Wallowing vs. the Future

I have virtually no patience for the blibberty-blabber and mental masturbation over the myriad things that went wrong during this election. I'm all for correcting things for the next cycle, but we have more to do than reflexively discuss discussing what we're discussing.

Fuck the wallowing. Fuck the self-aggrandizing "Here's my crucial insight." Fuck the self-congratulatory "Well, you know ... I saw X coming ..." Who gives a damn.  There isn't time for people to look just serious and thoughtful and wear safety pins. When nobody can breathe, that's not the time to blather. They have no air. No air.

Don't talk about something. Do something. Start local. Reach past the end of your fingers. No, I'm not talking to everyone. There are plenty of people who were working their asses off, much harder than me, who have barely slept since the election, because there's so much to prepare for.  I'm not talking to them. I'm talking to us - the people who let down the side. By talking. By talking and typing and "snorting derisively" (a favorite phrase of mine) and not doing enough.

Reach out. Find a group, build some energy, get face to face with people and show them through action that you care, not through a safety pin. Safety pins as a gesture are lovely and understated, which completely explains how it came from the UK, a lovely and understated former empire.

I don't have the warmest of personalities, nor am I particularly chatty. I don't necessarily exude empathy, though I have plenty. That hasn't stopped people from coming up to me - relative strangers - on the street, in the hallway, on public transportation, etc., asking "What are we going to do now?"  Not making this shit up. People wandering up to strangers. Not making it up.

These are people who are really impacted - everyone from 53% of the population (women) to social minorities and sexual minorities, and people who comprehend what math and science are all about, and so on.  Actually impacted. Already struggling, and now just thrown to the wind by the American electorate. They're not yammering about 20 different opinions about exactly what the tenor and context and vectors and contours and bullshit of the election/process/dialogue/psyche/whatever were. 

Short answer - the American psyche is fucked. Probably intrinsically. Let's just flag that and leave it be for now. Our goal is to be less fucked - and not in a philosophical way. Not in a "let's talk about it for a while and come up with a framework, and some Powerpoint presentations, and then we'll precisely frame our response accordingly. Let's be less fucked today. Let's act. Let's support each other. Let's do something pragmatic for and with the people walking up to us and asking "What do we do now?"

While we're in the middle of doing something essential, that's the time to ask "Ok, now let's come up with a framework for future action. Then we'll play with the whiteboards and Powerpoints."

Do. Do before the things we know have to be supported, vanish. That's my plan. It may be Sisyphus' plan, but hey, that's all I've got. Not really faith, not really hope, just determination to keep moving, and perhaps to not lose in the end.