Refurbished

Irregular. Refurbished. Re-store. Pre-Own. Salvage. Rental-return. Opened-box, on-display robots.

Companies e.g. Fry’s Electronics, understandably try to push products. Electronics items used to command high-priced high margins (the trend is returning, with Intel investment in Europe). Others pushed furniture rentals (it might work in our post-Ida period) in destitute neighbourhood (it’s the financial back-end, stupid).

Before we know it, that “push” mentality spills over, from product to people.

Factory-rejects, corporate-rejects, washed-out ESL teachers in Thailand and Vietnam (another name for backpackers).

Hey, the Saudis pay. The down side? You can’t drink there. Then in war, Iraq pays (via Blackwater). Finally, Amazon delivers (via unmarked trucks – the uberizing of A Prime).

I once saw how cattle were lured through a funnel gate. Or perhaps to be branded. Those that get in first (akin to Nazi concentration camp or Long-Island Black-Friday charge) are in the know: positioning yourself to get the most ration and distributed supplies. The hierarchy of plutocracy and meritocracy, the former was born into it, the latter, working his/her way up not without the help of networking tips and short-cuts. Climb baby climb (through a cracked window and be a “martyr” – almost the same with the 5 currently on trial again in Guantanamo Bay for plotting 9/11).

Martyrs are dead people: “Samson, take down the Temple” (Didn’t it say somewhere that your body is the Temple of God?). Burned and battered, open box. No return or exchange. They might be on (in-their-mind) a mission, might get there first ( Front Row Joes) and carry out someone else’s instructions. That someone else sits back, like an Egyptian King in 300 the movies, looks at the large-screen TV, with remote-control in gloved hand, occasionally squeezes a little fuel into the fire, “I will walk with you across the street”, “we’re so mad, we won’t take it anymore” “we’d rather be heroes than zeroes” – (the audience all fired up by instigators in the crowd, who had traveled the distance by bus, to save a spot, Front Row Joes per Michael Bender’s account on pg 2 “a euphoric flow of emotions between themselves and the president, a sort of adrenaline-fueled, psychic cleansing that followed ninety minutes of chanting and cheering with 15,000 other like-minded Trump junkies”. They self-hypnotized and joined in. Did not take much to build rapport and momentum e.g. water-saving toilets suck! Just three-word chants, over and over, with no less fervour than the 9/11’s 19 “perfect soldiers”). Pavlovian! Validated with praises:” You’re beautiful people” “Stand by”.

Jan 6 or 9/11, martyrs or terrorists, depends on one’s viewpoint, all had been played like a fiddle. Like a violent orgy whose aftermath devoid of pension or payout (from the 100 million dollars collected). Only prison (at least 6 months per one count) terms awaiting. The dead are not around to clarify and certify and the living fill up his coffers of their coffins.

The Japs had their shares of martyrdom during WWII (Kamikaze). The Jews in Europe (by not being aloof or standing by or informing those in hiding). Then Hollywood in the 50s with McCarthyism “you can’t work in this town”. Last half of 20th century saw conscience and ethics (socially conscientious objectors overrode personal/micro mores). Folks weren’t into policing neighbours’ behaviour (oh, he smokes – or, here comes someone walking the dog without a poop bag – or lately – another ‘unlawful’ abortion). In short, to pull a Cooper (Central Park).

We just lived, fought (Hot or Cold War) and died. At the age of 50, our average life expectancy. Period. Women too, smoked (Marlboro). You can do it. (Until the G.I. Bill sent white males to college and afford them housing i.e. a lot of space for furniture rentals, stoves and all-things electric ). The Reagans made their living by pitching those items on infomercials. Then it’s time for the conscientious objectors of the 60’s. Times of monk-burning and priest self-immolating (at the steps of the Pentagon), of the Quakers and the Fondas. There came everybody, with or without tickets (to Woodstock). The dialectical flow of social history. Hell No we won’t go (burn that draft card). Row row row the boat (to Canada, incidentally, where it has always welcome dissenters, Afghan evacuees – by the tune of 20,000).

People of conscience and for freedom have always paid a price. No other way. What other way? A re-furbished life with pre-own furniture? A quiet fading into that gentle goodnight? Poetic without justice? Monte Cristo without the Count? Napoleon in exile, sipping Sauvignon Blanc in between memoirs?

Melania, meanwhile, in between sips, said she didn’t want another escalator ride in white, looking Presidential, and rolled the dice for another stint at the well-manicured WH lawn, a one-over Jill Biden who is teaching English at college level, not as a backpacker.

Like books, we have gone through many re-brands and re-runs. Some of us feel like we have been working at the same job twice. Re-org and re-assigned. Then our hero (Jean-Paul Belmondo) once famous for being shirtless on Breathless is now dressed up in a coffin. Not a breath left. His films might get a touch up in their digitised versions (National Treasure). But we all know, we were lured in herd-like. And as they say in computing protocol, first in first out. No refurbishing for people whose ash and evaluation meant little in today’s dollars.

In Klara and the Sun, Josie went on to college. Klara (next-to-latest robotic version) stays home with the mother, keeping her company. And when it’s time, Klara might get an upgrade, or re-furbished as a viable alternative to Josie (after all, Klara has observed and learned how to behave like Josie).

As in a product, the life cycle of a society and man living in it has its ups and downs. Often times, hurting each other more than helping. Even in the worst of times, like now. People still want to squeeze in the last word, that he/she is the wisest, albeit out of conscientious objection: hell, no. We won’t go ( and get jabbed). Wrong century! Wrong protest. Go burn yourself at the steps of the CDC. Start a fight with the school board ( anti-war was a 60’s thing, culture war – 80’s thing – with the Moral Majority propagated, scaled and financed by tax-deductible electronic church donations).

Take a look. It’s 2021, not the 60’s. Our life expectancy has stretched from 47 to 77, thanks to science and medicine – even in the face of the pandemic and climate change. BUT, we need to mitigate those risks. Together. Like sailors on the same ship, sojourners on this fragile Earth and decent a-political fellow human beings living in a republic of, by and for the people. We’re once zeroes, recast, thanks to science, to outlast heroes. Most famous people of the past never outlived their average life expectancy, much less used an I phone.

Start acting like one privileged being. Or if you still want to borrow a match. Suit yourself. Guess I need to readjust the average life expectancy data chart since you preferred self-immolation over self-immunization. Guess I would also have to change the title, from ”refurbished” to “the match and the martyr” – with no exchange or return. One-way ticket to Paradise. In the background I hear what sounds like Eddie Money’s Two tickets to Paradise. But not for the half-burned and faint-hearted.