Hello Daniel. In my respectful opinion, you absolutely do need to keep writing about the onslaught. I read every one of these newsletters and discuss the issues raised with friends and colleagues. Your voice is clear and you do the research that others like myself aren't inclined to make time for. I don't know how many people are reading these, but I'm sure every little bit helps. Please continue.
Most of my friends and family leave it to me to be the official worrier about Everything. I find it remarkable that our society functions at all with the political virus infecting everything and most folks only partially or marginally informed. Thank you for keeping me company.🙏🙏
"I could be writing about European avant-garde literature of the 1920s, about the shape of clouds, about fascinating rodents and other small mammals."
Or psychedelics again! Man I miss hearing you talk about trips and trances. Much more fun and much less horrifying.
Keep doing what you're doing Daniel. I am an explorer of entheogens and also a lefty. I hope to join other lefties in the trenches once I have recovered from my current illness.
Keep writing Daniel. There are so many of us out here. We need your voice. Even those of us awake to what’s happening don’t know what to do. The required movement won’t appear until more of our backs are up against the wall. And we don’t perceive that to be the case today. Meanwhile, it’s totally obvious that this is the case. But I like most others continue to hustle and scramble and work to make ends meet. Glancing at the headlines and then looking away. It’s a lot to process. But mostly I personally feel like I have no idea what to do about it. It feels as though it requires a full-time effort which would require some kind of income associated with it (though income may be taken away soon enough). I don’t think we look away because we’re Sleeping. It’s just, cognitively, overwhelming, and something almost none of us have ever encountered before. None of this is an excuse. It feels like a fast motion, slow motion take over and yet it hasn’t taken a direct hit on many of our lives yet.. (sorry for errors and dictation).
Daniel as a member of Mass Peace Action, the largest peace group in Massachusetts, I’m extremely disappointed to see your comments in support of further escalation of the Ukraine war. As you hopefully know (even though not reported in the MSM), NATO was involved in the Russian attack representing a serious escalation of events. Rather than decreasing the horrendous tension in a very unstable geopolitical situation, this latest event significantly ratchets up the threat of nuclear confrontation. If you are in favor of military solutions, how can you claim to be someone who wants to foster mass awakening and the advent of a new consciousness that will keep humanity from further degrading the quality of life that we all share on this once beautiful planet ?
Further, how can you possibly not see the connection between the US necocon war apparatus; ever-increasing mass surveillance with Palantir, the NSA , and Big Tech that will use AI to become even more intrusive; and the authoritarian impulses now threatening to further erode a democracy that a Princeton University study in 2016 indicated was already down the tubes? As Helen Caldicott said in reference to Ukraine, we are "sleepwalking into Armageddon".
Yes, the public is largely checked out about many horrendous developments but one of them is the increasing militarization of both the economy and international relations; and the rekindling of the nuclear arms race that's built into Trump’s so-called Big Beautiful Bill. You cannot be against Trump and for escalation of serious geopolitical conflict. The semi-catatonic disassociation evident in the public about many issues is certainly reminiscent of the notion of war as mass psychosis as laid out in excellent fashion by the brilliant Scottish psychiatrist R.D. Laing. Please wake up on this issue. So disappointing to see this.
I disagree on Ukraine. I feel Putin was the aggressor etc. I don’t feel the deterrence is to let him take over Ukraine but to do what they are doing: fighting back. I doubt we are going to convince each other out of our views here.
Obviously all of these despotic regimes need the threat of war to maintain oppression of their people. Nuclear war even better. In a peaceful or pacified world, how could you possibly justify the massive military expenditure?
Sorry at the risk of repeating myself, your position is untenable. You can't be both in favor of military solutions and a proponent of a consciousness shift as the only hope for humanity's way out of polycrisis. Serious re-militarization in countries around the world including Japan and Germany is a huge concern and Ukraine and Gaza are feeding this. A return to a major nuclear arms race is a huge concern. The new model of warfare that includes civilian populations is a serious concern. Ditto the fact that the US military is the world's greatest polluter. This is simply not the way forward. Further if you support the neocons, you support Trump. Just way too many logical inconsistencies here.
