. Ed. Steve Fraser and Gary Gerstle. Princeton,
N.J.: Princeton UP, 1989: Ch. 7-8; Terhorst, Paul. “Why Argentina Stopped
Crying for Evita.” Liberty Nov. 1992: 34-38; Schippers, David P., and
Alan P. Henry. Sellout: The Inside Story of Clinton's Impeachment.
Washington, D.C.: Henry Regnery, 2000; Varieties of Progressivism in
America. Ed. Peter Berkowitz. Stanford, Calif.: Hoover Institution
Press, 2004; Woodward, Bob. Shadow: Five Presidents and the Legacy of
Watergate. New York City: Simon & Schuster, 1999: Pt. 5.
[5] Doherty,
Brian. Radicals for Capitalism: A Freewheeling History of the Modern
American Libertarian Movement. New York City: PublicAffairs, 2007:
608-610.
[6] Draper,
Robert. “Has the ‘Libertarian Moment’ Finally Arrived?” New York Times
Sunday Magazine 10 Aug. 2014: MM24.
[7] Doherty,
op. cit., 609-612.
[8] AD No. 93
(Oct. 15, 2006); AD No. 99 (Aug. 10, 2007); AD No. 108 (April 28, 2008); AD
No. 111 (June 12, 2008); AD No. 125 (June 20, 2009); AD No. 142 (June 16,
2011); AD No. 150 (April 16, 2012); AD No. 151 (May 22, 2012); AD No. 152
(July 4, 2012); AD No. 156 (Sep. 22, 2012); AD No. 159 (Dec . 25, 2012).
[9] Doherty,
op. cit., 598;
Mitchell, Brian Patrick. Eight Ways to Run the Country: A New and
Revealing Look at Left and Right.
[10] AD No.
151n14; Block, Walter.
“Libertarianism and Libertinism.” Journal of Libertarian Studies Fall
1994: 117-128; D’Souza, Dinesh. The Enemy at Home: The Cultural Left and
Its Responsibility for 9/11, rev. ed. New York City: Broadway Books,
2008: 144, 164-165, 171; Mitchell, op. cit., 68-69.
[11] Hayek,
Friedrich A. The Fatal Conceit: The Errors of Socialism. Ed. W.W.
Bartley III. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1988: 63.
[12] AD No.
145n7 (Oct. 8, 2011).
[13] AD No. 17n1
(Jun. 10, 2000); AD No. 51 (Jun. 24, 2003); Caterine, Joseph. “The Cross
Creek Shuffle.” AC 5 May 2017: 13.
[14] Newman,
Katherine S. Falling From Grace: Downward Mobility in the Age of
Affluence, rev. ed. Berkeley, Calif.: U of California P, 1999.
[15] EAD No. 8n1
(Oct. 3, 1999).
[16] Dinges,
Gary. “Ten Years On, The Domain Proves the Skeptics Wrong.” AAS 12 Mar.
2017: F1.
[17] Barbaro,
Nick. “More and Cheaper Housing.” AC 14 Apr. 2017: 10; King, Michael.
“Prisoners of Success.” AC 21 Apr. 2017: 8+.
[18] Neely,
Christopher. “Doubts Raised Over New City Housing Goal.” CIN 26 Apr. 2017,
Northwest Austin ed.: 1+.
[19] “Red
River Under Pressure.” ABJ 28 Apr. 2017: 10.
[20]
“Arrivederci, Carmelo’s.” ABJ 21 Apr. 2017: 8.
[21] “City to
Install Temporary Public Restrooms Around Downtown Austin in June as Part of
Pilot Program.” CIN Apr. 2017, Northwest Austin ed.: 19.
[22] Wear,
Ben. “Austin Road Crews Deluged by Temporary Patches to Replace.” AAS 29
Mar. 2017: B1.
[23] Walsh,
Sean Collins. “18 Arrested Amid Sit-In Over SB 4.” AAS 2 May 2017: A1+.
[24]
Plohetski, Tony. “Police Official Hits 92 mph, Gets Warning.” AAS 29 Mar.
2017: B1.
[25]
Villalpando, Roberto. “Rapist Posed As Driver, Police Say.” AAS 4 May 2017:
B3.
[26] “Analyst:
Whole Foods Losing Customers.” ABJ 31 Mar. 2017: 12.
[27] Theis,
Michael. “How to Make Big Bucks by Brewing Beer.” ABJ 17 Mar. 2017: 5-9.
[28] “Now
Open.” CIN Apr. 2017, Northwest Austin ed.: 4.
[29] Hall,
Katie. “EMS: Motorcyclist Falls to Her Death.” AAS 26 Apr. 2017: B6.
[30]
“Recommended This Week.” Ed. David Hernandez. AC 14 Apr. 2017: 56.
[31] Cronin,
Mike. “Tech Leader Takes Trump to Task.” ABJ 28 Apr. 2017: 3.
[32] Gentile,
Dan. “The Ground Breakers.” AC 7 Apr. 2017: 36-37.
[33] “Austin’s
Success Worries Some in San Antonio.” ABJ 31 Mar. 2017: 12.
[34] Pendle,
George. “ ‘Roid Rage.” Esquire Apr. 2017: 100-103+.
[35] “Joy of T-Rex! King of Dinosaurs Was Sensitive Lover.” Daily Mail 31 Mar. 2017: 11.
[36] Updike,
John. “During the Jurassic.” Collected Early Stories.
Ed. Christopher Carduff. New York City: Library of America, 2013: 590-594.
[37] Good
Morning Captain: 50 Wonderful Years With Bob Keeshan, TV’s Captain Kangaroo.
Ed. Cathryn Long. Minneapolis: Fairview Press, 1996.
[38] McLellan, Dennis. “Comedian Made It an Honor to Be
Insulted.” LAT 7 Apr. 2017: A1+.