Our Own Private Dystopia

Hey everyone. Just dropping a note to say “I’m still alive and I haven’t given up on Lawyers, Guns and Money.”

This semester has basically defeated me.

I simply cannot finish the work that I need to do. Teaching a big into course for the first time in over a decade, trying to adapt it for the pandemic, administrative work, generalized anxiety…. I find myself routinely ‘working’ – defined here as being on a computer with work at least open – sixteen-hour days. That includes a lot of doom-scrolling on the side; and perhaps for that reason, tweeting doesn’t feel nearly as intimidating as blogging.

So, a question: how are you all holding up? I know that, at the end of the day, I have it pretty easy. The kid is a teenager, and doesn’t need constant oversight. My wife already teleworked. We have a very comfortable household income that isn’t going away soon – even with a voluntary salary cut on my part. I haven’t lost very many friends or relatives to COVID-19. But that also doesn’t mean that life is exactly good.

And a link to a video. Since I haven’t been providing much content to LGM, I thought that at least I could share some of the multitude of Zoom events that I’ve sone.

The one that I expect readers will find the most engaging is an Arab and Middle Eastern Journalists Association (AMEJA) panel about ‘the political moment’ and science fiction, with Walidah Imarisha, Jon Spaihts, and Nahal Toosi. I have no idea how I was, but they were terrific.

You might be able to watch it from this link.