Over the last few years I have found myself becoming less and less interested in public affairs. Perhaps I have realized that societal and political problems in America are so deeply systemic that only systemic solutions will do. Perhaps I have realized that the pervasive centralization of American life in the District of Columbia renders localized activism moot. Perhaps I have realized that public affairs lie well outside my span of control and that I would do better to focus on matters where I can make a difference. Perhaps I have realized, along with Nietzsche, that it is not my function in life to swat flies. Perhaps I have realized that getting worked up about the latest shenanigans of whatever scurvy politicians happen to be in power most definitely does not conduce to my own happiness in life. Whatever the reason, I have utterly lost interest in things public: in the politicians and bureaucrats who manipulate them, in the chattering classes who yammer about them, in the ordinary citizens who divide themselves into in-groups and out-groups in accordance with their quasi-religious devotion to one side or another. A pox on both your houses, I say! Life is simply too short to spend much of my precious time, energy, and attention on the meaningless machinations of those seek to suck our country dry through their control over the levers of political power. Henceforth I shall endeavor to blog as little as possible about res publica, instead preferring to discuss my work on real-time communication technologies, my efforts at translating and interpreting the timeless truths of philosophy and literature, and the deep satisfaction I find in listening to and making music.