Buddhist Temple of Grand Rapids (Michigan) 6 September 2026

 

First impressions have limitations but sometimes can point to (surface) things easily overlooked by others regularly immersed in a place or practices, rooted in the context with layers of experiences, expectations, and personal connections. The following reflections and particular points drawing out my curiosity are written from a first time visit to the Buddhist Temple of Grand Rapids, a few blocks south of the city center of Rosa Parks Circle. The core of Buddhist tradition celebrated here is Zen (Japanese name for this school of teaching and practice), including elements of Tibet, Vietnam, China, Korea, and Japan. 'Sitting meditation' (zazen) forms the centerpiece of worship each week, along with chanting the Heart Sutra. Although seeing the worship hall and worshiping with the people attending the Sunday service on Labor Day weekend was my first time, during several years in rural Japan over the past several decades I have joined in with events during the year at a friend's Pure Land (Jodo) temple. As well, over 20 years ago, I did the overnight experience open at select times for the public at one of the head temples of Soto Zen Buddhism in the temple town of Eihei-ji, Japan. Other religion-related experiences shaping my perspective include a 3-week seminar on Shinto, the other prominent and earlier religion native to Japan, and several days walking pilgrimage in one segment of the Shikoku "o-henro" island circuit of 88 temples to round out my limited Buddhism experience, together with a few dozen social science readings. So while my visit on Sunday truly was a first impression, it comes not as total 'blank page', but with prior points of reference: it is wide but shallow expertise, by comparison to most city residents, though, many more kinds of prior experience.

IMPRESSIONS

It was a bright cool morning when I biked to the former commercial building remodeled into a sacred space. Bike lockup post was near the front door, but the discreet polite notice about the front door being locked at the start of the worship, I entered through the parking area in the back. The 50 or 60 adults and one or two children were seated on the floor cushions on which the zafu (meditation circular cushion) rested, or they sat in one of the 25 or so folding chairs along the back and side walls of the rectangular area, lit by some east window light from the street filtering above the curtain wall. Several large candles at the front of the worship hall added their light, too. 

Before proceeding inside, though, the greeter gestured to the shoebox shelving and the basket of clean footies, indicating the custom of shoeless worship and meditation. Then the greeter whispered brief instructions to choose between folding chair or floor cushion and also referred to the spiral-bound guide and texts used at certain points in the order of service. After a floor bell was rung by the teacher leading the morning's worship, worshipers were invited to stand and bow to one another in respect and reverence. From the booklets, the Heart Sutra was recited and another text or hymn was chanted in unison melody in English, together with a number of ?Sanskrit or Pali words originating in the Indian subcontinent whence came the historical Buddha. More than a dozen Buddhist artworks contributed to the sacred space of the hall. The guest worship leader was visiting from St. Joseph, 90 minutes south of Grand Rapids by car. He gave the weekly Dharma Talk (akin to a sermon for preaching/teaching familiar in church services) on the theme of fellowship among congregants. The title was "spiritual friends." Maybe another way of saying this would be "friends in the spirit" since the usage of 'spiritual' friends may inadvertently give the impression these surrounding worshipers are above oneself or already have attained some sort of self-realization: there are more regular friends, work friends, childhood friends, and by contrast these fellow worshipers are spiritual friends. On the other hand, saying "friends in the spirit," shifts the emphasis by separating the two pools of imagery: friends + spiritual travelers. 

Following the Dharma talk there was a period of maybe 15 minutes of seated meditation, focused on mindful, palpable inhaling and exhaling, watching thoughts come and letting them go. Then when the floor bell was struck and the sound died away the time for Joys and Concerns - things to share among the community - was held, including one from a person 2 hours away to the north who followed along online. Rather than world events, outrage, or municipal problems of justice and health and welfare, matters of a personal scale were introduced - mainly positive, but also some sources of suffering now being overcome. Since a new 3-month class was to begin soon after the worship ended with bows of respect to one another, the time of socializing afterward was abbreviated. Invitations were extended to study and worship opportunities during the week, and there was a reminder of the need for volunteers (most of the temple functions are unpaid) and the locations of cashboxes on the wall (Dana =donation) were also described. In sum, the main body of worshipers seemed to be a mix of men and women in their 20s-30s-40s with maybe 15-20% who were older than that. And since the temple seems to be less than a generation (20 to 25 years) old, probably most biographies of congregants would show they are first-generation, rather than having grown up in a society or culture of Buddhism. Thus there is a frontier or pioneer element, each looking to the others for leadership, experience, or precedent and authority/legitimacy.