Agreed 💯. From someone who was in the Donbas 5 times around the turn of the century—it is Russian, linguistically, culturally, and in its loyalties (save only recent transplants from western Ukraine). Further, I'm persuaded by the analysis of Jeffrey Sachs, John Mearsheimer (and George Kennan, and even Henry Kissinger) that pushing NATO ever eastward (breaking our own word) and engineering the "Maidan" coup in 2014 made Putin what he is, the monster we needed to justify the raison d'être of a dying empire with a raging arms industry: WAR.
totally disagree. I recommend the Munk Debate where those who supported the Russia position were badly out-debated by those who support Ukrainian sovereignty: https://munkdebates.com/debates/russia-ukraine-war/
Well I guess I’m going to have to count you among those who betrayed the core values of the Democratic Party by letting it become the war party under Biden beginning (roughly) with the Obama years. In part, it was this abandonment of values of course that ultimately gave us Trump. Fortunately at least some Democrats are starting to re-examine this sad and convoluted history. I suggest joining a study group in the peace movement for 3 years like I did to do a deep dive on what really led up to the Ukraine mess.
In the meantime, I leave you with this from JFK’s famous commencement speech at American University: “Some say that it is useless to speak of world peace or world law or world disarmament--and that it will be useless until the leaders of the Soviet Union adopt a more enlightened attitude. I hope they do. I believe we can help them do it. But I also believe that we must reexamine our own attitude--as individuals and as a Nation--for our attitude is as essential as theirs. And every graduate of this school, every thoughtful citizen who despairs of war and wishes to bring peace, should begin by looking inward--by examining his own attitude toward the possibilities of peace, toward the Soviet Union, toward the course of the cold war and toward freedom and peace here at home.”
I’m now suspecting more than ever that you’re Wired-captured. In any event, here’s a thought experiment. If you’re concerned about the existential threat of AI itself, how about the same threat combined with the existential threat of a nuclear blowout? See this:
If you need more background on how the US Russia and China are now involved in a new nuclear arms race, please read this article in The Nation. The American public simply has no idea that this is happening and if they are checked out on this topic, it’s largely because the mainstream media is staying miles away from it. Here’s the article:
“Return of the Nuclear Threat
While most of the world looked away, a new nuclear arms race has broken out between the US, Russia, and China, raising the risk of nuclear confrontation to the highest in decades.”
I am always surprised and dismayed when someone lets me know that they don’t pay attention and claims both sides are equally bad.
I’m glad I’m 70 and have my privileges. I should be doing more and I’m not sure about exiting the country which I was seriously considering. Now I’m afraid I will put my social security or IRA at risk and may not be allowed back in the country. Anything is possible with the tools they have and a compliant citizenry willing to slow boil like the frog.
BTW: The Iowa senator is Ernst. The sexually abused, pig castrating, U.S. military member who strongly believes in Jesus and being cruel to the people with real needs.
Keep fighting the good fight and trying to wake up some more of us. I still have hope. But how did we get here? Rhetorical ?
It really stirs something in me when people say they’re glad they’re old. My dad says that a lot, and it often lands as a kind of giant middle finger to those of us still in the thick of trying to change things—for our kids, for each other, for whatever fragile future we can still shape. It feels like a retreat that’s only available to those who spent their prime years focused on their own lives, while we’re now (and have been, for our entire parneting lives. — for me, ~20 years) shouldering the weight of everything unraveling.
I can tell you care deeply and are paying attention, and I truly don’t mean this as an attack. I know I’m projecting my frustration with my own family onto your comment—but since I can’t say it to him in a way he’ll hear, I’m saying it here. If you’re open to it, I’d love to hear how you think about your role now—not out of guilt, but from whatever place still feels called. I want to believe we’re not giving up on each other across generations.
I totally hear you and accept your perception of my reply. I do care a lot about all people. A large part of why I say I’m glad I’m old is a rationalization because I can’t do anything about it.
