At the beginning of 2001, the United States had found itself in an utterly boring state of relative peace. The Republicans had recently taken control of the government again, Bill Clinton’s demise was still fresh in the minds of the American public, and with a great domestic conflict at last resolved, there seemed little motivation to smother each other with patriotism or our political affiliations. Wait, is that correct though? Shit, I can’t remember exactly. Whatever. It’s the year that “NINE-ELEVEN” happened and we all apparently broke down the barriers between us and re-discovered that patriotism in the name of going to battle in the “War on Terror”.
In 2019(20), we’re essentially as divided as oil and water and terrorism remains a constant existential fear of the American public… Well, at least half of them. Okay, I guess most of them, but for different kinds of terrorists… Look, the point is that we’re more politically divided than we’ve ever been, but the problems of the world continue to rot away at our societal health. I guess I’m not feeling clever today, but that was the point I was going to make. It’s nothing new or enlightening. It’s kind of hollow, really. It provides no solution to the problem, it bridges no gaps, and really it can probably only exist to make us feel worse. At the risk of being dubbed the alpha “snowflake”, perhaps we can talk about that a bit?
In my eons ago piece about tossing around loaded words like “Nazi”, I hinted a bit on the fear and anxiety that many minority populations seem to be dealing with in the United States right now. The easiest finger one can point when it comes to this stress is at Donald Trump, but is he sincerely the reason for it all? Is the current president the ultimate “basket of deplorables” that is tearing apart the very fabric of our multicultural society? I mean, probably, but I might be more apt to posit him an effect, rather than a cause. He’s both, to be certain, but these “deplorable” feelings didn’t just suddenly arise in 2016, right?
Since well before 1776, “America” has been riddled with sentiments of elitism and racism. It’s probably our actual national pass time. In 2020, however, these attributes don’t seem to materialize in the same n-word flinging pitchfork fest they used to. I think I stated previously that the left has, at the most fundamental of levels, won the cultural war. It’s not really okay to be openly -phobic or any of a series of “isms” anymore.
At the core of this, there’s really some weird intersection between bigotry, politics, and nihilism going on, but fuck… that sounds like a lot to unpack. I was ultimately going to reach the conclusion that “politics” these days appear to be a tug of war between compassion and a crowd chanting “y tho?”. There are few young (er, my age I guess? I’m excluding the older conservatives of the world here) conservatives I know that are sincerely interested in any sort of nuanced conversation. Most of them – by my estimation – seem to be more interested in simply being as “non-compassionate” as humanly possible and popping a boner at the reactions they get.
A trend I’m seeing in online discourse is an idea that Republicans care about win/loss records and Democrats care about right/wrong. You should know by now that I absolutely love generalizations. Between the “he’s still your president!”s and “both sides are wrong”s, why shouldn’t I be inclined to agree?
This brings me to the real center of this, however… Why do we seem to loathe each other so much? Like, is this just the kind of quality of life we should expect now? We thrive off of seeing the other side trip and fall. We look for reasons to be angry so that we can infect others with that same disease: anger, apathy, sadism… Some weird yet unidentified illness. A combination of the worst things we can be, all rolled into some stubborn mutant mycobacterium that we spread by merely opening our mouths. I grow more hopeless in conversation, by the day. Perhaps that’s why I’ve decided to just use this platform to occasionally talk at people instead.
For all the progress that civilization has brought us, the cost has truly been immeasurable, hasn’t it? Like, there’s something elegant, wonderful even about a primitive human – devoid of any sense of society or hierarchy – bashing in another primitive skull to take their fire and food. Now we spend lives like currency to produce as much of a surplus on fire and food as we can. When there is enough for everybody, however, and we still insist on clubbing each other to death simply because we feel another has too much… Well, that’s just nonsensical to me. It’s counter intuitive even. Look at somebody whose inherent attributes never really harmed anybody, somebody that faced adversity and violence regardless of their innocuous existence… and then become sadistically upset that they’re being extended a helping hand to be brought up from that adversity that was wrongfully inflicted upon them… Become so annoyed by their sudden elevation that merely seeing them upset brings a certain thrill into your life. Mycobacterium was an appropriate word, this view of the world is downright pathological.
We circle back to the progress brought upon our species by civilizing. Enfranchising others is precisely where that progress occurred. This is right from the very beginning: feeding those that were unable to feed themselves evolving into sharing every technological and philosophical advancement with the rest. Now, we have people in the world that sincerely feel that others should have to choose between crippling debt and crippling illness. People that deny the lived experiences of others and think, “As long as I get mine, who gives a fuck about you? Just do what I did!” We moved past eating the aristocracy to eating each other.
It’s just a hopeless day for some reason. I don’t feel good and, despite my capitalist successes, I don’t feel happy. I guess I really am just a snowflake, after all. Thing is, once enough snowflakes mash together unimpeded, businesses are forced to close down, roads become impassable, and people lose power and freeze to death.
If we admonish that emotional aspect of politics, where do we really find ourselves? What’s the fucking point? Like, I get it… get a job that you can buy the things that you need and sustain yourself to do the things that you want. We shouldn’t help each other to move through impediments to what we want, though? What of happiness, love, personal connection, self-actualization? How many have been crushed beneath the weight of cold, emotionless politics to never be allowed any of those things? How many have been lost to dust and time by those that insist emotion is a fallacy in discourse?
To me, emotion is the spark. It’s what ignites political concepts, the drive to improve things. It’s also what we should be able to savor as a result of those improvements. If we neglect that dynamic then why even have a society? If the options, for example, are losing all other comforts afforded by an advanced society in exchange for personal health… Then what’s really even the point? What makes crippling debt and anxiety preferable to returning to the wild and never even having the illusion of social security allowing you to live a fulfilling life? What point is an 80 year life expectancy when that 80 years goes unfulfilled?
If we’re not going to treat each other as neighbors then we should simply move apart, I guess. Forget this agreement we made with each other and just bash each other’s skulls in for some mindless mercantile goal as our instinct apparently intends.
Sounds liberating, doesn’t it? I guess, on that note, I can go to bed.
agirlhasnoname. 