Read On: We are living through interesting times

All right, so let me just say that I’m feeling unusually positive about everything at the moment, a genuine departure from my typical default position that mass catastrophe is imminent and we’re all going to die, like, tomorrow.

I’ve decided that this — right now — is kind of the greatest time to be alive in the history of ever. Oh sure, the country is more ideologically fragmented than it’s ever been. We’ve got one leading presidential candidate vowing to keep everyone out and another promising to make everyone count. But that’s just America, you know? We love a good philosophical divide. It takes our mind off the fact our dreams have been shattered into a million pieces.

Sorry, back to my uncanny cheerfulness. We’ll save the rant for another day.

Think about this: We get a front row seat to watch a loudmouth run-on sentence like Donald Trump seize control of a major political party for months and months.

The other party, meanwhile, finds Bernie Sanders gaining traction despite being a self-professed nonreligious septuagenarian Jew from Brooklyn. It simply does not get any more gloriously surreal than that.

I also never thought I would see the day when Democratic political contenders would be strategically battling over whom has the most authentic African-American bonafides in terms of community support. Do you realize how astounding that is? Say what you will about how racist much of the country remains. This part of it is flat-out amazing.

Another thing: My late gay brother grew up in a world where he was expected to remain deeply closeted and steeped in shame for being a “homosexual.” Now, not only is same-sex marriage the law of the land; anyone who dares insult or minimize the gay constituency risks rejection and obsolescence.

These are the small miracles that today, in 2016, we take entirely for granted. And that in itself is a miracle.

All of the talk is about how far we still have to go in terms of racial and gender equality, sexual orientation acceptance, etc. is of course true. But we rarely reflect on how far we’ve come in just the past 20 years.

Yes, the targeting of unarmed black males by law enforcement in particular remains a grave, infuriating concern. Yet at the same time, we should also celebrate the fact this now casts such an immense shadow across the landscape. Everyone with smartphone video capability is deputized as an evidence gatherer.

My fellow journalists rightly mourn the slow death of the print profession. But the flip side is that everyone with a Facebook or Twitter account can have his or her views published instantly and on demand.

Many of us indeed have it so good in the United States that we sweat the small stuff as if it matters in the grand scheme, like taking to social media to gripe about being bumped from first class on a cross country flight, or we got crappy service in a restaurant, or the flat tire made us late for a meeting.

The far bigger news is that things continue to improve, albeit incrementally, in America. Our system of checks and balances is growing more refined. If you do bad stuff, it’s going to be exposed faster, to a wider audience, with more radical consequences — with but a few glaring exceptions.

One would be the situation in Flint, Mich., in which a city of 100,000 people has been poisoned by the water and no one seems yet to be taking responsibility.

But every once in a while, we need to step back and see the bigger picture. Yes, things are still a mess, but unlike many nations on Earth, we tend to root out the most egregious offenders in our midst to face the consequences of their actions.

The deck remains hugely stacked in favor of those who have white skin and lots of money, of course. It has always been thus. However, change really is in the air. You can feel it all around in this wacky election year.

So to wrap this rambling little burst with a cogent point that hopefully ties it all together, let me just note that the satisfaction of being here to bear witness to this mesmerizing show is the real reward. It’s pointless to look down the road to imagine when it’s all going to be wonderful. Instead, embrace the insanity, because few have been privileged to live in more interesting times than these.

--

RAY RICHMOND has covered Hollywood and the entertainment business since 1984. He can be reached via email at ray@rayrichco.com and Twitter at @MeGoodWriter.