"A screaming comes across the... Springsteen album cover?"

I finally decided to start a personal blog. Let's see how quickly it dissolves into utter nonsense.

We'll start with the title. "Born in the Rocket State" refers to Thomas Pynchon's vision of a "rocket state," formed in the wake of World War 2 in the novel Gravity's Rainbow - a global network of power, weapons, plastic, technology, and capitalism, all secretly organized by "the man" or "Them" to perfect death's eternal reign. Bleak stuff, right? I know. So I figure, "Why not combine this overwhelming idea with an iconic American song that's been misunderstood by nearly every politician, conservative, or general bad listener who has attempted to adopt it for their own purposes?"

The world isn't really divided into states or nations the same way it used to be (notice all the recent talk about "two Americas," "red states v. blue states," or even "the 99%"). Human culture is fragmented, specialized, and enormously complicated. Wherever you go, whatever you talk about, the "us vs. them" mindset prevails. I'm not for or against this mindset per se, but it begs to be examined in order to make any claim about who "we" actually are or who "we" want to be. In my mind, "we" are the people, and "they" are the faceless, heartless, monolithic organizations devised to oppress the rest of us - the little guys, the "hardworking men and women" who have been constantly co-opted and manipulated by jerks who couldn't give a damn about our best interests. In some sense, "Born in the USA" and Gravity's Rainbow are both about this idea. And whoever you are, you possess the ability to fight back,  create a revolution, subvert the system, and attempt to build something better in its place. That cycle is often referred to as "history," and it hasn't stopped yet. But who knows? Someday it might...

Ok, so those are the references in the title. But this isn't intended as a political blog at all. I guess it's about misunderstanding, miscommunication, mistakes - and how those situations create real learning. It's about the slow process of learning to do the right thing, and how to trust oneself. It's about my life and my thoughts. About the things I like and the things I don't like. About free speech. Self-reflection. Music, film, books, work, relationships, culture, and yes, maybe some politics - nothing will be off limits because I'm not really concerned with getting tons of readers. I may discuss anything at any given time, but mainly this is just to have a "place" to express myself, for better or worse.