Pick A Lane Because Otherwise An Eternal Season of Totalitarianism Awaits Us.
Where I live, winter felt like it was one long November.
It rained more often than it snowed. Sometimes it was very cold- but it wasn't winter; it was a damp darkness that lasted 135 days. I suspect- like almost everything nowadays; how I once experienced winters is now part of the before times.
These last stages of capitalism that we are experiencing unhinged society from the common good so that nothing can return to what it once was.
The hollowness of our times is more despairing than the 1930s because we should know better. We were taught the history of those times, as well as how our ancestors battled fascism and authoritarianism and experienced total war, including genocide. Yet here we are again in a world that has normalised fascism and where genocide is happening in the present tense.
"The horror, the horror," uttered by the character Kurtz in the novel Heart of Darkness and the film Apocalypse Now- sums up the politics of 2024 at home and abroad. Yet, the news media is loath to report as they did during the Vietnam War crimes against humanity and so people witness the savagery against Gaza on Tik Tok and become distrustful towards legacy news media.
CNN, BBC, ITV, CBC, and MSNBC news programs feel as worn, defeated and as redundant as a dying suburban shopping mall built for 1980s capitalism before globalisation flattened workers' wages to resemble Peter Seller's final EKG in the ambulance after his heart stopped.
In an age where cometh the hour, cometh the man should apply, America, the greatest empire in our lifetime- has two geriatrics contending to become President in November.
Two geezers are fighting it out to become President, not because the USA venerates their elderly but because their Republic is ossified from the decadence and greed of its 1%.
Neoliberalism is rapidly evolving towards its ultimate end; authoritarian capitalism or what my dad's generation liked to call fascism because the US presidential Election is a two-headed nickel.
In 2016- I detested Trump, and I believed there was a chance to alter the trajectory of society's descent if he was defeated despite the Democrat's pick of Hillary Clinton. I was also relieved Biden won in 2020 because it bought time to get our house in order.
Instead, during the past four years, Democrats ensured the rich got richer because both political parties in the USA are for preserving a plutocracy of wealth. Under Biden, the wealth gap continues to widen unabated, the cost of living crisis continues, and homelessness is an epidemic. Despite wealthy politicians and television news personalities arguing the opposite, there is no democracy without a living wage. There is no democracy when people fear economic ruin because of the cost of healthcare, housing or education.
I still detest Trump, and I feel that his Presidency will be cruel, corrupt, vengeful and short-lived. The problem is that Biden- if he is re-elected will also show great cruelty and disregard for human life, except with less whimsy.
When this November comes, it won't forestall winter like the last November. It's going to hasten a perpetual winter over politics and society. The season of totalitarianism awaits us. The only grounds for optimism we can cling to is that people are protesting in the streets, and they won't go gently into that good night. It's time to pick a lane.
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Chillingly accurate, I fear
The thoughts are duly noted, and thank you for providing perspectives from both sides of the story. The future can be changed by the younger generation, provided they understand how each of their votes can alter the course of history. As it is a year when the majority of the global population goes to the polls, it is imperative that voters and public-private organizations weigh in on the serious challenges that lie ahead of us. (Take a look at the WEF article, which I found useful: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2024/01/global-risks-report-2024/ ). Let us hope some sanity prevails.