If it wasn’t clear from the intro to this new series I’ve come to Austin Texas on the high praises of Professor Jiang, a Chinese born Canadian who runs a youtube channel called, Predictive History. According to him the world will soon collapse into economic ruin and war and America will retreat into itself to the point that all the remaining hustle and bustle in the entire country will boil down to a single place, Austin Texas. Why? Because thats already where everyone is going. As my friend and local business owner back home said the day I left:
“If its not the future of America its certainly the future of California, thats where everyones going.”
And it’s not just Cali thats facing a mass exodus, its states all over the union, and for the same reasons, the East and West coastal states have all implemented insane laws and regulations that make common sense and decency a crime. Not just for these reasons though, people need something better to go to, and for most the idea of an old fashioned, safe and prosperous place to live sounds just peachy compared to the alternative.
Whatever you may think of what Professor Jiang is saying, it is undoubtably true that the world is in a free fall of some kind, one thats taking us further away from the life and the world we knew and into something worse. I have my own ideas about why this is happening and where its going, but according the Jiang it has everything to do with transnational capital and the separation of ones wealth from the community in which one lives. Or in the true transnats case, they never lived in or with to start, having so much wealth they had estates in every high value destination on earth, holding no loyalty or true connection to anyone, place, people or religion, save one, CAPITAL. Or in other words, POWER.
As I left my home for one I might call the same one day I wondered, is it really worth it to leave that hallowed community of which I spoke earlier, simply to lead a better life financially? Can more money replace a lifetimes worth of family, friends, connections and memories in a place I truly love? I don’t believe it can, in fact I know it can’t, but even so I’ve come to see, come to be in the place that will supposedly lead the nation out of a 10-20 year dark age in which the world collapses into itself; much like the Galaxy did in the Foundation series which the professor bases his profile name on. Have we reached the point in which Life is hopelessly bound to imitate Art? Perhaps yes, and perhaps it has almost always been so.
I left Monterey from the regional airport on American Airlines, a carrier I can’t remember the last time I used, perhaps when I went to New York some 15 years ago. It was a tiny plane with two rows of two seats. A lady in front of me leaned back her seat and immediately turned to ask me if it was okay, the first time I can remember anyone doing that. Next to me was a woman in her 60’s named Vikky, from Tallahassee Florida, an unmarried, unchilded… childless? Yes, childless, lady who told me to find my wife at the YMCA.
“Women outnumber men in dance halls, always, your still young, you can take your pick.” She told me even as I saw a glimmer of something in her eye, what I couldn’t say
The Stewardess, a short haired blond with one side longer than the other and the shorter side waved over towards it, offered us cookies, Vikky refused it as well as the coffee, I took both. Happily surprised that the treats were vegan, a true rarity when handed free snacks of any kind these days. So happy was I with the tasty crispy sugar ingot, that Sarah, the stewardesses, offered my another. I took it greedily. Then she began talking to me. I asked her about the airline, she said:
“Been working with this airline for 26 years, can’t stop won’t stop. Used to fly on the Brazilian, a twin engine turbo prop! Those were the days!” She said, a broad smile on her beautiful yet aging face. Her teeth so unnaturally white they were almost transparent.
Once in Arizona, my one stopover, I looked for a place to eat but found nothing, so I found my gate and sat. Immediately turned off by an ipad a father gave his daughter. The sound wasn’t too loud, but it was not ignorable. Usually my go to in this moment would be to confront them, but I decided to get up and walk around instead.
On the second flight they announced that all devices playing any sound must be used with headphones, this includes all ages. Its the first time I've ever heard this, and it made me happy since so many people are oblivious to how disturbing it is. I've found reading throughout both flights to be most enjoyable and something which differentiates me from nearing 100% of the others. Letters from earth by Mark Twain is much like my first works, so plainly extolled are his grievances against the accepted foolishnesses of our race. Its refreshing and humorous at once.
Right before landing in Texas I was talking to those next to me about evil and the restoration of the world, immediately upon landing a man who overheard me asked about evil and what I meant by it, I told him that from the simple act of making noise around others to murder, we are committing theft, and that, is the only wrong. We introduced ourselves and shook hands then he thanked me.
First thing I bought in Texas was a single banana for $1.35 on card, no cash accepted.
The first thing that struck me was how nice everyone was, even in the airport. But what really surprised me getting out of the airport was the insane amount of black birds chirping loudly and flying every which way. I did not expect such wildlife here. The next thing that struck me was the cost of things. The bus fair to the city central was 1.25 and gas was 3.39 a gallon.
Inside the city I overshot my exit and the bus driver was also very friendly, staying stopped giving me directions to get to where I needed to go. I walked the streets and found almost no trash, though the buildings were clearly falling apart all over the city, mostly those that had been built 100 years ago and were now nothing more than storage areas and reminders of the cities rich history.
There were quite a few homeless people but even they were respectful compared to the snarling lunatics injecting heroin into their own asses while shitting at the same time on the city sidewalks of San Francisco.
Finally I came to the Firehouse Hostel just two blocks from the State Capital building, the place where the book fair is that I also came to see. The man at the front had been there 5 months and said
“It has its ups and downs.
“Like everywhere else” I said.
“Your bar have anything for sober people?”
”Sober? Yeah, water.” he said, pointing to the fridge, “$2 each.”
“Thanks.” I said, and went to my dorm room which had 3 bunk beds, chose the one by the window, big mistake, more on that later.
Then went out to get some food. It began raining on my way, which I did not expect. I found a vegan burger joint inside a whole foods which was pretty good, though the burgers were tiny, like white castles or something similiar. The man running the joint was friendly to the extreme.
“Are you a student?”
“Not officially.”
“Then I’ll give you their discount anyways, since you braved the rain to get here.
“What do you have to drink?”
“These sodas you see here, but the machine can’t ring them up its broken so I’ll give you them for free.”
“alright… I’ll take the orange soda.” Again, big mistake, if only because of the sugar and having liquids so soon after eating. The food was good, but not superb, and yet for $12 to get a burger, coleslaw and a drink isn’t half bad.
Once I finished that I got some more food inside the whole foods and returned to the hostel. I sat inside their bar for about an hour just listening to music and the people doing karaoke, completely sober, and remembering all the times I wasn’t.
Finally it was time for bed, or so I hoped. To ensure my chanced I went looking for earplugs, finding none at 7/11 but some 3m ones inside a random quicky mart. I took a shower and laid down, there was a clean white sheet, two pillows and one heavy woolen comforter. But even with that I was terribly cold all night. It was as though someone had the AC on.
It was only the next morning, looking up at the ceiling that I saw just such a thing, a vent pumping cold air not two feet up straight over me. Not only that but there was someone sawing logs nearly all night inside the room, and somehow there was a large produce delivery truck outside running till midnight and again from 6 am onward, the windows so thin they might as well have been wide open.
And so the second day begins, where shall we go?