How many times have you argued with friends or family over which kind of dystopian society we are becoming? Grandma likes to compare everything to Animal Farm, but Junior went to college and has other Orwellian designs. Your hubby dropped acid and read Brave New World on summer vacation. Your father in law saw ‘Die Hard’ a few too many times and is very vocal about it.
Would you read a novel about a mutated bat virus that wipes out the elderly? How about a corrupt slumlord turned reality tv host and Mussolini fanboy turned president? How about both? (Sounds like a shitty book frankly..)
The world falls apart like a sandcastle in our hands. It feels like the lamest spectator sport of all time. We get to watch our president stick his foot in his mouth and then scuttle backwards like the pudgey little crab he is.
The connection to reality becomes so slim a calloused “Joke” about shooting household cleaners into your veins could be just another notch on objective reality’s bedpost. Existence is getting it’s head fucked so hard we all might as well be muttering to ourselves at the bus station with a hot load in the back of our pants. If the best way forward is through, we are in for a long, messy haul.
Our elected officials clamor over each other for the attention of any wingnut, super organized and vocal three to seven percent of the public you can wring an ounce of outrage out of this election cycle.
I feel more and more to avoid making a fool of myself for believing an ounce of truth of these people, my attention is better spent away from the political circus. The private governments of multinational businesses and million dollar insurance policies speak to more permanent and adult truths in our society, no matter how bleak they can appear. Politicians are just apple polishers.
I feel like the best we can do is step back from our rudderless world and take it all in for a second. Then the inevitable moment to collect oneself, formulate a plan, and get shit done. But before that we all need a second just to breathe. Stress is unhealthy. It keeps you glued to your tv or other devices. It’s good for news cycles and presidents, but not for healthy human minds.