REFLECTIONS - first some smaller observations

<>The former storefront on an economically depressed stretch of city street makes it accessible to unhoused and others in distress who gain some support from the several nearby social outreach service run by non-profits (churches and others) located in the neighborhood. Overhead is lighter when property value is depressed, too. Bringing worshipers into the city center can be motivating (causing gratitude for one's own conditions; sharply focused human condition; opportunity to interact on face-to-face basis with fellow citizens in distress).

<>Teachings and locus of control seems to be personal more than interpersonal. Although the surrounding neighborhood is socially/economically depressed with nearby 'mission' food and shelter enterprises, at the Buddhist Temple the main focus seems to be inward self-development within the adjacent Sangha/fellowship community circle of care. As a relatively recently formed institution, perhaps the first order of business is to establish a persistent mission and scope of action before taking on complicated, entrenched social problems involving others, within or without partnerships.

<>Looking briefly around the religious art and artifacts of the worship hall, it appears to be a collage of Buddhism traditions in this former commercial, main street building. On the ceiling are 'lucky' red lanterns, stone jizo (roadside bodhisattva), laughing Buddha of prosperity, the chosen central Heart Sutra chant-sung. Because Vietnam (prominently, the teachings and life example of Thich Nhat Hanh) figures into the readings and conversations, it makes sense that some of the visual flavor of SE Asia is present in the otherwise mostly East Asian forms and patterns. But most of SE Asia's Buddhism is the Hinyana/Theravada tradition. Seeing hints of it in the Grand Rapids worship space is mildly disorienting.

<>Looking around the room, I get the feeling that most attending (only 5 or 6 hands were raised to the worship leader's question about who is a 1st time visitor) were not brought up in a Buddhist society/culture or household. So not only is the worship site relatively new, so are the worshipers who bring curiosity and sincerity to the experience, figuring out the rituals and traditions as they go along. Even though I have no training or teaching in the subject, I sense that certain adaptations to source country methods overseas have been made to meet the life experience and premium in USA for convenience/consumerist habits.

<>Hearing joys and concerns, and interpreting self-introduction names and presentation-of-self (hair, clothing, accessories), the worship atmosphere --and by extension, the congregants-- seems to be open and affirming, welcoming of LGBTQ+ worshipers seeking teaching and support for living a way of peace.

<>Although people on this Sunday morning seemed to be mostly in their 20s to 40s, among the 60 floor cushions and surrounding 25 folding chairs (estimated number) there were maybe 10 or 12 people with gray hair - signifying older worshipers, not just mid-life and young adult practitioners. By contrast of mainline Protestant denominations, reports in general say that congregations are shrinking, leaving disproportionately retiree worshipers who know the worship traditions from having grown up in it.

Larger thoughts (bigger reflections)

<>To a newcomer there seems to be a lot of verbal dimension to the worship service, the emphasis on attending classes (learning ultimately is social no matter the context), the Q and A opportunities online and in person, and so on. However, the basis for the Zen method is sitting. That is prominent in this morning's order of worship, too, but (necessarily) quite a lot of verbal space is filled, too.

<>As in other religious traditions non-native to the English speaking world, much of the meaning and growth comes in translation. Just so, there are a set of central words and ideas integrated into the temple and the verbal channels there - almost entirely in English translation but with a few terms left in Pali or Sanskrit, perhaps. The Dharma talk referenced Tibetan terms, adding to the interplay of ideas and pronunciations. I can imagine that those keywords need special care and scrutiny so that, as an example, learners don't take the ordinary, everyday meaning when they see or say the word 'suffering' (for Buddhism there is both personal/acute troubles as well as chronic dimension of mortality that is meant by the original-language, I am supposing). Moving across centuries and between continents, it is likely that 2026 English carries unintended (surplus) meaning and at the same time fails to convey overtones from the original (deficit) meaning. Probably there are several primary (and secondary), foundational ideas with English labels that could productively be explored and teased apart - less by exegesis and more by parable, for example. Participating and observing so many 1st generation worshipers makes me worry that essential qualities of the ideas are not fully fleshed out. That same might be said of Judeo-Christian varieties of worshipers, too, of course; laboring under imperfect translations.

