The Seinfeld Method of Public Discourse

Remember the kinds of conversations the Seinfeld characters had?

Jerry: “I just broke up with my girlfriend.”

George: “Do you think Superman can really change his clothes in a phone booth?”

Two years ago, I wrote a post titled Birth Trauma that ended like this: 

Without changing the story that people unquestionably accept, the narrative of meritocracy and white supremacy and privilege, ain’t nothing gonna change. Go read his book for the details of the people in power who have a vested interest in keeping these harmful narratives going. But heck, if Australia, South Africa, Germany and other nations can take an honest look at their checkered history, why can’t we? The ideal is still worthy of aspiration. Let’s “mind the gap” and work to reduce it. Which means looking both ways before crossing—to one side, the Native Americans, to the other, the Africans. Otherwise, we’ll keep getting run down.

Just imagine if our forefathers had had the foresight and wisdom and compassion to immediately free the slaves, invite them and the Native Americans and their wives, for starters, to the Continental Congress and draft those documents all together. To have said it and meant it. That would have been a glorious national childbirth and I believe that healthy baby would have thrived and helped populate this country with people and practices worthy of pride. 

But since it didn't happen that way, let's go back to Tom Robbins: "It's never too late to have a happy childhood." Let's get to work.

Thanks to the miracles of modern technology, Blogspot offers a ways for people to make comments and keep some kind of public discourse going. In this way, an individual reflection posted on the blog can become the starting point of a spirited discussion and needed conversation. So how happy did it make me that two years later (!), someone commented on the above like this?

There is simply a mystique that permeates this sporting event like no other. Bungee Jumping

Sigh.