But I have watched as the middle class and upward mobility started to die a slow death since Ronald Reagan took over in 1980. He made unions a curse word, he started the war on drugs and three strikes laws making us the highest per capita males in prison except for a few third world countries. He reduced the upper marginal tax rates from 70% to less than 40%. He implemented the Christian right wing southern strategy a 20 year plan.
So here we are 45 years later and the problems are large. Income inequality and the future inability to make enough money to take care of the family seem particularly hard to solve. But the environment
and the finite resources are also urgent.
I have no answers so I just try my best and be thankful for all I do have and for leaders like Daniel and others on Substack.
Thanks for taking the time Allison, I take it as a wake-up call for me and your father!
It seems to be a fact that the "little people" (90-what percent of us), regardless of age, are helpless to stop the sociopathic powerful, unless maybe we were to withhold taxes in such numbers that they couldn't arrest us all (but as things are going they'd just lock up what little we have in our bank accounts and bar us from travel and credit, en masse). The Democratic Party is deeply complicit in this denouement. They unforgivably and repeatedly broke their promises to secure at least a public option in healthcare, voting rights, and women's rights, just for starters.
Where we older people are "to blame," or at least legitimate targets of derision, was that we had relatively good lives perched atop the cresting of this wave that is now poised to smash our own children and grandchildren. Most younger people would do the same if only they could. It's human nature to be shortsighted (i.e., naturally focused on the near and dear, on immediate challenges, desires, and goals) when societal life is "good enough." Saints, activists, and prophets are rare. Most concerned people depend on donations and lawn signs to assuage their consciences for not doing more.
Wonderful response! I can’t imagine why anyone would pay their taxes this year! I’ve mentioned it many times in many different places. Why pay taxes when they’re not going for anything of value to people or Earth? Not that things were great before. But still. There was an active war tax resisters movement during the Vietnam War. We need that now!
What a wonderful, lovely, human and heartful reply. Thank you so very much, Bob, for taking my angst IN, rather than rejecting or deflecting. That is so beautiful! And huge, really. I agree with everything you've said and are saying, and totally understand the feeling of "what to do?! What to do!?" - much more to say about this topic but not for online posting. :) The main point is, I SO appreciate you and your ability to hold all of the complexity and respond with such generosity to my uncharacteristic comment. :) Truly. And ditto re: being thank for for leaders like Daniel!
I’ve been an activist, published writer, speaking out, organizing, since the 1980s. I’m 73. Everything I worked for, any minor successes . . . now being undone. I don’t have it in me to do it all over again. Though I’m still here, still writing, still agitating however I can. I’m not giving you the finger when I say “I’m glad I’m old”. I have kids and grandkids. One of my sons died in 2013. Another one is just waiting all this out, assuming it will “go away”, just as he ignored my work on climate change and GMOs until there was so much evidence he had to admit he was wrong. My youngest . . . he just shared a piece of writing the other day that was one of the best things I’ve read in a very long time. I was blown away. Just as I was when he went to film & photography school and his creativity exploded, and his perspective is unique. His piece is called ‘The manifesto of the unbroken”. I’d love to see it published somewhere. It irks me when people lump all “older people” together as the problem, because I’m not them. LOL And I sense that many if not most of the older folks here, aren’t them either. This is a bit of my own ‘projecting’, but it happens too often, and I always feel the need to speak up and defend myself and my older colleagues.
Oh gosh, I wish I had more time to respond more fully. I am in awe of so many older people, many of whom are the ONLY ONES to show up at events, do things, volunteer, etc - even now. That was not at all the topic of my complaint (elders writ large). It was ONLY directed at the very specific "glad I'm old" trope that my dad trots out every so often, which really bothers me as I've sweat blood and tears for 20 years now, too (nonstop and also seemingly for naught) WHILE I was raising my kids (ie not after), running for office, running an activist org, volunteering on countless campaigns, knocking on thousdands of doors (even last weekend, unrelentingly). Most people who are out there with me (Iie last weekend) are 20+ years older than me. They are largely retired. They are AMAZING. And yet they also do, you know, have more time. That's just a fact. However, and mainly to your point, I am so grateful for those, like you, who have been agitating and organizing and writing and speaking out for decades. This is not the crew of brilliant people I grew up with. I grew up with a lot of people who did great work in our community, to be sure, but also largely just lived their nice lives. There are so many people in their 70s who show up at the marches. Who man the democratic county/town committees. Etc. Just to be absolutely clear, in my real haste, that this was nOT WHAT I MEANT. I am sending you so much gratitude, and I understand the exhaustion. I think Bob's comment pricked me in a similar way to the annoying comments you get while you're pregnant: "Get your sleep while you can!" - totally different scenario but similar reaction. :) You have nothing to defend, as far as I'm concerned, and Im very sorry I made you feel as though you do.