<>A subtext to the imagery spoken during the order of service-- rituals, but also announced programs and classes, resources and strategies, etc --is an emphasis on self-propelled growth and insights that may await the ones who persevere. Not just the same as the Theravada idea of 'making merit' (counting your good deeds for eventual benefit of self and others), an undercurrent to the morning's proceedings seemed to privilege (revealed) knowledge, esoteric lore, and revelations. The declaration about 'all sentient beings' always seems to cause me to reflect on pets, wildlife tiny and big, farm animals, zoo animals and so on. It is a noble sentiment, but what comes first is caring for yourself and those around you, then the temple community (Sangha), then the next wider ring of people. Other animate creatures never really seem to rank in that hierarchy in practice; although plenty of practitioners do avoid animal products.

<>The name given to one's sense of being out of one's depth (expertise) or one's element (stranger in a strange land) is "imposter syndrome." That pertains to individual cases and circumstances, but something like that comes to mind for a religion --ancient though its roots-- that is a newcomer to the USA society. In other words, compared to the pervasive religious assumptions and references from Judeo-Christian tradition on coinage, legal statutes, courtroom declarations, and so on, symbols and events and figures from Buddhism seem somehow less anchored or confidently well-established. 

    As a traveler to a new language and society, the depth of familiarity accumulates little by little until one is viewed as belonging in the eyes of surrounding people and organizations; equally in one's own eyes there is a feeling of ownership or responsibility/presence - no longer a spectator in the society but now a participant. Using that analogy for the arrival of Buddhism in west Michigan, with the passage of time and exercise of routines that same sense of belonging and abiding place/presence can be expected to grow. But at the moment, it feels like the fresh paint has not yet completely dried, to use another metaphor.

<>When it comes to the values expressed in the unison reading and chanted stanzas, as well as parts of the morning's Dharma talk, there seems to be heightened awareness and emphasis on mind-states or one's attention to self-awareness to be shaped in specific ways. In contrast to the Judeo-Christian injunction, "love God; love neighbor as yourself" in which the details about operationalizing this and seizing opportunities go unspoken, the English-language worship terms are focused on these psychological/cognitive details in order to create automatic responses and habits of the heart as well as routines of one's day and indeed arc of life.

All rise - court is in session (fly on the wall)

 

In the first week of January 2026 protestors against I.C.E. (immigration and customs enforcement masked and armed agents of the federal government) were arrested and charged with trespassing in the lobby of the Kent County Sheriff's office when business hours ended and they did not stop chanting, even after being warned that arrest for trespass would follow. Today was the jury selection stage for a trial between the State of Michigan prosecutor and the defendants' lawyers. Once proceedings actually begin the judge introduces himself and his staff, each side is introduced to the members of the public attending (20 on this morning) and to the pool of 17 potential jurors, of which 7 will be selected (6 in civic duty, 1 in reserve). That is when the verbal protocol against any sort of recording device is given to everyone in the room. Before any of this, though, during a period of waiting, this picture was taken to avoid any personal identifying information (PII). For a first-time observer there were many impressions of the hour or so before the Q and A from prosecutor and defense lawyers were made of potential jurors. A hint of "history is being made today" was in the air as the unlawful and hideous actions of unaccountable federal agents was being examined in a public proceeding. Time seemed to stop as the morning passed at its own pace, unmoored from normal habits out in the outside world.

Physically the interior bears faint echoes of royal court or church altar: stiff straightbacked benches like church pews in the gallery, authority vested in the person of the black-robed judge is elevated above the floor level of miked podium for recording testimony and other proceedings, as well as the floor level of the gallery nearest the main entrance (double-doors). Flanking the judge are 3 staffers keeping track of all recordings and decisions during the process of confirming identity, infraction/crime, any plea agreement offered and responded to, asking for plea of guilty (then waiving rights of jury trial) or innocent, and so on. On the wall behind and to the judge's left are the USA and the Michigan flags. And to his right is the platter-sized 'Great Seal of the State of Michigan', lending further formality and authority to the solemn proceedings.

Breaking the seriousness of the atmosphere, the judge asked members of the audience and all officials present (including 4 sheriffs at one phase) how they were doing this morning: thumbs up and verbal signs came in reply. A couple of shorter matters were dealt with before the 17 potential jurors were invited to enter the room. In one instance the Judge made small talk and extended some jocular rapport by asking the defendant what they'd normally be doing if not summoned to this court date. Answer: celebrating their birthday. So the judge invited all assembled to sing out the "happy birthday song."

At one point it was time for the pool of potential jurors to enter the room and the judge requested that everyone in the room rise as sign of respect or recognition of the responsibility that would be put on the shoulders of 7 of them later that morning. After seating everyone, a late comer to the pool led to everyone being asked to rise again. So it not just the entering and exiting of the judge that calls for visible demonstration of respect. Another heritage or archaic custom was for attorneys representing defendant first having to ask "[may I have your] Permission to approach the bench?"

