15 April 2026 | No Country for Inconvenience

Narcissus painting by Caravaggio, depicting Narcissus gazing upon the water after falling in love with his own reflection.

One thing that makes jihads so successful is the paucity of public response. No strikes, no mass demonstrations (that aren’t telegraphed months and months in advance), nothing to actually bring something to a standstill. It’s almost as if all the lessons from the Civil Rights/Vietnam era were for naught: we are too preoccupied with our luxuries, playoff games and Amazon Prime deals to care.

Were it that we had the talent do the hard work of organizing, but in France and Greece, there are strikes and demonstrations at the drop of a hat. Here? Not so much, because we don’t like inconvenience. It is not that we are numbed to an endless cascade of illegal and rotten happenings: we are bored by it. So we turn away, with the vague notion that “the midterms are coming!” and somehow, because someone else will do something, things will get righted.

It is the hallmark of collapse (that we deny is happening), accelerated by the general ennui of a rich society that, ultimately, cannot be bothered.