Kassandra and Me

A sweet few of you have wondered why I haven’t been blogging lately.

I haven’t been blogging because we’re at a point where talking about anything except the spiraling nose-dive of American democracy is pointless, irrelevant, and a disservice to all those already suffering mightily under #45’s reign . . . and because I don’t have anything to say about it that anyone wants to hear.

Before you rush to assure me I’m wrong, let’s look at a few recent news items, shall we?

I could wax furiously eloquent at the back-stabbing calls for “civility” from our highest-ranking Dems, at their blatant failure to defend the rights of small business owners, their failure to insist Sarah Huckster Sanders and other minions of the new regime lie in the bed they made with their beloved Masterpiece Cakeshop decision, their failure to back up Maxine Waters – one of their own party – when she had the guts to speak truth to power and encouraged us all to do the same.

But I’d only be venting my outrage.  I’ve got nothing new to contribute to the discussion.  Others have made my points admirably well; I’ve duly shared their cogent arguments to my FB timeline.

Same with the TrumpCamps and the inhumane atrocities being perpetrated there on desperate families and innocent children – atrocities I am complicit in, thanks to my tax dollars.  Same with the Supreme Court’s horrendous decision to uphold #45’s Muslim Ban.  Same with #45 flagrantly alienating our closest allies while eagerly aligning America with the world’s scariest dictatorships.  Same with the FOX propaganda machine pulling out all the stops to undermine the Mueller investigation.  Same with Melania’s glaringly fascist choice of attire on her way to tour a “migrant detention center” –

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Same with all the sucker punches we’re taking, all the new lows we’re hitting.  Despite the knee-jerk “be nice” reaction from certain privileged sectors of society, people are up in arms about what’s happening in this country – and lots of smart, well-informed, experienced, and articulate writers are saying what needs to said.  Again, I duly share the pieces that best echo my personal views.

What’s left for me to rant about is the future.  My success rate in seeing what’s to come is pretty damn good.  I predicted Bush’s first victory and his second term.  I prophesied #45’s win in the 2016 election.  I said the inspiring mobilization of America’s youth on the issue of gun control would not translate to youthful numbers at the polls.  I nailed it on the concentration camps.

This last year and a half (omfg), the only maybe-there’s-hope area in my line of vision has been the little elections here and there that have – huzzah! – unseated a few foul politicians.  Other than that, the future I see is utterly bleak and ugly.

I see the worst possible choice for Supreme Court Justice being seated by August.  I see the end of Roe v Wade, gay marriage, unions, justice, free and fair elections.  I see a relentless erosion of our rights, the environment, social services, and common decency.  I see the rise of a White Supremacist America where it is a crime to speak ill of our Gropen-Führer, where those who are not killed for their color or locked up for their views are slaves to the insatiable lusts of a corrupt government.

Major dictators don’t aim to tyrannize their own countries exclusively, y’know.  They want to take over the world.  #45 isn’t smart enough for that, but Putin sure is.  From the minute the Commander of Cheese (Kelly Ann Conway’s label, not mine) was electoral-college elected, I saw a future where America was a Russian satellite, where our native Resistance would be – of necessity – underground, and where our only hope would lie with the rest of the world uniting to bring us down and save us from ourselves.  A frail hope that, considering the delight #45, Putin, and Kim Jong Un would take in nuking any nation that dares stand against the new Axis powers.

Had enough?  Are you dying to tell me I’m wrong, to explain how what’s happening now is different from what happened in Germany in the 30s, to remind me that the majority of Americans are firmly against this administration’s policies and actions, to hold Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez up to me as proof that I’m being ridiculously pessimistic?

My predictions are dire.  Nobody wants to hear them.  Me, I’m ok with fighting a battle I’m fated to lose.  Most of you prefer to think you’ve got a chance.

Maybe it was Apollo’s curse that stopped Kassandra’s people from believing her.  I certainly wouldn’t put it past the patriarchal prick to curse a young girl for denying him her favors.  But maybe the Trojans just didn’t like hearing that Troy was going to be destroyed, that there were enemy soldiers hiding inside that amazingly cool horse, that Hecuba was going down, that Kassandra’s own rapist/captor Agamemnon was returning home to be assassinated, and that she herself was doomed to die at the hands of Aegisthus and Clytemnestra.  Won’t be that bad, they contradicted her.  Nobody knows what the future holds.

They locked Kassandra away so they wouldn’t have to listen to her endless negativity.  Me, I just won’t be blogging for a while – doing my part to keep your spirits up and hope alive.

10 thoughts on “Kassandra and Me”

  1. It has taken me weeks of twisting synapses and peering into the folds of my basal ganglia system to come to the conclusion that ANY solution to the mindless destruction of Gaia would be positive. I am sure she could handle nuclear waste as She created the components.

    If this ME generation continues to overpower natural healing what alternatives do we have. I have come to think of myself as of absolutely nil-importance in the scheme of things. If one truly believes all humans are equal (especially on a cosmic scale) well…. you figure it out. Considering the pandemic of “biblical proportions” let us stir in the rest of the apocalyptic events foretold and there could very well be nuclear forces involved. I truly believe we are teetering on the brink of either S—t or get off the planet. (Meaning he decisions will be made for us.)

    Meanwhile I am going to continue reading good literature, listening to my wife play the guitar and carving likenesses of God’s wonderful creations (this excludes human figures) while not caring what group’s feelings I bruise and enjoy the gift of life for as long as it lasts.