The overall tone of the morning was care and methodically advancing through the steps to leave no doubt or room for misunderstanding of each statement or assertion and the consequences that follow from that. Near the end stage between judge and defendant(s), the judge directly asks if the person's admission/acceptance of guilt was coerced or influenced by offered incentive, and whether the person is of clear mind - unclouded by alcohol or other substances.

At several points the Judge specifically used the phrase "I appreciate you doing X or Y" so the defendant, the staff, the members of public felt "seen" or acknowledged. He also took care to speak slowly and clearly, and to explain each step (and its legal term) so no mystification would be experienced. 

In the end, the lasting impression was order and method, fairness and recognition of the experience of all parties. In other words, from the eyes of one newcomer, the Rule of Law is still in force, despite naysayers, conspiracy stokers, and fraudsters claiming they have special and exclusive truth. Leaving the courtroom and returning to the outside world, the morning view high overhead the hustle and bustle out in the world was a satisfying conclusion to the morning; justice being done without fear or favor.

Looking west from the courtroom suites mid-morning

CODA from the trial during the first part (prosecution by the People of the State of Michigan): testimony by one of the arresting officers and by his captain, and by the commander, the appointed Under-Sheriff (in charge while elected Sheriff was out of state that day). Opening statement by the prosecutor put the matter of trespass as overstaying the posted lobby hours and not leaving when having been asked to. Nobody disputes those material facts. Opening statement by the defense (one pair for a man who has been arrested for civil disobedience in the past; one for the three co-defendants who also face the same charge that afternoon in January) pinpointed the crux as an appropriate and peaceful exercise of protest for actions and policies of facilitating I.C.E. offenses. The protestors followed correct and lawful procedures. Impressionistically, it seems like the Under-sheriff wanted a pragmatic solution to meet protestor demands within the scope of his ability. And the lower-level deputies wanted to do whatever they were ordered to do. But the protestors came prepared to be arrested and tried by a jury of their peers in order to make a public record of the resistance to unaccountable and nefarious federal ICE agents who leverage local law enforcement staff and locations to detain and deport all manner of persons.

Microcosm of consumer waste creation - overflowing plastic

So much packaging, so much plastic - both are unsustainable

In Beth Gardiner's carefully researched book, Plastic, Inc., the relationship of fossil fuel companies and plastic production is described in detail. Oil and gas from fossil layers are the basis for plastics in myriad forms and performance characteristics, much of which has unknown effects on the human environment and our bodies - let alone effects on the many other life forms we share planet Earth with. All of the plastics, though, break down into microplastics and then into nano-plastics so small that we breath them, we drink them, we eat them, and we accumulate them. As the Green Economy grows and fossil-fueled consumerism shrinks, the oil and gas pumpers see expanded plastic use as a new outlet for their destructive extraction. If people use less oil and natural gas, then they can buy more plastic things and throw more of it away to make room for still more.

Places with small land mass do not have the luxury of piling and burying medical, construction, manufacturing and consumer waste like the volume now flowing in USA. Incinerating the increasing volumes of packaging, delivery containers, takeout containers, and breakable (cheap, disposable) plastic products also has consequences unfavorable for the environment and what lives in it, including us. Various forms of plastic require additive chemicals which are released into the air and water, therefore into the food and drink we consume: whether burned or buried or littered, the plastic and its baked in chemicals break down and roam freely. Rich or poor, all must breath, eat, and drink. Pricey or not, the digestive tract gives the same result. The only answer is to produce less of the single-use (throw-away) plastics: Reduce and Reuse, as the Green Movement declares for all materials, not just plastics.

This photo on Sunday morning, when the city main library is closed during summer hours, is a good illustration of the nature of the plastic problem: too much (quantity) and too dangerous (quality) for waterways and places clogged by litter escaping the landfill pipeline from bin to burial. The sticker price makes plastic seem so cheap as to be negligible. But that is only the market cost for 1000 plastic bags or 100 plastic toys or 10 synthetic tires. The total cost for extracting, transporting, refining, and then producing plastics from the original oil or natural gas is much greater than the day's stock market price per barrel of oil or cubic meter of gas. There is the inherited legacy cost of aging infrastructure, capping old wells, tracing the gas leaks of the greenhouse gases from old or abandoned wells. and clean up or remediation that is passed onto other countries storing our plastic trash. And future generations dealing with our consumerism is an even bigger cost that is not factored into today's sticker price. There is damage from well-field roads and spills. There is the cost of micro-plastics filling the air, land, and sea - including plants and animals everywhere. Worst of all, there is documented damage from untested chemical releases in the microplastic breakdown to act as endocrine disruptors, affecting the hormones responsible for reproductive success of animals, including DNA of humans. Ready or not, unwanted or not, plastic convenience may literally be the death of human reproduction and the species. The Neanderthals had a good run of nearly 350,000 years that we have evidence for. But anatomically modern humans have been going for less than that.