This might also be very defensive, but I wanted to clarify that it’s not “now” but rather my “whole adult life,” more or less, that has been defined by such concerns (and actions). It has been, in many ways, very fulfilling and gratifying (if not a completely pointless waste of time (see: everything) — time that could have been better spent with my children, though of course I am very fortunate and there was plenty of that but never enough. Anyway, that word - “now” - was stuck like a piece of popcorn in my tooth, though you very well may have meant only wonderful things by it. :)
I too read every one of your newsletters. I find your writing accessible and well informed. I also share your articles on a social media platform I belong to with followers across the entire United States. Similarly, I’ve been noticing less and less responses to my posts as weariness sets in.
I’m at a loss of what to do. Yesterday I sent an article by AI, on protective measures to help contain AI from being used for other than good of the population, to the governor of California. I keep thinking if the information can just get to the right people, actionable steps can be taken. What I’ve come to realize is that the crisis we currently face is so multilayered that it’s hard to know where to even enter in order to dismantle it.
What a very interesting time to be alive. I’m grateful that I got to see the past seven decades of progress in our country. For all it’s folly, it’s been a wonderful place to live. At the same time, I think I’m thinking it’s a good thing I’m the age that I am, because I don’t really want to see a world where the highest good of all concerned is dismissed in favor of accumulation of money and power by a greedy few.
I felt a swell of of pride for Ukraine’s brilliant David and Goliath drone attacks against Russia. I also woke during the night thinking about the likelihood of Putin responding with some kind of nuclear weapon, and the horror of a response by Trump and Hegseth. Yes, we’re closer to nuclear war than ever before in my 70 years. But even so, somehow, my feeling for Ukraine persists—for the strategic brilliance, the audacity, the focus. The polarized world we now live in wants us always to decide right or wrong, about everything, but it doesn’t seem to me like a such a judgement can be made in this case.
Maybe what drew us into such polarization was our increasing awareness, and fear of, the chaotic nature of the world. We didn’t used to know this much. Now our nervous systems cover the earth, and are beginning to extend beyond.
I too am trying to figure out how I dissent in a meaningful way. I channel my high school self who skipped school to protest the war and campaign for McGovern, I had much more energy and enthusiasm than I have now. I’ll admit I’d like to blow up some bombers, but I’m an artist so my path is making art.
No conclusions but I appreciate your essays appearing in my inbox every day.
It seems like the Ukraine situation is a bit of a hot button on this forum, but I want to raise a question. I was reading a post on sonar21. I would link to it, but instead I would ask the curious to go out and find it (it’s easy) because linking to it makes it seem like I’m vouching for it, and I’m not. I just found it compelling. It listed reasons to believe that the strike on Russia was not nearly as devastating as the western press would have you believe — as in, they damaged 5 not 41 bombers. Do I believe this? I don’t know, although maybe. But why. Who benefits from the overstatement? Given that Trump seems to be more on the side of Putin at this point, I don’t think he would want to overstate the damage. (Is he even engaged at this point?) But I guess what is a little scary is the following: if the west facilitated the attack (many people think so), and it was rather underwhelming (was it?), and the attack is seen as against Russian nuclear arms with the support of a nuclear-enabled ally, is this actually quite a scary moment? If the attack demolished a significant portion of their nuclear capabilities, less scary. If it didn’t… I’m not a military strategist by any means, but it’s on my mind. Curious to hear thoughts.