    Reply
  2. Racism is an insidious and chronic DISEASE. Chronic because you can make progress treating it but if you relax for a minute it returns with a vengeance. Insidious because the Virus symptoms subside until you have shifted your attention to something else.

    Does anyone feel like discussing a problem becoming as threatening as Racism but one that has progressed to the point of the Frog in The Pot just realizing it is about to boil?

    DISEASE: Mindless Consumer Consumption
    CAUSE: Submission to Corporate Retail Advertising
    SYMPTOMS: Upside down economy, Desire for ownership of worthless items, Excessive Debt, Disregard for conserving financial resources ………
    PANACEAS: Recycling, Landfills
    TREATMENT: Undiscovered
    FINAL STAGE: Planet Death

    Since when does getting other countries to dump our plastic in the ocean let us off the hook? I guess it only becomes obvious when other people stop buying our poisons and we can’t get rid of them.

    Truly-Truly Sorry to be Grim and Anti-Capitalistic (Often mistaken for Socialism)but I see no alternative. (Often mistaken for Socialism) Our Trash is Another soon to be life threatening result of mindless consumer consumption. Will we wake up or will we continue our sheep like march? We have sold our our fleece but that is obviously not enough. Is it on to the meat packers!

    Who am I to talk? Hah, gotcha. Our little town of 10,000 in a remote area located at 6,000 ft. elevation with clean air at the edge of the Gila Wilderness is about to be inundated in it’s own trash.
    For a sense of scale multiply our problem by 450 and you have Phoenix Arizona. Want to try Bejjing? 2,283 times.
    Talk about going to sleep and waking up to a house fire!

    Any Positive Solutions short of a population reducing war?

    Reply
    • There was so much good stuff in your last comment, I had to wait till I had a real hunk of time available to respond.
      Following your train of thought from racism to virulent consumerism, I’m once again struck by the sheer volume of extinction-event precipitators we have to deal with these days. I’m on board with your identification of the disease, cause, and symptoms. The panaceas are tragically false hopes — though the first could be a viable part of the treatment, to my mind, if serious thought, time, attention, and funds were directed toward it. Getting off fossil fuels/petroleum products seems the lynch-pin to me, but what do I know?
      As for Grim and Anti-Capitalistic, I am both AND a Socialist. Population-reducing war would have to be on a nuclear scale, so I don’t see that as a positive solution, frankly. If population reduction does happen to a degree that would actually make a positive impact, I think we’re looking at intervention by Mother Nature. Everyone I know in the World Health biz (well, 1 guy, but he really does know whereof he speaks) is certain that cramped quarters, animal-human proximity, and unhealthy environments make a pandemic of biblical proportions inevitable. The Black Death took out 1/3 of Europe. Guess we’ll see what Plague II has in store for us by and by.

      Reply
  3. I may have missed the mark. My remarks about groups of sheep was supposed to be designed to shame the participants to ponder their thoughtlessness. (definition: a lacking of consideration for others; inconsiderate) I often make similar remarks after taking days to find an opportunity to casually insert myself into the conversation of a new group. They almost never get angry at me. Usually everyone just shuts up and walks away mumbling to each other out of my hearing.
    Maybe this is silence construing consent? I would rather think of it as attempting a subtle arousal of awareness.

    A member of my daughter’s family has been in prison in Louisiana for three years without a formal charge. That he is Black and Guilty has nothing to do with my quiet outrage. (I know, an oxymoron.) It is the erosion of the foundation of the Constitution that has not even had a chance to cure to it’s potential strength.
    ps: Today it was announced that Oklahoma just surpassed Louisiana in the percentage of population imprisoned for non-violent crimes.

    Reply
    • Ah, indeed, my bad entirely, I seriously misinterpreted. You’re not silently construing consent. You’re working undercover and launching calculated guerrilla strikes on likely targets to shake up their silent consent and ill-considered opinions – well done!

      I am grieved to hear the injustice system that attacks those Living While Black has hit home for you and yours. I’d be beside myself with outrage, were I you . . .

      I also mourn the premature demise of the Constitution. Every time #45 attacks another constitutional policy or right, someone tries to remind him that he became Pres by swearing to uphold and defend the very Articles he’s pissing on. He’s never read the doc, hasn’t the brains to understand it, and promises mean nothing to him. Obstruction of justice, violation of the foreign and domestic emoluments clauses, undermining the federal judiciary — he’s got loads of constitutional violations to answer for, any one of which is grounds for impeachment. Unfortunately, the Congressional majority is happy to ignore them all in order to cement their places in the oligarchy. I don’t think the Constitution can be saved. I hope it can be resurrected.

      Reply
  4. I try to keep in mind that Democracy has devolved into a system where Two Wolves allow the Sheep to vote on what the Wolves are having for dinner.
    Therefore I cower behind the rationale that If I step out of the herd by not adding to the division of the two groups of Sheep it might increase the Infinitesimally small chance that they will combine their strength against the Wolves. (and incidentally might escape the summons to dinner)

    Reply
    • That has got to be the best metaphor for our government ever. Thank you so much – I am totally stealing it.
      As for keeping quiet within the flock so as to encourage flock unity . . . I love the idea, appreciate the intention, and agree that a low profile may well keep things more cohesive on a personal-community level. But for me it’s horrifically clear that no degree of quiet civility will stop a racist cop from shooting an unarmed Black man or a TrumpCamp guard from ripping a nursing baby from its mother’s breast. To the contrary, I fear that in #45’s America, silence construes consent. I believe we must speak truth to power – confront those who hold important political, business, and religious positions and demand they give us a moral response.

      Reply

Leave a Reply to R Lee Smith Cancel reply