Today is a distracted sort of day, not only in and of itself, but in the culmination of so many distracted days in the last weeks and months. The world feels uneasy and uncertain.
I wonder if this is what the inhabitants of a certain European nation felt on the eve of a similar election. I wonder if there was the same frustrated rhetoric going back and forth between neighbors and colleagues: “I know he’s not the nicest person but he’ll be good for the economy”; “he doesn’t really mean all the things he says”; “yes he’s a boor, but the other one can’t possibly run the country”, and so on.
I know and understand the mental gymnastics necessary to weather the stormy seas of cognitive dissonance. It’s the careful, intentional ignorance of things that, in any other light, clearly do not add up. But, social pressures and tradition and wishful thinking and the fear that a whole house of precariously-arranged cards will come crashing down with one misplaced thought are the cement that holds the whole thing together.
I keep thinking of Boy Scouts and baseless chest-thumping assertions about the Vietnam war and race relations and religion and a host of other things I had no business being so certain about, and what did reality or critical thinking matter? Beliefs are the foundation of social structure; it’s hard enough to make and keep friends without making unpopular declarations about Equality and Feminism and the meaning of the word “Freedom.” Politics shouldn’t be like picking sports teams, but often, it is. It’s part of your tribe, and nobody wants to be alone in the wilderness. We’re group animals; it’s how we’re wired. Fear is a powerful motivator.
So I shouldn’t judge too harshly. Not everyone has been on the same journey, and who’s to say which things I’m still wrong about? Maybe I’m wrong about the whole thing, and the Grim Darkness of a Harsh and Brutal Existence prior to the intervention of a literal Deus Ex Machina is actually the way things are, and all this “trying to make the world a better place” is a waste of time. Cruelty is a viable survival strategy. I just think we should be better than that.
So I hope you will forgive me for not posting new content; it’s not for lack thereof, but simply that I don’t want to post for posting’s sake. There’s plenty of poetry written and waiting; the next bit about Noble and his cats is mostly done. It’ll be up soon enough, assuming society doesn’t immediately collapse. If it does, you can say “I told you so.”
