Is all the world Istanbul now?

Already ready for anything. Taksim Square, August 2012

There are few places that grew on me as fast as Istanbul, where I spent a few days last August when I had to leave the EU to clear my visa. It is an overwhelming place — massive, crowded, sprawling over water and hills, and heavy with layer upon layer of history. But I didn't anticipate how it is one of the most authentically friendly places I've ever been. I remember with bemusement the almost constant conversations I had with men trying to sell rugs to me, the unhurried way the shopkeepers in the Bazaar would chat away while trying to make a sale, the way the waiters at restaurants fussed over me (even though it was Ramadan and a very busy time for them), the way Olga's friend from grad school took a day off work to show me around.

So I was horrified that it came to this. The people of Turkey do not deserve the kind of government that shoots tear gas and water cannons at them for a perfectly reasonable protest against a perfectly stupid and tacky transfer of a public asset into a playground for the wealthy. As everyone makes clear, the recent protests are not just about Gezi Park, but about an arbitrary and authoritarian government that takes advantage of the shortcomings of the democratic process. It is an example of something that has been happening all over the world. And the world is not big enough that you can afford to believe this isn't about us.

Erdogan is just another case of the only "Third Way" that really exists in politics today: the election of servants of self-perpetuating oligarchs who run the businesses, an international ruling elite that successfully manipulates the rickety power of voting with softcore nationalism and full-blown, religious mind-fog.

I think the template for this comes from Russia, obviously, where Vladimir Putin has successfully coopted the once unruly post-Soviet business elites to get on board, powered by the strange, desperate voting power of superstitious old crones in dying villages. Another obvious emulator of this strategy was the Fidesz party in Hungary, who took advantage of their first supermajority in Parliament to write one of the dumber constitutions of any self-proclaimed democracy.

Of course, the model is beginning to fall apart. Hungary's economy is abject mess, and Prime Minister Viktor Orban's schizophrenic switching between constituencies makes one question his mental health. In Russia, the state if relying more and more on the tried and true means of coercion, like insane new laws that proscribe jail terms for hurting the feelings of the religious faithful. And in time-honored Stalinist tradition, it not only throws the book at opponents like punk bands and bloggers, but has begun purging alternate centers of power within itself. So the idea that peaceful protests in Istanbul would end in baton-wielding policemen and water cannons is part of a general human story.

Here in America, we briefly flirted with the idea of looking at the problem with the Occupy movement, which ran out of steam too fast. Thanks to our institutional two-party system, we cling to an illusion of difference when in fact, both parties work for the same wealthy elites — only Democrats are slightly more concerned about how unsightly it would be to have old people dying in the streets. The process was well on its way even before 2001, when we terrorized ourselves into giving everything away. Obama hasn't really changed anything but the details — we still have secret prisons, we murder people by executive fiat more than we did before, and of course, the massive spying apparatus we've allowed to be put in place. And his fundamental faith in compromise is looking more and more like a part of some Bilderburg scheme to maintain the status quo at all costs. Obama represents the absolute poverty of "hope" as a political end or means. And if you think Cory Booker is the answer, keep hoping.

That's the world we live in, and the most depressing part is how few options there are. The conflict in Syria is fascinating because it is a struggle between the most dynamic and active alternatives to the "Third Way." Choosing between Authoritarianism and Jihad is hardly how anyone hoped the 21st century would play out.

I think about the people of Istanbul in Gezi Park, who are aware of what their government is about, who are part of the modern global economy and know its tools and ideals, and who are still faced with a daunting opponent. It would be a wonderful world, if we could choose being something other than the bug or the windshield.

Pictures from a drive down South

Last month, I had the chance to drive from Florida back up to Massachusetts. I've never really been to the South — still haven't, but at least now I've gone through it. Here are a few snapshots of what I saw.

I flew from Albany to Orlando, leaving on a grey rainy day. We flew high over the overcast skies, and there is a moment when you pop down and Florida appears. There's the blue ocean, the perfectly flat land, the geometric patterns humans have carved on it. You see in an eyeful that it is a different place.

The first leg of the trip was on Route 301 in north Florida, one of those great old highways that predate the interstates and have a roadside culture that is rapidly fading away. It is hard today to imagine why a road stand that specialized in oranges and orange-related goods would convince someone to stop, but once upon a time this meant something. 

A real fault lines of American culture today, expressed in the arrangement of SEC paraphernalia at a truck stop near St. Mary's, Georgia.

Had never heard of Huddle House before, but there is something delusional and bold about the slogan "Best Food Yet."

The buffet at Duke's Barbecue in Walterboro, SC. It may not look like much, but it's one of my favorite restaurants.

All you can eat pork and fried stuff, with buckets of sweet tea. This is what makes America great.

What else makes America great: Fireworks!

 Wildflowers in North Carolina.

When I lived in Washington, I didn't have a car and lived a fairly happy pedestrian life. Everyone I knew with a car complained about it constantly — especially if they lived in Northern Virginia. Here's just your ordinary midday traffic on the Beltway.