Everything is coming apart.There’s no place to hide. We depend upon each others sanity. We drive down a two lane road betting the car coming towards us is not being driven by a homicidal/suicidal maniac. We live in a state of mutual dependency.
We assume our leaders have a modicum of good will and sanity so we can watch football and go to the gym. We assume civilization will run itself like a perpetual motion machine. Not so. Never has. Never will. One person’s passivity provides another person with more space at the political table to dominate and manipulate. “The love of money (and power) is the root of all evil.” The rapaciousness of the very rich and very powerful must be checked by the idealism energy and tenacity of the many.
Might doesn’t always make right. Sometimes right magnifies might. Huh? Read it again it makes sense. Ask John Lewis and the surviving family members of Schwerner, Goodman, and Chaney.
The Constitution and the Declaration of Independence are not going to save us. Franklin’s response to the question about what the constitutional convention had produced is instructive…”A republic if you can keep it.” Can you dig it? It doesn’t run itself. We run it by our engagement…Or others run it because of the vacuum left by our disengagement. Shaw had it right. ” Democracy is a device that ensures that we are not governed any better than we deserve.” the corollary is that the people who outwork us get the government they deserve.
It’s on us. It always has been. We don’t chose our time or place to live but we chose how to respond to the challenges of that time and place. Kant said an enlightened person is a person with the courage to have his or her own opinion. If you don’t have an opinion, get one. Courage, same drill.
I asked a retired 30 year veteran of the CIA who is active on liberal causes how to be effective. He said, “Find six people you trust.” I think you can be effective with as few as three. Stay current on the issues that motivate you. Support each other on line. Set realistic goals. Treat it like a job…Something you do every day. But, you’re busy you say…Poor baby. Someone else will find the time on that issue and the result will be the opposite of that you hoped. You’ll get exactly what you deserve…Bupkis.
Everybody should put a note on their bathroom mirror…”If not me who? If not now when?”
CONCLUSION
This was written stream of consciousness style in the immediate aftermath of the shooting at the synagogue in Pittsburgh.
My immediate practical thought is the absolute imperative that the democratic party must win the House of Representatives. Trump cannot be allowed to have two more years of unchecked power.
The grotesque spectacle of Trump will morph into the rancid hellhole of Trump. Lies, wars, and grandiose military parades. The Crown Prince speaking at a Joint Session of Congress. That cannot be allowed to happen. Say it again and take responsibility. If you live in a congressional district where the House race is locked up one way or the other jump in the car and find a way to volunteer in a nearby district where the race is competitive. It’s your country.
My more philosophical thought is that the human race is being pushed kicking and screaming to that spot where we will have no alternative but to apply, and live by, the scriptural admonition to love our neighbors as ourselves. As they say, necessity is a mother…
Comments are welcome at tomc[at]wednesdayswars[dot]com. Comments will be addressed in subsequent posts.