In a break from complaining about Village Laguna, this week Ray seeks to promote the idea that there are many divergent sets of tribal “reality” out there. Perhaps he’s been reading too much of conservative tiger mom, Amy Chua, and her amateur anthropology about competing tribal realities being somehow equivalent?
They are both incorrect.
There is only one reality: Donald Trump lost the election. Joe Biden is the duly elected President of the United States of America.
Let’s move on.
And, the title The Medium is the Massage was a printer’s error that Marshall McLuhan decided to keep because he thought it illustrated some of his now outdated and simplistic ideas about communication.
We can’t really blame McLuhan as this was before the digital revolution, social media and, most importantly, the algorithms on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Youtube that feed lies in ever-increasing volume to the credulous.
And this is all done in pursuit of the almighty dollar, the possession of lots of which convinces Ray and his Emerald Bay compatriots that they must be right. But as Trump definitively proved: being rich does not equal being competent, wise, or above all, compassionate.
Now is the time to reaffirm actual reality and decline to humor dangerous wishful thinking, most especially among those of us who have lots of money.
Kiku Terasaki, Laguna Beach
