Things are pretty fucked up and the future is uncertain — probably the worst in my lifetime (perhaps excepting 1969 before I can remember). When it’s like that, I like to think about my grandparents and what they faced and got through with the Great Depression and WWII.
/1
/2 There were absolutely no guarantees that everything would be all right. Terrible things were happening and more terrible things were a distinct possibility. But they got through it, relying on the fundamental things they cared about.
/3 I think about Grandma taking a taxi to the hospital to have my mom, forbidding my grandpa’s parents from calling him to let him know — he was on base studying for the supply officer test the next day, and doing well would determine where he was assigned, and maybe whether he’d live or die.
/4 (Grandpa’s parents had a car, but grandma had a flair for drama, I think.)
He did well and went off to be the supply officer on a ship in the Pacific. Went with absolutely no guarantee of coming back. That’s what people did.
/5 So, in terrible circumstances, think what people before you have endured. Think about how you can support and defend folks less able than you to endure. And fight the bastards.
/6 My grandparents didn’t whine about it. Nor, for that matter, did my college classmate who survived as a child in 1970s Cambodia by hiding in a pile of his neighbor’s bodies. So, keep calm and fight.
Don’t you feel a corner was turned when a president is given absolute immunity? Also, for those of us who had whole generations of the family tree wiped out in a 10 year period, if you see the writing on the wall you get the hell out before it’s too late
My favourite perspective in these matters is to remember that we are all of us descended from survivors of the worst that humanity has dealt with: plagues, famines, wars, the lot.
Ken, as someone who lives with chronic major depression, I've spent the last few days thinking "welcome to my world" - something that happened during the dark days of COVID, too.
Wondering if this is something you've experienced. It's pretty strange giving people advice on dealing with despair.
Whilst I like this optimistic take; the level of existential threat from Climate Change and impending collapse of biodiversity, just somehow feels even more doom laden than yet another war.
If we get Trump in power; it won’t be one period of strife; it will be generations suffering this collapse.
You're right. And I lived long enough in relative freedom, which is way more than most people who ever lived could say. But I hate it for the kids. I hate it for the kids.
Well said!
My father was a WWII flight instructor. The Dr to pass him for bomber flights asked, "Why do you wear glasses?" He said, "Because I can't see w/o them." Dr. - "You're not going". My mother was glad. My father felt guilty. Some of his students didn't return!
All we have to do is vote!
When I reflect on the sacrifices and eloquence of Rep. John Lewis (et al), it gives me a little more courage to stay in the fight. It is imperative that we do, to ensure - regardless of any benefits we may not survive to see - the survival of our democracy.
Fighting is all we have left.
That being said, we are going into circumstances that historically lead to nation scale blood letting and possibly decades before anything can be remotely repaired. We have to be clear about the enormity of what this may well be.
the thing that makes this feel different than the late 30s/early 40s is the sense of less social cohesion now. it's hard to measure that and it may be an excessively rosy view of the past, but it seems much more challenging now to unite communities together under one cause
My father was a USMC captain in the pacific theatre. His oldest sister married a survivor of occupied Poland - most of his family died in Dachau.
Part of me is inspired by their fight. Part of me is glad they are all dead now so I don’t have to see any of them radicalized by FOX News…
Yeah, I had a high school classmate who survived in this way. It was so hard for us relatively privileged kids to relate. His parents owned a donut store and I used to go hang out and talk to his mom. I learned a lot. He went into tech and is now v wealthy. The donut store is thriving.
I lived through my senior year in college protesting the Vietnam War. My Mom was scared to death that I won't come home but got arrested. With this SC ruling pressuring us to VOTE THE RIGHT PERSON FOR THE JOB, I already secured that count!
I studied WWII a lot because it fascinated me that it was possible and I never wanted something like that to happen again. I studied the home front a lot, and took russian, german, and japanese. I have no idea what to do right now. (Doesn't help that I'm in the middle of divorce from a narcissist.)
It's hard not to feel additional despair because "the call is coming from inside the house," as it were, but there are many good, brave people in the country, and all we can do is join them.
I think it's okay to whine a little, you know, at times. But yeah. This collective deer in the headlights thing, esp for white mid to UMC Americans, Boomers and younger. maybe even more so the elder among us. We're metaphorically soft handed about this shit.
Talking to my dad and his sister on the weekend about growing up in a shack w no running water contemporaneous w “Leave It to Beaver”. Not in the hills of Appalachia—just 10 miles outside Portland.
I mean I think about this stuff sometimes too but thank you for the perspective. My kid had to do senior kindergarten on a laptop, but she was not hiding herself under bodies nor missing any limbs. “Oh god you put a mask on her, that’s abusive!” Wait til she wants birth control …
As you probably know, it's a bit more complicated. All this stuff affected people. Maybe if my great uncle 'whined' about being a POW he wouldn't have died from drink. Whining is less harmful than some other reactions.
I think this is a useful way to think about it, in that there really is nothing new in human experience here, even if it is new to most Americans living now. There have been very challenging times before, and there will be again. Humans are who they are, and we are a *very* fractious bunch.
Yes by all means use the mechanics of democracy while we have it, but it's really urgent to understand we need other options if they stop working. No, this is not a call to violence.
I'm gonna finally finish Timothy Snyder's "On Tyranny."
Looking for a way to save our democracy from home this election season? Postcarding, texting, phone banking - you can do more than just vote! linktr.ee/getup_GOTV2024
You realize that you are suggesting being reflective while you point to situations arising in the midst of armed, genocidal, conflict. I think that line is in sight.
one thing I've learned during some rather personal difficulties over the last several years is that you focus on what you can manage/handle/fix, and you don't worry about what *might* happen until it actually happens. Doesn't mean you don't prepare, but you only have so much steam.
My father knew Michael Schwerner, and my great great grandfather fought with the 1st Minnesota (look 'em up). So I'm not letting them down. Already planning to work transporting and protecting people at polls in North Carolina.
Things have gone to a dark place indeed when one's paradigm of hope is the bloodiest war in human history but take the silver linings where they can be found, I suppose
