Unicorn Poop
I use my idealism to temper my cynicism, and my cynicism to temper my idealism.
Folks are worried about my cynicism.
My brother sent me a book titled Humankind: A Hopeful History - on his birthday! I told him I appreciated it very much but that he had the tradition backwards.
I am not very far into the book but I am enjoying its premises. Conservatives and others have been pointing some of this out for some time.
Lives ARE improving throughout the world.
Longevity is improving.
There ARE fewer wars. (Which may be related to the McDonald’s Theory by Thomas Friedman. Though pose the question to Snopes.com and they will point out that it somewhat depends on your definition of war and conflict.)
And remember the quote from Fred Rogers regarding what his mother used to say to him when a crisis developed, “Look for the helpers.” Look for the people running toward disaster.
In Humankind: A Hopeful History the author’s very first example of how humans latch on to the notion that ugliness usually triumphs over Mrs. Rogers’ helpers is the 1950’s novel by William Golding, The Lord of the Flies. Brief synopsis for those of you who never read it: a group of English schoolboys get stranded on a deserted island for quite some time and wind up turning viciously upon one another.
Humankind’s author finds a real world example from the South Seas where just the opposite occurs. A group of schoolboys set off for adventure on the open ocean, lose their way, are washed up on a deserted isle and spend fifteen months surviving but emerge as good friends.
His point, of course, is to show that we are not innately evil or bad or inclined to carry tiki torches and shout “Jews will not replace us!” at the top of our lungs on the streets of a major city. I believe somewhere in the first thirty or forty pages I’ve read so far he also points out that “news” has become our current most deadly addiction and it is poisoning the humankind well.
I couldn’t agree more.
I’ve written about this before. Our social media news feeds - unless managed to perfection - are going to sour your outlook on the world around you. I am confident I have convinced the Cambridge Analytica’s out there that are trying to sway our politics that I fall under the category of “unpersuadable”. My feed never has anything that is trying to convince me that the jackass in the White House is anything other than a jackass.
However, if you do your best to be apolitical online, I suspect you are a high value target for those trying to “persuade” you.
Even if it is not political, outrage news clutters newsfeeds. Everybody is - desperately - vying for eyeballs. This includes NPR, the New York Times and the Washington Post. Those organizations do a slightly better job of it but there is no denying that they also depend on being noticed.
So, you should subscribe to independent journalism whenever possible. Freedom of the press is one of those pesky amendments, after all.
(My current worry is that these staid news organizations very much want this election to be a ‘horse race’. This means they are going to utilize the “there are very good people on - both - sides” argument. By the way, yesterday was the anniversary of the Charlottesville Unite the Right coming out party for the nation’s white nationalists, as well as the senseless death of a young woman out protesting against white nationalism, Heather Heyer.
My other worry is this. The fear and loathing that this president has created is a GOLD mine for the news. It is a GOLD mine for social media. What incentive does any of these organizations have to report accurately on what’s going on? What will become of them if vanilla - Biden/Harris - wins over tutti frutti - Tr*mp Crime Family?)
Don’t get me wrong. I like to read and learn about how humans have overcome, adapted, persevered and succeeded throughout history’s direst moments. It is uplifting witnessing the ‘call to arms’ over the Dakota Access Pipeline, the ongoing protests in Portland for the Black Lives Matters movement and yesterday’s events in Bend where hundreds of people spontaneously came out to block ICE from kidnapping two residents of more than twenty years. I am heartened by the influx of women and people of color into politics up and down the ballot. We were inspired by the Arab Spring, the Hong Kong demonstrations, Tiananmen Square and the current democratic convulsions going on in Belarus.
There have been numerous times throughout my life I’ve been labeled as a dreamer, an idealist, a chaser of unicorns.
My idealism brought me to Washington state, start a company that was never going to make me rich, stand outside an ambassador’s house to oppose apartheid, vote, vote and vote again, volunteer for Howard Dean’s campaign in Iowa, volunteer to count votes for the governor’s race when it was way too close to call and March For Our Lives more than once.
But my cynicism reminds me that not everyone in Nazi Germany felt the same hatred that the Nazis felt - not even a majority - and, yet, the Third Reich was born.
Not everyone felt slavery was peachy keen - not even a majority - and, yet, slavery persisted.
I use my idealism to temper my cynicism, and my cynicism to temper my idealism.
People are not all bad, life is improving for most of us and, yet, we still may find ourselves jolted back into darker days where segregation, Jim Crow laws, ‘sundown towns’ and Green books are no longer considered to be relics of an era.
The insufferable boor in the White House and all of his insufferable offspring may not be the second coming of Satan and Satan’s little helpers but, if it isn’t obvious to the mainstream media (WaPo’s masthead reads, “Democracy Dies in Darkness”) after today’s confession that he is trying to sabotage the election and remain in office like all of the ‘strong man’ authoritarians he admires, well. . .
The idealist in me says, “America will persevere and carry on”, while the cynic says, it will just have to tolerate a ‘rough patch’ for a decade or more.
The pragmatist in me thinks, “Where’s a good place in Mexico for an expat?”
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I just want to say “Thank you” to all who take a few moments out of their lives to check out what I might be rambling about on any given day. I especially appreciate those who reach out via email - or one of the dozen other internet means of communication - to say hello, or offer a little of their own insight to a topic, or suggest subject matter, or chat about the ‘glory days’ or “complain about the gummint”.
I would really, really appreciate it if you shared or encouraged others to sign up for a subscription. The more subscribers, the merrier!
One of these days you’ll see a button that looks like this:
Because, throughout my life, I was a grasshopper and not an ant and now I need to monetize my grey matter while it lasts. But, fear not, because I am also a socialist by nature, it will always be by donation only.
Also, the button above is a dummy. Meaning it is just for show. If you can’t wait for me to go Live with that feature - I know, I know, pins and needles and all that - you can send something to my Venmo account: @riverraftingwa.
Or my PayPal account: jlynne33@me.com
And now for some cute, short animal videos.
You can find American Woodcock one set to Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean online somewhere, which is absolutely brilliant.
“Being a predator is b-o-r-i-n-g. Yawn.”
Thanks for expressing so articulately concerns that have been rolling around in my head, too. It seems the established media you mention (NYT, WP, NPR) are caught in a trap (Elvis soundtrack building...). By veering from the old, standard, elusive goal of objectivity, they don't hesitate to call bull****, thus opening themselves to charges of fake news. If they stick with the facts, requiring more close reading and connecting the dots, no matter how obvious, they lose readers. The fact that so many lies and distractions are spewn by this administration only adds to the misinformation and confusion. Which leads me to another cynical alley: how will we be informed in the future? If this world of tweets and non-stop attention grabbing is the norm, where is the learning? The reflection? Does anybody even bother with reading different opinion columns to gain some perspective or help themselves to understand? Or are we stuck with 2-3 sentence catch phrases and clever marketing to drive public opinion? On the plus side, we have seen how quickly an idea or movement can gain traction and lead to change. But my wondering remains: I don't know how most people actually get their information these days, and if it is mostly social media, I find that scary. Signed, an old guy wrestling with new media.