My Jandek Plague Journal: 5/21/20 "Afternoon of Insensitivity: Part Five"

"Another day of not knowing/Not knowing what it’s about or what to do/There’s nothing to do/Is it just go outside and you’ll find something to do/It appears we make the things to do." Do we believe in possibility anymore? The rhetoric of politicians being useless liars predominates, but it's coupled with despair as if they were ever anything else. All this outrage over "failures of leadership," but did you want to be led? Do you want to be ruled? My colleague argued that one reason Korea never went on lockdown is that the people don't trust the government--and not in the performative way Americans don't trust the government; Koreans rallied in the streets and put the last president in jail. In the pandemic, Koreans didn't look to be led, they took actions to protect each other on their own. That the government facilitated their actions is why it has popular support. The people led. -5/21/20. "Afternoon of Insensitivity: Part Five" from Manhattan Tuesday (lyrics) (one week earlier) (one week later)