Just say 'NO' to reality!

Mr. Snitch, admittedly, is clearly out of it from time to time. He does live in Hoboken, after all, where Washington Street Christmas decorations used to stay up all year 'round because, gosh darn it, people LIKED them. There's a cozy buffer from reality here and it's part of the town's charm.

So perhaps he can be forgiven for just now hearing about "Reality-Based Community". Presumably this is a Community based on, uh, Reality. As opposed to what most communities are based on: Anger, greed, and Reese's Pieces. On learning that the buzzphrase du jour is Reality-Based Community, our karmic alarms went off.

For years, Hoboken has proudly been an Anger-Based Community - and it's worked out swell. Anger (and NOT love) keeps us together, it defines us, it's who we are. Anger at whoever's in office, anger over parking, anger at being cut off at the local bar (fortunately there's always another bar next door to take it out on), anger at newcomers for coming in and Doing Everything All Wrong (not to mention driving up rents and flashing all their Easy Money at the rest of us), anger at all them high-falutin' fancypants eateries crowding out Burger King, anger at the girl next door for drawing her blinds (or not).

To see this anger in its purest form, go here. This forum is home to most of Hoboken's wackos and those currently out of political favor (Councilman-till-May Soares posts under various pseudonyms). It's a fertile breeding ground for bitter accusation and innuendo. Here's an artist's rendition of one of their meetings, done by one of Mr. Snitch's undercover operatives:



Another measure of anger as a social force: Local activist Michael Lenz opened up a seperate blog for 'rational discussion' and invited users of the Nj.com hateboard over for some 'constructive' chat. Take a look - it's a ghost town, even as the NJ.com board thrives. (Although we'd grant that possibly Lenz' visage is scaring off chatters of its own accord:)



There's no danger of an irrational stampede to reality breaking out in our little town anytime soon. Anger is here to stay, although it's making room for a shiny new Bling-Bling-Based sub-Community to take hold. Just look at the faces of the happy, happy condo buyers in the window of the City Living office (across from City Hall). They're deliriously ensconsed in 3/4 million dollar, one-bedroom chunks of Nirvana. Or, take the Hoboken Masked Ball. Twenty years ago, the idea would have been laughed out of town, but today, it's a sell-out. Because what good is Bling-Bling if you can't wave it in your neighbor's face (hopefully making him Angry in the bargain)?

We Googled nearly 300,000 references (and growing) to the exact term. Wikipedia offers a handy definition. Suffice it to say that the concept seems to be a new semantic device that "we" (us good, decent, reality-loving types) can use to club the ignoble "them" (those scheming, spiteful, spin-doctoring reality-haters) over the noggin. We were much relieved to discover that the concept of Reality-Based Communities not only poses no threat to our beloved status quo, but will in fact cultivate the anger so central to our economy and society. RBC may be to the new century what red-baiting was to the old.

Which is a good thing, because we were afraid someone would make us take our Christmas lights down.