Hello Daniel. In my respectful opinion, you absolutely do need to keep writing about the onslaught. I read every one of these newsletters and discuss the issues raised with friends and colleagues. Your voice is clear and you do the research that others like myself aren't inclined to make time for. I don't know how many people are reading these, but I'm sure every little bit helps. Please continue.
Yes!
Totally agree!
What he said
Most of my friends and family leave it to me to be the official worrier about Everything. I find it remarkable that our society functions at all with the political virus infecting everything and most folks only partially or marginally informed. Thank you for keeping me company.🙏🙏
OMG! You've named something so real!
Yes. Similar situation here, with the exception of my youngest son who does keep up.
That quote from Snowden is in a piece on an album by Jean Michel Jarre. The album is Electronica.
Still an awesome quote. Thanks.
"I could be writing about European avant-garde literature of the 1920s, about the shape of clouds, about fascinating rodents and other small mammals."
Or psychedelics again! Man I miss hearing you talk about trips and trances. Much more fun and much less horrifying.
Keep doing what you're doing Daniel. I am an explorer of entheogens and also a lefty. I hope to join other lefties in the trenches once I have recovered from my current illness.
Keep writing Daniel. There are so many of us out here. We need your voice. Even those of us awake to what’s happening don’t know what to do. The required movement won’t appear until more of our backs are up against the wall. And we don’t perceive that to be the case today. Meanwhile, it’s totally obvious that this is the case. But I like most others continue to hustle and scramble and work to make ends meet. Glancing at the headlines and then looking away. It’s a lot to process. But mostly I personally feel like I have no idea what to do about it. It feels as though it requires a full-time effort which would require some kind of income associated with it (though income may be taken away soon enough). I don’t think we look away because we’re Sleeping. It’s just, cognitively, overwhelming, and something almost none of us have ever encountered before. None of this is an excuse. It feels like a fast motion, slow motion take over and yet it hasn’t taken a direct hit on many of our lives yet.. (sorry for errors and dictation).
Daniel as a member of Mass Peace Action, the largest peace group in Massachusetts, I’m extremely disappointed to see your comments in support of further escalation of the Ukraine war. As you hopefully know (even though not reported in the MSM), NATO was involved in the Russian attack representing a serious escalation of events. Rather than decreasing the horrendous tension in a very unstable geopolitical situation, this latest event significantly ratchets up the threat of nuclear confrontation. If you are in favor of military solutions, how can you claim to be someone who wants to foster mass awakening and the advent of a new consciousness that will keep humanity from further degrading the quality of life that we all share on this once beautiful planet ?
Further, how can you possibly not see the connection between the US necocon war apparatus; ever-increasing mass surveillance with Palantir, the NSA , and Big Tech that will use AI to become even more intrusive; and the authoritarian impulses now threatening to further erode a democracy that a Princeton University study in 2016 indicated was already down the tubes? As Helen Caldicott said in reference to Ukraine, we are "sleepwalking into Armageddon".
Yes, the public is largely checked out about many horrendous developments but one of them is the increasing militarization of both the economy and international relations; and the rekindling of the nuclear arms race that's built into Trump’s so-called Big Beautiful Bill. You cannot be against Trump and for escalation of serious geopolitical conflict. The semi-catatonic disassociation evident in the public about many issues is certainly reminiscent of the notion of war as mass psychosis as laid out in excellent fashion by the brilliant Scottish psychiatrist R.D. Laing. Please wake up on this issue. So disappointing to see this.
I disagree on Ukraine. I feel Putin was the aggressor etc. I don’t feel the deterrence is to let him take over Ukraine but to do what they are doing: fighting back. I doubt we are going to convince each other out of our views here.
Obviously all of these despotic regimes need the threat of war to maintain oppression of their people. Nuclear war even better. In a peaceful or pacified world, how could you possibly justify the massive military expenditure?
