In these depressing times, we seem to always be on the brink of the end of the world, the end of democracy, the end of a livable climate, the end of free speech, sanity, respect, fairness, justice, nuance, context, humanity, whatever – you name it. There is either too much or too little of wokeness or rugged masculinity, or whatever. It is rather depressing, and most of all, unnerving, deadening, uninspiring, and NOT HELPFUL.
The midterm elections in the United States are not the end of the world. The people of a country expressing their democratically guaranteed positions in a democratic election is not the end of democracy. Americans out-radicalize each other with regards to how much democracy they want – they believe in it, but they want fairness, accountability, and politicians and journalism to do their job. Americans know democracy is the only working system, and a democratic republic with checks and balances is the only functioning system of governance, and if we lose it, it will be bad. No one disagrees on this except a handful of nut jobs and some guys from Russia agitating.
Climate change is bad, but we’re working on it. Technology got us here, and will get us out of here. We will adapt, but still live our lives mostly the same – with the technological backbone much improved. It’ll take time, but we’ll make it. Why? No money to be made on a dying planet, so it is within our economic interest to make sense of this all.
Culture wars – which words to say, who is privileged and who isn’t, who do we need to help and who can forge their own path, what is missing or over-represented in our historical takes, in our libraries, in our schools, our art and entertainment – we will figure this out as well, and are actually on the path towards it. We all want to be recognized for who we are, and not be discriminated against. Should be simple, but currently isn’t yet. We’ll get there.
Economic woes? Come and go, hang in there.
Wars? Read Steven Pinker, he has a book – The Better Angels of our Nature – showing how our world is the best of all worlds after all. It will be even better once Putin’s genocidal war is done, Yemen’s, Ethiopia’s, Congo’s civil war resolved, Iran and China on a better path, and so many, many other countries and regions will see their crises resolved also. New ones will follow. Brave heart, humans are violent. Read a history book. This sadly happens, but we now cry out against it (sadly, not always) and we will figure this out too, mostly.
And yes, Covid will eventually be figured out. Pandemics eventually are becoming manageable or are defeated through vaccination. Patience, we aren’t quite out of it yet. And there’s Monkey Pox, Ebola, oh well, maybe I’ll hide under my blanket soon… but this too shall pass.
This is a great world, and it is a great time to be alive – in spite of everything. Even if things are bad – and they are in many places – we have more tools to fix them than ever before. Challenges come and go, nothing is perfect, humans certainly aren’t, you and I aren’t, but we are alive for now.
Live. Make plans. Enjoy your life, be aware of the pain and suffering and know that it is temporary and that you can also help. You are needed. Dream big. Vote. Study. Work. Volunteer. Help Out. Live.
Love you all, all you weird people on a weird planet…
And good night, and good luck from Oregon before election day.
Erratic Attempts 