"The Boom's relationship with itself is the Civil War without all the amputations and the burning of Atlanta."
Succinct.

I still have been contemplating Yeats. He was such a perceptive human being, and his poetry, as pure poetry, has such broad popular appeal, in terms of the force of its emotional stimulous and "utility" in everyday life; and all this is aside from the arcane Madame Blavatskyesque dimension of his thought. One summer during the 90s I read all his major poems, and they reverberated in my mind like rich old music. I have heard him quoted on many occasions in the midst of diverse real-life events.

Believe it or not, I recognize in you a kindred spirit. There are many very bright people on this forum; and the ultimate background here is the starry heavens -- nice. It is often the case that E-mails and diverse postings, done on the spur of the moment, perhaps during a sour mood, portray a very inaccurate picture of the poster. Also, when there are issue-related eruptive fissures present at every turn, the social graces are at all times threatened with inundation by surging magma.

Lately I find myself surrounded by the kind of basic rural conservatism that I prefer; but I find that the HZ group keeps me in touch with a more urban and technical milieu, which is where I came from. Since such a milieu leans towards consensus opinions that are more "liberal" (as that term defines a contemporary political pole), exposure to it has a balancing effect for me. The default opera buffa quality of politics/entertainment in the country prompts me to adopt a posture something like this

FYI, if you wish to pursue any topic to a considerable scholarly depth, even if in such cases where I have the capability to stay with you, I probably will not have the time to do the topic justice.

Re Baudrillard, his idea that history has become its own dustbin, just as the planet itself is becoming its own dustbin, suggests that leftist progressive politics for the time being are going to look like Caracas.