Where We Are Today

 

The Nighthawks/ Hopper

 

It's been a dark depressing time since the election and I can't pretend anymore that things will get better. And yet,we keep on,keep on. I'll try to keep the downers to a minium but not today.

" I didn't know the leopard would eat my face."

    Leopards ate my face is the schadenfreude when someone is shocked to suffer the consequences of something they voted for, supported or wanted to impose on other people.

    After every election there is finger pointing, blaming this or that demo graph for a failure. The problem is that the groups blamed are often too small to actually make a difference. Blacks, represent only 12.5 % of the general population, gays a mere %5 if that and yet these groups seem to have the magical power to upend election results.

    No they don't.

    It's the 61% white male population's fault when one side or another wins but hey let's blame the minorities and women for everything.Those terrible immigrants are the source of all our problems. Sound familiar? By the way, people who move here are immigrants but Americans who move to another country are expatriates.

    An election isn't a football game but everyone takes sides like it's one. "Our team is better than your team" except our government is supposed to be a collaboration between parties with compromise. Not anymore. It's our way or no way. The winners claim superiority from any policy that may affect "those people" they are always exempt.

    No they aren't.

    Mass deportation of migrants happened during the depression. Americans citizens -of Asian origin were put in camps during WW2. Germans were also imprisoned by our country and theirs. So were Russians, Chinese. . . the list goes on. Genocide, ethnic cleansing, and civil war happens on a frequent basis with whole swaths of people being eliminated because --reasons.

    The Age of Isolation and ugly politics have divided our society once more, why? In times of disturbance we close ranks, pull the wagons in a circle and hunker down for an inevitable attack. Families, friends co- workers are picking which "team" they are on and want nothing to do with anyone who disagrees. This is the mad division the powerful have encouraged and slobber over. It's also part of the dictator's playbook: control the media, the military and a religion to their cause.

    The threat of environmental, social, and economical collapse is stressing everyone and everyone is sure of a solution. From nothing to see here folks, move a long to whacky conspiracies like the Earth is flat.

    Tribalism has replaced unity. While the winners gleefully laugh at the losers, there are growing signs of rebellion, women in particular are furious at the growing inequality while men see it as threat to their entitlement. The fear of rejection is palatable. The winners absolutely want a world where they get to decide reality and expect the rest of us to  fall in line. They’ve got another thing coming. 

     I'll leave you with a song from the 70's That still rings true.