Let me try out a hypothesis that's been troubling me for some time now. If our economy, and our politics, and our government(s) worked well for most of us, most of the time, how in hell did we get to this point? Just how many billionaires does Elon Musk think he'll be able to fly to Mars to start the first colony? And who will be willing to go along as cooks and bottle washers?
I believe that, if the current state of affairs ends Putin's regime in Russia, but we end up with tRUMP as POTUS for Life, we've lost. If tRUMP's 2014 assessment is correct, and we end up rioting (so he can respond with martial law), we've lost. Meanwhile, we have the party that offers the only viable alternative to the continuing disaster of the tRUMP regime busily pissing of at least 48% of potential voters needed to support either current potential Democratic candidate for president. If Democrats were athletic teams, it would be Progressives versus Corporatists, but no winner take all. REMEMBER 2016? To be candid, neither candidate really excites me and, at the moment, I'm feeling that another election in which I have to hold my nose to vote for a candidate also means -- we've lost. I know that there are ardent supporters for each candidate, but there are also many of us concerned about the baggage each has trailing behind them. Intraparty insults just make it all worse.
I'm not simply complaining about the choices left to us. I'm thinking we're faced with a systemic failure of what used to pass for a political system around here. Politics makes strange bedfellows? Politics is the art of compromise? Aren't we seeing less and less of either? Our politics have now become "Winning isn't everything; it's the only thing." Sportsmanship, and the country, be damned.
Once again I'm back to the "climate change" cartoon that doesn't only apply to climate change.
Yesterday, on #InternationalWomen'sDay, I posted about two women who offer lots of invaluable insights into ways we can get ourselves out of the unsustainable mess we've created for ourselves. Today I'll add a third, Kate Raworth and her Doughnut Economics.
As I see it, it's not a lack of knowledge that's keeping us from a better life. It's that too many of us seem to be committed to helping a certain 1% keep the rest of us in our places as "losers." To my way of thinking, a former U.S. Senator from Minnesota had it right when he noted that "we all do better when we all do better." That brings us to a fourth woman from whom the rest of us could stand to learn a lot.
Once the world was perfect, and we were happy in that world.
Then we took it for granted.
Discontent began a small rumble in the earthly mind.
Then Doubt pushed through with its spiked head.
And once Doubt ruptured the web,
All manner of demon thoughts
Jumped through—
We destroyed the world we had been given
For inspiration, for life—
Each stone of jealousy, each stone
Of fear, greed, envy, and hatred, put out the light.
No one was without a stone in his or her hand.
There we were,
Right back where we had started.
We were bumping into each other
In the dark.
And now we had no place to live, since we didn’t know
How to live with each other.
Then one of the stumbling ones took pity on another
And shared a blanket.
A spark of kindness made a light.
The light made an opening in the darkness.
Everyone worked together to make a ladder.
A Wind Clan person climbed out first into the next world,
And then the other clans, the children of those clans, their children,
And their children, all the way through time—
To now, into this morning light to you.
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Thanks for visiting. Come again when you can.
Please be kind to each other while you can.
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