Outraged, Fed Up, Sickened, Depressed, Numb, Disgusted, Pissed off, Defeated?
Would you say that you are feeling one of these: bewildered, shocked, distraught, scared, depressed, hopeless, grieving, flat-out pissed off, or numb when it comes to the political landscape in the U.S. these days? It’s important to remember that You feel this way as part of a plan. Project 2025 was designed to hit the country with so many gut punches in rapid succession that it triggers one of these feelings. But the trouble is that these feelings often lead to one of two responses: (1) the possum effect - shut down, hide, sleep, or do nothing but wait or (2) the badger effect - get so angry that you don’t know what to do except growl and froth at everything. These are natural, normal feelings that keep us paralyzed or consumed with rage. So go ahead and be in that mode for maybe a half hour. Hide under the covers, cry, or pound a table and break things. After that, we need to redirect those feelings into resolve and persistence. We need to adopt these follow-on feelings because our opponent has exactly those two characteristics.
And who, exactly, is our opponent? Money. How does this make sense? We tend to think about specific individuals to blame, or groups of people, political parties, etc., but really the driving force behind the decisions that are blowing up the planet are the addiction of humans to money. One might add power into the mix, but for most individuals, power is represented by money. We got into this mess by way of a long, steady march towards concentration of wealth. Starting with road maps like the Powell memo of 1971 (look up the details if so motivated), a conservative push to control all of the branches of government began. It took over 50 years of dogged persistence, but here we are… the wealth is concentrated, the game is sufficiently rigged, the oligarchs have arrived. Throw in the fact that any semblance of social safety net has been obliterated, and we inject a sense of “we all need to keep working, make as much money as possible, with whatever means possible to save as much as we can… since nothing can save us if we have an accident or get old.” Work like a plow horse, maybe save a tiny bit, but mostly generate even more money for the oligarchs.
An over-simplified narrative? Perhaps, but doesn’t it ring true? And this hell-bent obsession is causing ever-greater extraction and burning of our nest. It’s throwing the climate and all living systems of Earth into a tailspin. .
So what now, Batman? Well, we may not have 50 years to develop and execute our own counter-plan, but we do have the essential ingredients to begin the counteroffensive: resolve and persistence.
Our own road map might be termed “attack by 1000 mosquito bites.”
In this moment of crisis, we each need to be our own species of mosquito. First think about your own resources. We each have varying amounts of time or financial resources to devote to our “mosquito hobby,” but we all have some bit of something we can contribute. If there is one aspect of our current political morass that hurts the most, focus on that. You might be most upset about immigration rights, family planning rights, threats to democracy, climate change, loss of due process, money in politics, election reform… whatever it is that most cranks you up, find that thing and get to work supporting reform in that area. Contribute time or cash or both within your ability. Protest and cause “good trouble” if that is your thing. If you can support more than one cause, great, but it’s not necessary. You just need to be a mosquito, doing your tiny part to suck the life out of our opponent. There are many, many more mosquitos out there all making their bite as well, and we won’t stop buzzing around or biting.
Don’t expect to win great reforms or victories, at least not right away. There will be little feedback that you are making a difference, but that doesn’t matter. You just need to stay persistent and support the other mosquitos. We all need to tell each other that we are doing fantastic work, and that will have to be enough encouragement and satisfaction for now. That is as much feedback as we get. If we don’t give up, the mighty mosquito cloud can take down any giant. Pick a cause and let’s get buzzing!
