----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
Apologies for late entrance, under the weather; apologies for a poorly- worded post as well -
Like everyone, I've been following politics closely, and have been involved in resisting. What I want to focus on here, however, is the overall effect the election and events leading up to the election, has had. I protested Vietnam here in Providence, and recently several times again, I've stood on the same spot on the capitol steps, taking roughly the same photograph. In the late 60s/early 70s, there was a sense that 'we' had accomplished something; soon it was clear that business as usual was returning with a vengeance. But we thought things like the voter's rights act were here to stay. When T ran in the primaries, I was sure from the beginning he would win - I've lived in Luzerne County, PA, and West Virginia; I feel I understood his racism and brutality from the beginning - his sarcasm was both typical and unnerving, and his constant slurs meant that the 'older' news - which requires a lag for analysis - would be off- guard constantly. T used both the oldest - insulting, bullying - and newest - Virilian timing - means to keep himself and his rhetoric in the news; at the same time, there was no (and still is no) coherency in the rebuttals. I don't think he planned this as a strategy; I think this is T to a T, but that's irrelevant. The result, however, has been as brutal as he is - the center and left (so to speak) suddenly involved in the appearance of a new world where racism, not tolerance, has become the norm for many. Not only have racists come out of the closet (to the extent they were in one), but fledgling racists have been encouraged to come forward. As a Jew for example, I watch, now, verbal/phone/email attacks on Jewish institutions escalate as more people join in the 'fun.' The worst of it is that so many groups and classes have been written out of the republican discourse, except for condemnation and tarnishing; this is clearly a white and fundamental-christian world that not only dominates, but basically refuses compromise, unless one or another 'ethical violation' forces the issue.
People I know are distraught; I heard from someone at CNN that everyone there was crying election night; a psychologist I go to said her patients have increased enormously as a result of the T-effect. There are internal and external domains; we participate in actions of all sorts on one hand, and try to handle our own and others' miseries (as they do us) on the other. The external is clear: RESIST!; the internal is more problematic, since many people's anger goes all the way down, and eats them alive - as does the depression, anxiety, etc., all brought on by what appears to be the suddenness of the change of direction of what I keep calling Amerikkka - for lack of a better word to describe a new landscape, what appears to be a new landscape. And even in writing this initial email, I find myself holding back, correcting, not wanting to offend, wanting to be politically correct, unsure of myself. The result for many is a kind of inextricable knot/not; even though we have the usual 100% hindsight, we were unprepared. So the questions might be - how do we proceed, from here, as human beings, as _persons,_ internally as well as externally? How do we learn to sleep at nights, to remain calm, to continue what might be considered a project of forbearance and empathy? I keep thinking of other examples of resistance (Sartre's writings for example, however his stance is read), going over Arendt's Totalitarianism, Frantz Fanon, trying to make sense of a typical mashup of daily headlines: GOP health care plan: Ryan downplays backlash as doctors express opposition; Afghanistan: IS gunmen dressed as medics kill 30 at Kabul military hospital; THE MEMO: Presidential code smashed under Trump; Girl statue faces Wall Street bull to fight gender inequality; International Women's Day: Strikes and protests around the world; Fire at Guatemala Children's Shelter Kills Nearly 20; To fund border wall, Trump administration weighs cuts to Coast Guard, airport security; Why Hawaii says Trump's new travel ban is still unconstitutional; FBI Director Says Encrypted Messaging "Shatters The Bargain" Of American Liberty; Sen. Tim Kaine's son among several arrested after protesters disrupt Trump rally in Minnesota; 21 times Donald Trump has assured us he respects women; Senators ask FBI for evidence of Trump wiretap claim; The Statue of Liberty went dark overnight; Steaks, wine and stacks (and stacks) of paper: The Trump White House loves its props; Why Trump's $1 trillion promise to deliver infrastructure jobs may not happen this year; and Secret Marines group is still sharing nude photos amid scandal.
This is fast-forward news; our 'internal time consciousness' and our minds literally can't keep up; if Facebook creates depression on a 'normal' day of widely successful posting content - what is the result of a constant bombardment of brutality - a bombardment which is also necessary on a fundamental level? What is to be done?
- Alan _______________________________________________ empyre forum empyre@lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au http://empyre.library.cornell.edu