Use Less Stuff as the author, Robert Lilienfeld, wrote in a book by the same name in 1998. Or take the slogan of the War-on-Drugs, "Just Say No" to throw-away plates and cups and knives, bags and extra wrapping.

Visual anthropology above and beyond pretty pictures

 

screenshot with strong compositions, but little social context (labels added here)- source: flickr Explore on 3 April 2026

Pretty pictures is a phrase not intended to be dismissive, since there truly is pleasure and value in the process of composing them and for people to view them, too. But for the purpose of this essay, the visual engagement alone - whether stimulating aesthetic wonder or triggering memories or stirring imaginations, or illustrating a story - is less valuable to social science and functioning as a vehicle that opens up larger frames to understand a subject. In other words, not all pictures are created equal when it comes to portraying cultural features and social processes all around us. While the same lens may well be able to record all the images in the above screenshot, in fact they come from different photographers and the experiences they incorporate into the press of the shutter release button.

Probably the labeling to categorize what is prominent about the images, above, is not comprehensive, since other photographs may stand out for differing emotional responses they activate: a decisive moment documented, an historical happening or something rarely witnessed (news value), or matters not of public interest but yet holding great meaning for just one or a small group who sees it, for example. And with enough imagination and powers of rationalizing, each of the four screenshot images might just as well lend themselves for a writing prompt to illustrate sociological or anthropological observations, too. But at first glance it is the quality of the light (top left) that is most salient; it is the delicate texture and color masses (bottom left) that catch the eye; and it is the powerful geometry of the staircase spiral (top right) that fills the viewers' minds. Only a few people might name the specific mushroom (botanist), describe the water droplet's surface tension (physicist), or appreciate the making and calculations for the staircase (architect, engineer, installer, sales representative). By contrast, the coal mine picture is framed and lighted like a lovingly composed portrait with a lot of art and craft. But also it functions well as a writing prompt for the subject of fossil fuel extraction, the labor relations of capitalist (or state-run) owner versus worker, or the lived experience and arc of a life story for generations of miners. Form and content, form and function serve each other in this photo: the excellent capture conveys the subject in a pleasing and engaging way. The important subject adds weight and momentousness to the photograph.

Expanding on the social science meaning in the colliery picture, it is true that it could just be a lucky snapshot of a passing tourist or a memento recorded by former worker, neighbor, or owner. But more likely, it seems to be a carefully framed and exposed photo by a keen amateur or else a professional picture-taker. And while the same image could appear in a wide range of uses, from advertising to editorial to textbook to scrapbook to souvenir postcard, anything from universal or symbolic statement to personal travelogue, when it comes to the visual medium for anthropological thinking, this one stands out from the others in this screenshot. It conveys something of note for understanding human livelihoods and their relationship to the natural environment in general as well as meanings specific to this location and this moment in history, too. 

The photo of the coal mine property has social science worth not just due to the central subject filling the frame, but also due to the artful way in which it is portrayed. In other words, a clumsy visual record would be encountered with indifference or even rejection by hungry eyes of people that jump from one picture to another without pause. But a well photographed portrayal invites viewers to linger and explore the details at length, possibly noticing something they had not understood or known before, possibly reflecting on larger matters or subjects that are connected to this central idea. By being both a beautiful picture (in the abstract, general, aesthetic sense) and by recording something of the subject and its context, the result is a description of a subject that still may rely on words, but which speaks for itself, as well.

In summary, it seems obvious that "not all photos are created equal." But looking more closely at the many kinds of things that attract the eye of photographers - social scientist or not, certain compositions speak of anthropological or sociological matters better than others; not only do technical expertise and artful framing and timing figure into the viewing/thinking experience but also the intentionality and perceptiveness of the (social science predisposed) photographer will affect the final image that people of the time (and future viewers, too) see. By way of concluding statement, it is safe to say that a table full of photos may have a subset of visual interest or remarkable beauty. And another subset will comprise subjects and portrayals of social insights. Where these two subsets intersect there will be a couple of photos that both express something about the society and life experience of people in their context and which also attract the viewer's attention for their visual delight.