Sorry at the risk of repeating myself, your position is untenable. You can't be both in favor of military solutions and a proponent of a consciousness shift as the only hope for humanity's way out of polycrisis. Serious re-militarization in countries around the world including Japan and Germany is a huge concern and Ukraine and Gaza are feeding this. A return to a major nuclear arms race is a huge concern. The new model of warfare that includes civilian populations is a serious concern. Ditto the fact that the US military is the world's greatest polluter. This is simply not the way forward. Further if you support the neocons, you support Trump. Just way too many logical inconsistencies here.
Agreed 💯. From someone who was in the Donbas 5 times around the turn of the century—it is Russian, linguistically, culturally, and in its loyalties (save only recent transplants from western Ukraine). Further, I'm persuaded by the analysis of Jeffrey Sachs, John Mearsheimer (and George Kennan, and even Henry Kissinger) that pushing NATO ever eastward (breaking our own word) and engineering the "Maidan" coup in 2014 made Putin what he is, the monster we needed to justify the raison d'être of a dying empire with a raging arms industry: WAR.
Yes Annie. Well said. Thanks.
totally disagree. I recommend the Munk Debate where those who supported the Russia position were badly out-debated by those who support Ukrainian sovereignty: https://munkdebates.com/debates/russia-ukraine-war/
Well I guess I’m going to have to count you among those who betrayed the core values of the Democratic Party by letting it become the war party under Biden beginning (roughly) with the Obama years. In part, it was this abandonment of values of course that ultimately gave us Trump. Fortunately at least some Democrats are starting to re-examine this sad and convoluted history. I suggest joining a study group in the peace movement for 3 years like I did to do a deep dive on what really led up to the Ukraine mess.
In the meantime, I leave you with this from JFK’s famous commencement speech at American University: “Some say that it is useless to speak of world peace or world law or world disarmament--and that it will be useless until the leaders of the Soviet Union adopt a more enlightened attitude. I hope they do. I believe we can help them do it. But I also believe that we must reexamine our own attitude--as individuals and as a Nation--for our attitude is as essential as theirs. And every graduate of this school, every thoughtful citizen who despairs of war and wishes to bring peace, should begin by looking inward--by examining his own attitude toward the possibilities of peace, toward the Soviet Union, toward the course of the cold war and toward freedom and peace here at home.”
Ukraine could have sovereignty and safety with neutrality and without the Donbas and the Bandera-ites.
I’m now suspecting more than ever that you’re Wired-captured. In any event, here’s a thought experiment. If you’re concerned about the existential threat of AI itself, how about the same threat combined with the existential threat of a nuclear blowout? See this:
https://masspeaceaction.org/news/technology/the-ai-conundrum-the-peace-movements-next-big-challenge/2023/09/15/
If you need more background on how the US Russia and China are now involved in a new nuclear arms race, please read this article in The Nation. The American public simply has no idea that this is happening and if they are checked out on this topic, it’s largely because the mainstream media is staying miles away from it. Here’s the article:
“Return of the Nuclear Threat
While most of the world looked away, a new nuclear arms race has broken out between the US, Russia, and China, raising the risk of nuclear confrontation to the highest in decades.”
https://www.thenation.com/article/world/new-nuclear-arms-race/
I am always surprised and dismayed when someone lets me know that they don’t pay attention and claims both sides are equally bad.
I’m glad I’m 70 and have my privileges. I should be doing more and I’m not sure about exiting the country which I was seriously considering. Now I’m afraid I will put my social security or IRA at risk and may not be allowed back in the country. Anything is possible with the tools they have and a compliant citizenry willing to slow boil like the frog.
BTW: The Iowa senator is Ernst. The sexually abused, pig castrating, U.S. military member who strongly believes in Jesus and being cruel to the people with real needs.
Keep fighting the good fight and trying to wake up some more of us. I still have hope. But how did we get here? Rhetorical ?
It really stirs something in me when people say they’re glad they’re old. My dad says that a lot, and it often lands as a kind of giant middle finger to those of us still in the thick of trying to change things—for our kids, for each other, for whatever fragile future we can still shape. It feels like a retreat that’s only available to those who spent their prime years focused on their own lives, while we’re now (and have been, for our entire parneting lives. — for me, ~20 years) shouldering the weight of everything unraveling.
