Megalopolis Of Stone

It's been called the shimmering morgue where a person can decompose without being aware of it. Dystopia. That word is tossed about frequently these days often in reference to what has been wrought by the pandemic. Los Angeles has seen a lot over the years and it has mostly been decline. We now have the best football stadium in the NFL. I suppose that's great if you could live at the football stadium, such a nice place although I've never been there. It looks great on television and magazine covers, take a short walk from there and you'll see the lifeblood that pumps through the arteries of this city and it doesn't look healthy, it doesn't look pleasant.

Last year there were 397 homicides in Los Angeles and by the looks of things we are on pace to break that record. It just turned August and the heat is coming even though it feels like it's always with us and with the heat comes more restlessness, more people feeling disturbed and angry. Hungry for money, hungry for a quick fix, hungry for violence and if you stand in their way or have what they want then that could be the end of you.

I live in a suburb. Centrally located in near proximity to all the major attractions. You know attractions like Disneyland. You need only to take a small loan out or refinance your house if you'd like to spend a day there. Or what about Knotts Berry Farm, that's the low cost alternative. You may want to wear a bullet proof vest when you go there, street gangs have been throwing down on its premises. I'm about a four minute drive from Compton. It's not as bad as its reputation but I guess if they have to pick a city to be your scapegoat then Compton is as good as any but know this, Compton had 3,406 crimes last year and Hollywood had 3,858. When you see movies about Compton it's all guns, gangs and violence. While Hollywood is still held aloft like a shining beacon to all that is good and desirable. By the way, my city had 2,173 crimes committed last year, I feel so safe now! Right.

I live in a fortress. Even before I needed to live in a well barricaded structure I had the desire to do so. When things began to fall off and shit hit the fan as they say, I was ready. I don't mean materially, physically or what have you. I mean mentally, emotionally. I was ready to transition myself into Omega Man mode. You know Omega Man starring Charlton Heston? A loan survivor of a worldwide pandemic, holed up inside his pillbox like home where he avoids travel at night because of the sinister beings that infest the city like so many homeless zombies. Isn't that what we have now? Our city is literally crawling with mutants. I mean them no disrespect, but to put it bluntly they are filthy, disease ridden and most of them have no will or desire to change their position in life. I routinely have to wash their feces off the sidewalk in front of my place of employment. Hose down the urine soaked walls and pick up their discarded trash. One block from the place where I work is a newly built, state of the art Homeless Center. They'd rather sleep in my driveway and shit on the sidewalk then stay inside the air conditioned comfort provided by our well meaning city.

So yes it is a Dystopia and it's not going to change. We're not going to be living inside Monsanto homes of the future. We're not going to be taking a monorail across town to the shopping center. Oh wouldn't that be something? Of course, it would be seen as just another opportunity for some homeless junky to infest, fill it with their stink. We've offered them sterile comfort and they've chose to live in filth.

But as I have stated in a previous post, life is a state of mind. How you interact, respond and view any given situation or environment is nothing more than a state of mind. I live here in a megalopolis of stone, steel and glass. I choose to live here rather than out in wooded area filled with trees and clean running water. Here is where I call home and here is where I find my peace and meaningful existence. Can you glimpse your own future here? View it through the lens of frightening lucidity.