[Taipei, 9/24/24]
It’s settled, I’m moving to Taiwan. Forget this miserable SubStack racket, I’ll spend all my time and money at day or night games of the Rakuten Monkeys, 7-11 Lions and Weichuan Dragons. Fuck the baseball. I’ll have my soul fixated on the dancing cheerleaders. Being Vietnamese, I was under the impression Orientals had no rhythm, but this morning, my first in Taipei, I just had to worship the dancing girl on Tomorrow Hotel’s lobby’s TV screen. With my mouth shamelessly agape, I disgusted if not terrified the Filippino tourists, sitting at nearby tables. Once you’ve seen gods (or goddesses), you just don’t give a fuck.
Coming in last night, I had no problems exchanging money, getting a SIM card then hopping on the high-speed rail to go downtown. As I started to congratulate myself, sure as shit something had to happen. Getting off one station too early, I suddenly found myself on Mars, with no friends or jetpack, so half an hour was wasted wandering around Sanchong District. This did give me another opportunity to reflect on man’s essential and unfixable loneliness. Such thoughts come easier if you’ve been bouncing around for 18 hours. Getting back onto the high-speed, I did find the metro so, before I knew it, I emerged from Ximen Station to find so much liveliness, I was ecstatically home. I had exactly the same feeling leaving Florence’s airport in 2002. Flying into Dulles in 2004, my heart sank.
Before I go on, I must thank my core readers at SubStack. Audiences matter. At Unz, I was in constant danger of having my thinking and emotions distorted, and my very language compromised. Enabled by Unz, that sabotage was intentional. Enlarged, the same dynamics have degraded the entire West. Nearly all of it has become the Jerry Springer Show.