Now that I'm in Toronto, I'm reminded of another experience I had when I left New Orleans for another city, Phoenix. As I've written, I do miss New Orleans; I know what that means. But I've been thinking what specifically I miss.
I've read that New Orleans is one of America's three legendary cities; such legend and all the feelings that surround it are a big part of what's missing in my experience in other cities. It gave me the sense that I was part of something much larger and deeper. By way of contrast, when I look at Toronto or Phoenix, I had the strong feeling that everyone was there simply to be a consumer, a pretty empty prescription for life. (Though, I've just begun to learn about Toronto.) Perhaps coincidentally, Phoenix and Toronto have god-awful traffic, a system that puts one in an adversarial relationship with everyone around them, not great for a sense of community. Such living calls to mind the words of Tyler Durden: "Advertisement has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate, so we can buy shit we don't need."
One of the aspects of life in New Orleans gets touched upon every time we call it "the Big Easy." What does that mean exactly? For me, it means that a considerable part of the city's culture lives in rejection to the terms of global capitalism. In New Orleans, there's the sense that there's more to life than being a cog in a coporate wheel, making as much money as you can for someone else. So many people have a do-it-yourself spirit and a sense of community, investing their lives in causes and projects, rather than just buy and spend. Though, to the outside world, that's a liability. After Katrina, we frequently heard how the city was a poor one. That referred to many of its citizens but also to the corporate wealth within the city. In many ways, New Orleans could be ahead of the times, a model for a post-corporate world if we ever get there (and we need to).
If there's a danger in having a legend it's that it could can keep you looking back and not forward. I think that happened before the storm. Likewise, the city government is an absymal failure. New Orleans may not be the wealthiest city, but nothing excuses the gross incompetence of its administration. Since the storm, people have gotten much more politically active. I hope that start to bring some accountability to the city's government.
2 comments:
My sentiments exactly. I often used to think of New Orleans as an anachronism of sorts. That it was having a tough time competing with cities like Houston, Dallas, New York, or Chicago as far as crass commercialism goes. Walking down Canal Street one day in early '89 these were my thoughts. The tourist trap t-shirt shops, the many obscure ladies shoe stores, the now defunct Kress department store, the electronics and jewelry stores owned by Middle Eastern proprietors, even the old D.H. Holmes store was already looking decrepit. Canal Place on the other end was bright, sparkly, and smelled of money, figuratively speaking. It was and still is for the shopping elite, the rich uptowner who wouldn't blink twice about buying designer clothing at an extravagant price. My affectations at this point in time were those of a naive post-punker who didn't have a clue as to what New Orleans was all about. I'd have sooner moved to a flashy city like L.A. than spend the rest of my days in New Orleans.
The transformation occured, believe it or not, with my first Miles Davis CD, "Kind of Blue", in late '92 ... that and a THC-laced weekend during Mardi Gras weekend of the same year. It's not like I suddenly donned a pair of rose-colored glasses but it all just struck me during one sober moment of clarity that New Orleans represents by its very essence a departure from the rat-race that the rest of the nation seems to be engaged in. That there's more to life than feverishly pursuing the almighty dollar. That even if the pursuit of pleasure for its own sake becomes our own demise, in the end we're a happier sort than the rest of the country put together. This puts us in par with Europeans as far as quality of life goes ... and that ain't bad.
I had similar feelings way back in the 80's. I was young and didn't know anything except what was idolized in our society. During Reagan's reign that was definitely conspicuous wealth.
Post a Comment