Jay Goldman » anomie http://jaygoldman.com Technologist, Designer, Speaker, Author, Generally Swell Guy Thu, 09 Sep 2010 15:31:33 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 en hourly 1 AWAD: anomie http://jaygoldman.com/2009/12/14/awad-anomie/ http://jaygoldman.com/2009/12/14/awad-anomie/#comments Mon, 14 Dec 2009 18:04:13 +0000 jaygoldman http://jaygoldman.com/?p=1149 Likely-related posts: Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.]]> Smart post-conflict governments invest heavily in rebuilding infrastructure. Thomas was in full professor mode, lecturing to everyone in the room. In his head. Really he was waiting in the waiting room of his doctor’s shabby office. Infrastructure requires a lot of construction, which requires a lot of manpower, which is generally provided by young men. Young men very much like the ones surrounding Thomas in this very waiting room. His arrival had barely prompted a grunt from the assembled louts, one of whom had made the barest of efforts to shuffle over and provide Thomas a seat.

Young men are a fertile breeding ground for unrest and insurgency. Idle hands are the devil’s workshop irregardless of which devil you may claim!

The mental lecture was ascending toward a feavered pitch, climbing ever upward in it’s undeniable truth. Thomas flipped a page in his years-old copy of Time, surreptitiously surveying his flock.

He was quite used to this crowd. His classes — if you could even call them that — were regularly filled with similarly ungrateful and uninterested young folk. They were there because they had to be and they showed about as much interest in his International Relations lectures as they were currently showing in this waiting room. Thomas cleared his throat and continued, this time actually speaking the words in the barest of whispers.

“Construction may be unglamourus and unexciting, but it is one of the most honest day’s work for an honest wage.”

He spoke a little louder.

“You are not building a highway but connecting your people!”

His voice rose again, overpowering the music leaking from various headphones around the room. The receptionist glanced at him.

“You are not building an apartment tower but raising a country!”

Thomas rolled the magazine into a baton.

“Every brick you lay is a foundation in the literal and metaphorical sense!”

He couldn’t fight it anymore. Thomas leapt straight onto the coffee table, scattering weathered magazines and immediately catching the attention of everyone in the room. He waved his baton over his head.

“You are not building but fighting anomie in the deepest of trenches!”

Everyone stared at him. The receptionist stood, picked up a folder, and cleared her throat.

“Mr. Mulholland.”

Thomas sheepishly stepped down from the table. The would-be revolutionaries continued to stare.

“The doctor will see you now.”

He gingerly unrolled the Time and returned it, vainly attempted to straighten the mess, and followed her down the hallway.

anomie : (AN-uh-mee) noun: Social instability and alienation caused by the erosion of norms and values.

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