Thursday, September 23, 2021

What Do You Do When There's Nothing You Can Do?

I have a friend who thinks homo sapiens are headed for extinction. He says we have evolved  to be able to invent ever more ingenious ways to consume our resources—essentially, the planet—but, like drug users and narcissists, without the wisdom or willpower to manage our addiction.

Found dead in a hot, dry ditch: humanity.


That long view is the most entertaining way to consider our maladies. It won’t happen to us, we can tell ourselves. Or our children.

But of course it is already happening to many of us. The low-lying poor are already drowning. Farmers in the American southwest and west are already parched; the general population may not be far behind. And the situation is worse in much of the world.


Which brings me to politics, because politics is how we solve problems, at least the ones that require government coordination and funding. I don’t have to remind you how that’s going. As usual, we can’t make up our minds how big the problem is or what to do about it. Slowly boiling frogs come to mind.


If we step back from existential problems and politics, to consider the stuff of everyday life, things aren’t much better. Over the course of the last few hundred years, we have made substantial progress globally on increasing literacy and reducing poverty. But our developed-world problems—like voting and women’s rights—are becoming more, not less, intractable. The world may be more literate, overall, but the Republican party seems to have lost its wits altogether.


Being in government now has got to be frustrating. Most went there, I assume, to make a difference. Few, not counting Mitch McConnell, will. And the only difference old Mitch is making is in making it harder for minorities to vote and women to have reproductive agency. Now his hand-picked Supreme Court has taken up doing the heavy lifting for him and his kind. His kind being old white men who used to rule the world—still do, unfortunately—and are fighting like Cersei Lannister to stay on the throne.


I have another friend whose approach to our looming climate disaster is to try to get arrested. He chains himself to pipelines and pickets the banks financing them. They keep pumping oil and cash while he makes bail.


Dramatic acts to call attention to problems only make a difference if anyone cares. That is, anyone who can do anything about it. See above about coal-country king McConnell.


We’re in a tough spot right now. Politics is the Hatfields and McCoys. Meanwhile the world burns, women are forced to have babies they don’t want and people in the south can’t find their poling place, which was moved miles away from their home and is closed by the time they get off work.


What can we do about it? Hell, I don’t know, but we’d better do something. At least we should try to make it a better, more compassionate place for those less fortunate than we are. That takes a village, as Hillary famously (and correctly) said. We may still slowly boil, but we might as well treat each other fairly and with dignity while we cook.


I guess that starts in the local coffee shop, next time we see someone wearing a mask, or not. Next time we walk past a homeless encampment and look the other way. Even, in my case, next time I feel the impulse to say what absolute jerks some people are. That might be making me feel better, but it’s not helping.


Pretty is as pretty does, my grandmother used to say.

2 comments:

  1. The only way to reduce politicians inherent conflict of interest, that is, voting their conscience rather than cow towing to a 3rd party, is to take away the option for a 2nd term. The bonfire of vanities will be extinguished. .....David

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  2. It’s all such a mess, Mac, I agree! I think voting rights are absolutely crucial right now. This country has to make it possible for every citizen to vote. Without that, we’re cooked.

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