Smoky noisy 4th — a short introduction to this piece.
Smoky noisy 4th: Quick Notes
Forth of July fireworks here in Los Angeles start up in June with random explosions, including a few at odd hours, like 4:30 a.m. The identity of the weirdo early morning fireworks revelers is a great mystery to me. By around 8 p.m. on the 4th there’s a constant roar of fireworks all over the city that doesn’t die down until the early morning hours.
I have a theory about this day and it has nothing to do with patriotism, hot dogs or Yankee Doodle. The 4th is simply an “upside-down” or “misrule” day like Mardi Gras, Saturnalia, Halloween or the Medieval Feast of Fools. It’s a day when social order lets off some steam and the authorities look the other way. Another example would be the large packs of dudes on dirt bikes (now sometimes electric motorcycles) popping wheelies. A mass act of civil disobedience, on the other hand, would receive a very different response from the authorities.
If just from the reaction of our terrified cats and dog I’m not a fan of the 4th. When I woke up and peered out the window at 6 a.m. the next day I saw so much smoke I that I mistook it for fog. The air quality was in the “very unhealthy” range.
We could get into the NextDoor fireworks freakouts but that would be the length and tediousness of a grad thesis for a sociology degree. I’ll just say I’d be happy if the holiday went away especially now living in a city occupied by a masked force of Federales. I’ll leave the last word on the 4th with:
L.A. Taco reading the Declaration of Independence and Alan Ginsberg’s thoughts on Independence Day, written in the 50s but still remarkably prescient. See also Charles Taylor’s book A Secular Age starting around page 46 for a lengthier history of misrule days and their historical consequences.
Smoky noisy 4th appears here to highlight key ideas for readers.
