The events of the last two years have been truly
horrifying to anyone who has been paying the least attention. There have been multiple
existential threats to human decency, common sense, and the American way of
life. We have seen a nightmare coup d’état by corporate interests and the
super-rich; the explosive backlash of racism, bigotry, and intolerance that
resulted from the election (twice!) of a black president; a weird,
underreported inflation in basic necessities of life like rent, medical
services, and education; a world, from England to the Philippines, from
Venezuela to Zimbabwe to Kazakhstan, that seems to have gone collectively
insane; the general decline of everything from knowledge, to ethics, to common
sense; it’s enough to make a sensitive person shit blood.
“Sensitive” individuals, who were once referred to as “the
nervous type,” you know what I mean, the unfortunates who suffer from those
ambiguous and invisible maladies known to modern medical science as depression
and anxiety. Maladies indeed to the sufferers, but usually regarded by family
members, bosses, and insurance companies as the self-indulgence of lazy minded
fools.
To those of us whose souls have been burning already
since time immemorial, all of these new depredations are that much more
gasoline thrown onto the fires. Many of us are ready to start screaming. I have
friends on Facebook who are contemplating suicide. This has all long since
ceased to be funny.
Please don’t worry on my account. My own symptomology
is under control, so far. I limit my suicidal ideation to the making of lists
of possible future circumstances under which such a thing could become part of
a sensible plan. Just please bear in mind, these new stressors, daily and
powerful, are serving to supercharge the problems faced by people with long
term depression, they are exacerbating many people’s already considerable
anxieties. Perhaps you know someone. Perhaps you could do something to make
their lives more endurable. Think about it.
At least, try not to make matters worse. Do you think
that you could at least do that? Perhaps, for a start, if you are of voting age
and not a convicted felon, perhaps you could fucking vote next year, could you
do that? And maybe you could even NOT VOTE FOR THIS CREW OF PIRATES WHO ARE
TURNING THE ENTIRE COUNTRY OVER TO CORPORATE INTERESTS EVEN AS WE SPEAK. (Sorry
for the all-caps, but yes, I was angrily yelling that bit.)
I’m really sorry to bother you; maybe I should just
erase the above paragraph and start over. Who am I kidding? There is no reason
at this point to place any confidence at all in the American voter, absolutely
zero. That’s all we have to fight back with, the vote, and no one cares a nice,
ripe fig. Voter turnout may go up a small tick next year, but it’ll be the same
sad story. People will vote for candidates who promise to protect them against
those vicious Mexicans, and keep out those terrorist refugees, and get rid of
those dangerous sanctuary cities, and get rid of all of that pesky government
regulation that’s destroying all of the jobs, and bring down gas prices by
increasing fracking and building new pipelines. Give the people what they want!
Promise them the moon and stars! It works every time.
Why should next year be any different?
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