He's Still White

Everyone is on about how there is this new pope. The ABC World News show featured the single sentance news for over 15 minutes on their half-hour show when it happened. I was at the gym, and left at the 15 minute mark, but they probably filled that whole half hour with dribble about the new pope. Here is all you need to know.

Despite being born in Argentina, the new pope is of Italian ancestry and is old. He's a Whitey McWhiterson. In terms of adding more diversity to the Vatican leadership, this was less than the least they could do. He represents Europeans who left Europe and took ownership of land, probably, fraudulently, and set up life there - a colonist. In my eyes, that makes him MORE white than if his family had stayed in Europe. It means all white Americans are whiter than Europeans, including myself.

The new pope isn't a change, it is barely a bump. He's a whitey white whiterson who doesn't like homosexuality and will be replaced in another decade.

Internet and Human Connection

If I was attending this conference 20 years ago, I wouldn't be able to do work from my hotel room. I doubt that I would have felt much like socializing with people at the conference either. The things I do are very removed from the day to day needs of people in my field. I'm grasping for insights at every event, and gathering some. I have no idea how I can interact with anyone, and I didn't come to the conference with anyone. One attempt was met with awkwardness, and I'm over taking the risk of greeting random strangers just to offend them.

So if this was 20 years ago, I probably would have felt the same way and retreated to my hotel room. I would not have been able to get some work done from there, which is one benefit. But I also would not have been able to log onto facebook and see updates and comments from people that I like.

I think of things like this when people lament that our means of connecting are making us more disconnected. Actually, I usually think of laying a giant F bomb on them for saying that. I refuse to be nostalgic for an inferior time.