I can tell you care deeply and are paying attention, and I truly don’t mean this as an attack. I know I’m projecting my frustration with my own family onto your comment—but since I can’t say it to him in a way he’ll hear, I’m saying it here. If you’re open to it, I’d love to hear how you think about your role now—not out of guilt, but from whatever place still feels called. I want to believe we’re not giving up on each other across generations.
I totally hear you and accept your perception of my reply. I do care a lot about all people. A large part of why I say I’m glad I’m old is a rationalization because I can’t do anything about it.
But I have watched as the middle class and upward mobility started to die a slow death since Ronald Reagan took over in 1980. He made unions a curse word, he started the war on drugs and three strikes laws making us the highest per capita males in prison except for a few third world countries. He reduced the upper marginal tax rates from 70% to less than 40%. He implemented the Christian right wing southern strategy a 20 year plan.
So here we are 45 years later and the problems are large. Income inequality and the future inability to make enough money to take care of the family seem particularly hard to solve. But the environment
and the finite resources are also urgent.
I have no answers so I just try my best and be thankful for all I do have and for leaders like Daniel and others on Substack.
Thanks for taking the time Allison, I take it as a wake-up call for me and your father!
It seems to be a fact that the "little people" (90-what percent of us), regardless of age, are helpless to stop the sociopathic powerful, unless maybe we were to withhold taxes in such numbers that they couldn't arrest us all (but as things are going they'd just lock up what little we have in our bank accounts and bar us from travel and credit, en masse). The Democratic Party is deeply complicit in this denouement. They unforgivably and repeatedly broke their promises to secure at least a public option in healthcare, voting rights, and women's rights, just for starters.
Where we older people are "to blame," or at least legitimate targets of derision, was that we had relatively good lives perched atop the cresting of this wave that is now poised to smash our own children and grandchildren. Most younger people would do the same if only they could. It's human nature to be shortsighted (i.e., naturally focused on the near and dear, on immediate challenges, desires, and goals) when societal life is "good enough." Saints, activists, and prophets are rare. Most concerned people depend on donations and lawn signs to assuage their consciences for not doing more.
Wonderful response! I can’t imagine why anyone would pay their taxes this year! I’ve mentioned it many times in many different places. Why pay taxes when they’re not going for anything of value to people or Earth? Not that things were great before. But still. There was an active war tax resisters movement during the Vietnam War. We need that now!
If you're looking for a role model for what to do and how to live in the hard times coming, you could start here.
https://substack.com/@amba1212/note/c-123151649?utm_source=notes-share-action&r=16gkv
What a wonderful, lovely, human and heartful reply. Thank you so very much, Bob, for taking my angst IN, rather than rejecting or deflecting. That is so beautiful! And huge, really. I agree with everything you've said and are saying, and totally understand the feeling of "what to do?! What to do!?" - much more to say about this topic but not for online posting. :) The main point is, I SO appreciate you and your ability to hold all of the complexity and respond with such generosity to my uncharacteristic comment. :) Truly. And ditto re: being thank for for leaders like Daniel!
I’ve been an activist, published writer, speaking out, organizing, since the 1980s. I’m 73. Everything I worked for, any minor successes . . . now being undone. I don’t have it in me to do it all over again. Though I’m still here, still writing, still agitating however I can. I’m not giving you the finger when I say “I’m glad I’m old”. I have kids and grandkids. One of my sons died in 2013. Another one is just waiting all this out, assuming it will “go away”, just as he ignored my work on climate change and GMOs until there was so much evidence he had to admit he was wrong. My youngest . . . he just shared a piece of writing the other day that was one of the best things I’ve read in a very long time. I was blown away. Just as I was when he went to film & photography school and his creativity exploded, and his perspective is unique. His piece is called ‘The manifesto of the unbroken”. I’d love to see it published somewhere. It irks me when people lump all “older people” together as the problem, because I’m not them. LOL And I sense that many if not most of the older folks here, aren’t them either. This is a bit of my own ‘projecting’, but it happens too often, and I always feel the need to speak up and defend myself and my older colleagues.
