Well, I'm back from my cruise and [View all]

[PCIntern]

have of course made some (very unoriginal) observations about humanity in America.

Please allow me to preface this by saying that I am a veteran cruiser primarily because I thoroughly enjoy the metaphysical experience of leaving land and all the issues which I had to face in my younger years which plague me to this day: family dysfunction, career issues, bad political landscape, and the seemingly endless tragedies unfolding nearly everywhere, reported breathlessly by the media. The nihilistic carefree consumption of alcohol, not to get inebriated because I have a very high tolerance for that, but because it was socially acceptable to begin drinking at 9 A.M. and I could do that with no negative judgements, was my way of flipping the bird at my regimented, very sober daily lifestyle on land.

So I’m a pro at this and came to some not-so-new conclusions during this particular trip:

Gluttony combined with a peculiar form of narcissistic denial has created a whole class of morbidly obese individuals who needed to travel around the ship by electric scooter. One very nice lady to whom I spoke was telling me that she thought she could navigate the ship by walking but that the 900+ foot vessel was beyond her capabilities. And she was right about that: I am certain she weighed more than 350 pounds and was on her third large plate of breakfast food from the buffet. The platters each contained huge amounts of carbohydrates with syrup and as a “cherry on top” many strips of bacon, and not the crispy kind. She admitted she was overeating but “that’s what this is for!”, and I smiled back. She was clearly in Heaven. And she was not alone: there were hundreds of these scooters and similar individuals driving them all over, and as an aside, there were a significant number of vehicular accidents involving “pedestrians”, some fairly serious.

If you’ve ever been on a cruise ship of the giant variety you know that the visual field is one of elongation: in many places, the corridor narrows nearly to a vanishing point and if you looked down the line in the buffet or waiting to go to a show in the giant theater, or embarkation, it is emblematic of our era. Look at similar photos from the 1970’s: a whole different appearance of individuals. And please, many of these people were lovely: friendly, kind, interesting, appropriately inquisitive. But medically, I feel for them and their families. I myself am somewhat overweight but look positively svelte in this context.

The other thing which has always amazed me about America and I’m certain most of the rest of the world is the extreme consumption of alcohol. I previously stated here ton DU that I enjoy social drinking to an extent and in one cruise day I might have a total of 7 or 8 cocktails over an 18 hour day. (If you think that’s extreme, I understand and by the way, just so you know, I may have five alcohol-based drinks in a two week period normally, maybe not even that many.). Some people whom I observed had perhaps 25-30 drinks daily and were clearly severely impaired but “functional” in the sense that they could carry on a conversation and didn’t fall off the barstool. These are the folks who consume a fifth a day easily. Frightening. They go on cruises because one can purchase a plan with no limit relatively inexpensively. The list price for 20 drinks on the ship if you didn’t have the plan would be $300 assuming ordinary brands, not medium or top shelf daily. The package for 12 days which included five premium dinners at their specialty restaurants was $750. The dinners alone, if you went out to similar restaurants would be $400-500. I would say that I probably got $2000-2500 worth of “product” because you can ask for very good brands with no additional charge.

I mention these things because you will never ever hear anyone in media remark that the consumption of an addictive, mind-altering substance is measured locally by railroad tanker car volumes, and nationally by volumes which would be retained by the Hoover Dam. It is nearly incomprehensible but the only way you can really process the import of this aspect of our society is to be imprisoned with 4000 people on a ship. It is jaw-dropping. One full trailer of the 53 foot variety delivered with replacement liquor for each cruise when the ship returns to port.

And yes, we had a great time onboard and at the ports in the Eastern Carribbean and NOT ONE PERSON DISCUSSED ANYTHING POLITICAL (even when we saw the aircraft carrier Gerald R Ford anchored in St Thomas). It was great to take a breather from this nightmare in which we are living. Now it’s back to reality! 😢😢😢😢😢