Many meanings of the USA national flag - veteran's funeral preparations

 

Detail from funeral home visitation before tomorrow's ceremonies.

Nearly all military veterans from the World War II era are gone now in 2026, and many from the Korean War have died, too. Even those serving in armed conflicts in the decades to follow in many cases have died. Not all of them opt for the guaranteed death benefit of steel casket, honor guard with USA flag. But many do wish to acknowledge their time serving the USA, as in this example from middle Michigan for a 93-year-old man who had served in uniform, beloved in his community as well as among friends and family.

Symbols like the USA flag (Old Glory, Stars and Stripes, Stars and Bars) can convey several layers of meaning at the same time. This flag is multivalent as national and international identifier for sports, for diplomacy and military, for law enforcement, for official ceremonies and occasions and holidays. It can have more personal connections and meanings at the regional or state-by-state level, and also for people, places, and things seen in cities and villages, as well as the household or company level. In popular culture, too, famous artists and ordinary people can easily fly a flag (or in protest invert the flag) or modify in new colors to suit less patriotic purposes; even in the service of commercial sales.

overview of the open casket viewing (detail magnified, above)

Without talking to the stream of friends coming to greet the bereaved family members it is hard to know which of the many layers of meanings of the flag on the coffin are uppermost in their minds. Is it window dressing of an official nature with nationwide currency and value? Or is it part of the man's self-image and the way that others viewed him in life, too? Certainly during the time in uniform it fully occupied his waking hours and shaped his personal habits, standards, and expectations as a young man and for a few years after being honorably discharged, too, no doubt. But from his early 20s (completion of military service) to his early 90s there were many other concerns and guiding principles. So, on balance, the couple of years during the Korean War only took up a small part of a very long and full life. And yet, in all those years he demonstrated his commitment to order and ethical behavior, public service and duty, loyalty and justice equal for the great and the small. So, in that abstract sense of goodness and mercy, his own life and the positive facets of USA nationwide ideals were coherent and maybe sometimes overlapped his own ideals, too. In that case, the national flag is less about politics and history and more about his personal standards and values.

In any case, speculating about the mix of personal and the many other layers of meaning will be difficult to untangle or document without in-depth and wide-ranging observations and conversations with those who knew him best. But for the purposes of this article, it is enough to acknowledge the many meanings - even contradictory ones - that a symbol like the American flag can stand for, gliding easily from one meaning to another; or expressing all the meanings simultaneously.

After the funeral ceremony is completed and the group of mourners reassemble at the graveside to bury the flag-draped casket, then an honor guard of veterans (occasionally there are ones in uniform who are currently in service, too) will carefully fold the flag to present to a representative for the bereaved family as a memento of the occasion.

Trends in phishing and spam email slop

During late December 2025 and the opening days of January 2026 it seems like 1/3 or more of the dubious, probably illegal (fraudulent, con-artist, phishing) unwanted SPAM messages pretend or presumptively declare a payment declines; or sometimes, a payment has been made to your account; more rarely, claim your reward or gift.

This email inbox screenshot from January 8, 2026 is an example of a spate of similar pitches intended to alarm or provoke an automatic (defensive motion) reaction. Ideally, the person looking through mostly authentic inbox messages will stumble onto one of these - sort of like a buried landmine that explodes when activated - and anxiously search for a "contact us" or "help" button. Once they have demonstrated a living person is attached to the email account and can be lured into revealing name, address, and bank account, then the theft of identity and assets is practically complete.

Thanks to malevolent and perverted use of Artificial Intelligence to craft "truthy" websites, text messages, robocalls, and email messages, the difference between actual senders and bogus ones is sometimes hard to distinguish. It goes without saying that a generation ago - long before the current crop of A.I. and slop that it discharges in volume and in diverse versions - such things were beyond even science fiction. Merely to describe how the psychological games and triggers are engineered would exceed most people's imaginations around 1999. In 2026, though, expectations for decency, honesty, accountability, and outrages of excess and of neglect have shifted. Many people under the age of 60 have very low expectations. Their 'normal' includes abuse, fraud, and corruption at small and at large scale, perhaps in line with the daily lowering of the bar set by POTUS, #TrumpConvictedFelon. Where all these declines in social infrastructure, hollowing out of social capital (trustworthiness), and impoverished cultural capital, and agitation of emotional reserves will lead is an open question. But it does not leave a lot of room for common decency, common sense, common good, or hope.