Engagement in the Aftermath

Nearly two weeks ago the following scenario took place:

60,834,437 Dumpster Inhabitants

We’re here! And we’re angry! And we think Hitler 2.0 fairly represents us and how fucking pissed we are! We’re going to elect him!

61,782,016 Dumpster Inhabitants

Please don’t! He’ll set the dumpster on fire! He’ll set lots of other dumpsters on fire! This won’t fix anything for anyone!

60,834,437 American citizens legally elect a bigoted narcissist as leader of the free dumpster. Bigoted narcissist begins preparations for setting the free dumpster on fire with his tiny hands. Exit democracy, enter fascism.

Based on your outlook you’ll have named The One True Cause of the impending dumpster fire a different thing. People of color have said its racism. Feminists have said it was misogyny. Lack of economic opportunity, anti-intellectualism, job losses, gerrymandering, the electoral college. Democrats, Republicans, class warfare etc. etc. A laundry list of social ills and institutions has been generated and each blamed in turn by the frightened dumpster inhabitants.

The truth is, we’ll never be able to point at just one thing and say “well, that was the reason it all went to shit.” That would be reductionist. It would too closely parallel the rhetoric of our president elect, that Machiavellian marionette who’s stuffed with such a putrid assortment of filth we might as well have shredded Enron’s final board of directors for use as his jet-puffed filling. As the days and the laundry lists dragged on, I only understood one thing:

We’ve forgotten that our politicians work for us. We don’t live in North Korea you idiots, you dumpster people. Our elected officials are the hired FUCKING help, and we've agreed to their presence because they are, in theory, supposed to make our lives easier. If you don’t think they’re doing well you can fire them. You can change the rules. You can spy on them. You’ve fooled your own damn selves by thinking the political system is out of our hands, or that it’s run entirely by shadowy forces that we have no control over.

This doesn’t mean that we haven’t been lied to by people who want to hold on to power. We have. But we’ve used the excuse “I have no control over this” as a reason to stay disengaged, instead of as a reason to challenge the political mouthpieces of those who would cheat us. We’ve procrastinated and put off the smaller, lesser pains of having real conversations, trying to listen to other people, and knowing what the fuck is going on. Donald Trump is the aggregate of that pain, and he’s primed to bring a whole lot more of it.

Everyone, from every corner of the dumpster is responsible for this happening.

And we don’t get to look away from the ugliness anymore. We don’t have the right to ignore what our politicians or our fellow citizens are doing, and we cannot, not for one second, sit still. We haven’t earned any breaks from reality. Every day we choose to continue being inactive, ignorant and silent is another day we choose to be a lesser species. We’re not just naked monkeys with guns, goddamnit. We’re naked monkeys with empathy and complex thought, and the unrelenting, nearly unachievable desire for happiness, wellbeing and security. We are more than those of us who have gained notoriety for throwing poop at the cameras.

Looking away again, disconnecting and moving on with life would be total treachery, the worst and last of its kind.

We won’t let it consume us, but our anger is righteous. Our sadness means we have an intense love for the planet and all of its inhabitants, despite our divisions. Our hope is thankfully not all we have left. We don’t live in a totalitarian government yet, assholes.

Our anger, sadness and hope are more than just chemicals in our brains, they’re a reaffirmation of our reciprocal humanity, the little thing inside us that says “because I care about you, it not only means that I’m human but that you’re human too.” These feelings are a call to action. Hold on to them. The only way we’ll survive this with both our bodily and spiritual integrity is if we wake up every day angry and sad that a person who embodies the worst animal parts of us has been chosen to lead us. We’ll only make it through this period of history if we move with speed and urgency.

Say it again: Our anger is righteous. Our sadness means we love. Our hope isn’t all we’ve got.