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The Extinction of Convenience
And Why We’d Better Get Used To It
The line at the mega-coffee-super-chain where I tend to go, where I’ve expected polite service and a reliable pour, is super-long. The supply chain is evidently broken like we can’t even imagine, and dire warnings about shortages for the holiday season loom large. We see complaints all over lamenting that “no one wants to work,” or that “hiring is impossible these days.”
And then there’s that phrase: “the new normal.”
This is neither new nor normal, but an outsized cycle.
I’m old enough to remember when mothers, otherwise seemingly polite people, were fighting over Cabbage Patch Kids in retail stores at the holidays, demanding that their child get one from “Santa” that year.
We’ve just evolved that attitude into the Right-Wing slogan “F*ck Your Feelings” and embraced it head-on.
It’s as though complacency isn’t allowed any more, just a deeply held belief. Take a stand. Join the great resignation. Order your groceries online for curbside pickup. But the order will undoubtedly be wrong. Tomatoes instead of cantaloupe, or worse.
My dad used to do this sort of Smothers Brothers comedy thing every time we were at a restaurant. Not the fancy ones, of course, but he was the kind of guy who favored a good diner any…
