Reports from a Mundane Geek Life (original) (raw)

This is a phrase that tends to go through my head a lot. Mostly whenever I encounter homeless people. It's an attempt to remind myself that I shouldn't be complacent, that all it would take is a managerial decision for me to be laid off, fired, or whatever clever euphemism my company is using to refer to it this time to not say those words and potentially wind up in their position.

It's a fear--a real fear--but it's also a reminder of my privilege. That I'm not on the street. I have a job, a house, a car, I can pay my bills and still have money leftover. I'm comfortable. At the moment, I'm safe. Ish.

Not everyone in the world is.

That basic empathy is, I think, on full demonstration right now, with the protests over the Muslim travel ban, but so, too, is its antagonist, callousness. Indifference.

"...it is more than usually desirable that we should make some slight provision for the Poor and destitute, who suffer greatly at the present time. Many thousands are in want of common necessaries; hundreds of thousands are in want of common comforts, sir."
"Are there no prisons?"
"Plenty of prisons..."
"And the Union workhouses." demanded Scrooge. "Are they still in operation?"
"Both very busy, sir..."
"Those who are badly off must go there."
"Many can't go there; and many would rather die."
"If they would rather die," said Scrooge, "they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population."

One hundred and fifty years later, and things haven't changed much.

The last two weeks have been seismic. Weekly protests. Congress people joining the protests. The Secretary of Homeland Security finding out about an executive order pertaining to his department as the order is being signed on television. The Acting Attorney General being fired for having the guts to say a presidential executive order is, in her studied opinion, undefendable. A five year old child being separated from their families and left to go hungry because they might be a terrorist. Executive branch organizations ignoring court orders. The enforcement branch of the judicial branch refusing to comply, saying they answer to an executive branch department. Most of the State Department leadership being gutted before the Secretary of State is even confirmed. The government issuing bald-faced, easily reputed lies and doubling down when confronted with this fact. The German Chancellor having to explain the Geneva Convention to our sitting president as if he's a teenager in his first Civics class. The governments of our allies openly questioning that relationship.

The problem is, there are so many people in this country who are going: "Good."

I have never been so political in my life as I've been these two weeks.

This isn't unique, but I'm finding it difficult to have self-discipline to pace myself. This is a problem I've been wrestling with for the last couple of years, the current political climate is not helping at all. Some articles have mentioned the concern of "resistance fatigue", that this may become a marathon, not a sprint, and that suggests endurance. The protests burn bright and hot now, but will the collective we have the fuel to keep it up over months? Or years? That may be what it takes.

I thought about writing more about this...but, for now, I'll leave it here. I'm not done thinking. I'm not done writing. But what I am doing is trying to force downtime. To find those quiet moments where I step away, to let the energy tank be restored, so I can continue on tomorrow.

I feel very strongly that we're at a watershed moment of history. I wonder how many people realize, when they're in one, that they are?

“I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.
"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”