In college, I majored in communications and wrote in a journalistic style, which I’ve reverted to lately in response to all the history-in-the-making articles I’ve been writing. For some reason, I thought documenting all this chaos was an important and worthwhile activity. Lately, I’ve realized I’m wasting my time.
My sister doesn’t think so, but… really, everyone is writing about this history-in-the-making right now. I’ve decided I need to stop writing about what’s in the headlines and concentrate on how I originally envisioned this series of articles: How is it affecting people I know? How is it affecting me?
Well, for one thing, since I am very near retirement, I am worried about how all this chaos is going to affect Medicare and my Social Security benefits. I can also tell you that all of this is making me seriously wish someone would strap Elon Musk—a person I used to admire—to one of his fucking rockets and send him on a one-way trip to Mars.
Here’s another way it’s affecting me. The woke movement, which I largely agree with, has made me somewhat ashamed to be a white American male. But now, thanks to the MAGA movement, I am even more ashamed to be an American.
We live on a single planet. We have no other. “America First” thinking is ignorant, stupid bullshit. It’s backward, idiotic, childish nonsense. “Earth First” is what we need to concentrate on.
Nations are imaginary. They exist only in our heads. The Earth, the climate, our resources—those are real. A tornado, a hurricane, a lightning strike, a landslide, a tidal wave—none of these things care about your nationality, your sexuality, your political affiliation, or your wealth. They don’t give a flying fuck, and they will kill you without even noticing.
Money, on the other hand, is imaginary—but it can also kill you. The difference is that money kills by motivating another human to do the killing. Because, oddly enough, of money.
Money kills because of money.
An imaginary thing.
Not something real, like heat stroke, drowning in water, or being consumed by fire.
Yet, it’s this imaginary thing that causes weapons of destruction to be manufactured and used. It’s this imaginary thing that causes systems of governance—designed to help people improve their lives—to instead make them worse off.
The systems become about money instead of people, and by extension, money becomes more important than the very real thing that enables us to live: the Earth.
The trouble is not MAGA. The trouble is not Donald Trump. The trouble is the money in politics. The trouble is medicine for profit. The trouble is money for money’s sake.
It subverts the system and breaks it.
But money in government is still not the root cause. The root cause is a system that forces corporations to grow without limitations.
More, more, more, more. Endlessly more. More than anyone will ever need, and then more still. Because of the demand for endless growth, corporations turn money into something like a black hole—consuming everything, sucking in resources that would otherwise be virtually limitless, depleting them mindlessly for the sake of more, more, more.
America in 2025 is the event horizon of this black hole.
And yet, America is an imaginary thing. It does not exist in nature. The same with corporations, political parties, and money.
It’s all in our heads. It’s a fever dream. And in 2025, the fever is out of control. If we don’t wake up soon, it’s going to end up killing us.
I know you’re going to be surprised (/s), but I agree wholly with everything you’ve said. I’ve talked for decades about community, but I’ve watched as we the people do all the dirty work to stay divided. American exceptionalism is one of the biggest lies ever told, as if it didn’t take communities to get individuals to their successes.
I’m rambling, but I’m starting to write again about how we fix this, how we save ourselves, even though I know it’s going to fall on deaf ears.
It’s the only way I can keep my sanity.
I know exactly what you mean. If I keep all this bottled up inside me, it’ll turn me into Guy Fawkes.
True that!