Oh gosh, I wish I had more time to respond more fully. I am in awe of so many older people, many of whom are the ONLY ONES to show up at events, do things, volunteer, etc - even now. That was not at all the topic of my complaint (elders writ large). It was ONLY directed at the very specific "glad I'm old" trope that my dad trots out every so often, which really bothers me as I've sweat blood and tears for 20 years now, too (nonstop and also seemingly for naught) WHILE I was raising my kids (ie not after), running for office, running an activist org, volunteering on countless campaigns, knocking on thousdands of doors (even last weekend, unrelentingly). Most people who are out there with me (Iie last weekend) are 20+ years older than me. They are largely retired. They are AMAZING. And yet they also do, you know, have more time. That's just a fact. However, and mainly to your point, I am so grateful for those, like you, who have been agitating and organizing and writing and speaking out for decades. This is not the crew of brilliant people I grew up with. I grew up with a lot of people who did great work in our community, to be sure, but also largely just lived their nice lives. There are so many people in their 70s who show up at the marches. Who man the democratic county/town committees. Etc. Just to be absolutely clear, in my real haste, that this was nOT WHAT I MEANT. I am sending you so much gratitude, and I understand the exhaustion. I think Bob's comment pricked me in a similar way to the annoying comments you get while you're pregnant: "Get your sleep while you can!" - totally different scenario but similar reaction. :) You have nothing to defend, as far as I'm concerned, and Im very sorry I made you feel as though you do.
Thank you for doing what you are doing now! It is much appreciated.
This might also be very defensive, but I wanted to clarify that it’s not “now” but rather my “whole adult life,” more or less, that has been defined by such concerns (and actions). It has been, in many ways, very fulfilling and gratifying (if not a completely pointless waste of time (see: everything) — time that could have been better spent with my children, though of course I am very fortunate and there was plenty of that but never enough. Anyway, that word - “now” - was stuck like a piece of popcorn in my tooth, though you very well may have meant only wonderful things by it. :)
Welp, the breakup is happening.
God willing this is a moment where we can insert a wedge between the technocrats and the fascists and start hammering at it very publicly.
I too read every one of your newsletters. I find your writing accessible and well informed. I also share your articles on a social media platform I belong to with followers across the entire United States. Similarly, I’ve been noticing less and less responses to my posts as weariness sets in.
I’m at a loss of what to do. Yesterday I sent an article by AI, on protective measures to help contain AI from being used for other than good of the population, to the governor of California. I keep thinking if the information can just get to the right people, actionable steps can be taken. What I’ve come to realize is that the crisis we currently face is so multilayered that it’s hard to know where to even enter in order to dismantle it.
What a very interesting time to be alive. I’m grateful that I got to see the past seven decades of progress in our country. For all it’s folly, it’s been a wonderful place to live. At the same time, I think I’m thinking it’s a good thing I’m the age that I am, because I don’t really want to see a world where the highest good of all concerned is dismissed in favor of accumulation of money and power by a greedy few.
I felt a swell of of pride for Ukraine’s brilliant David and Goliath drone attacks against Russia. I also woke during the night thinking about the likelihood of Putin responding with some kind of nuclear weapon, and the horror of a response by Trump and Hegseth. Yes, we’re closer to nuclear war than ever before in my 70 years. But even so, somehow, my feeling for Ukraine persists—for the strategic brilliance, the audacity, the focus. The polarized world we now live in wants us always to decide right or wrong, about everything, but it doesn’t seem to me like a such a judgement can be made in this case.
Maybe what drew us into such polarization was our increasing awareness, and fear of, the chaotic nature of the world. We didn’t used to know this much. Now our nervous systems cover the earth, and are beginning to extend beyond.
I too am trying to figure out how I dissent in a meaningful way. I channel my high school self who skipped school to protest the war and campaign for McGovern, I had much more energy and enthusiasm than I have now. I’ll admit I’d like to blow up some bombers, but I’m an artist so my path is making art.
No conclusions but I appreciate your essays appearing in my inbox every day.
It seems like the Ukraine situation is a bit of a hot button on this forum, but I want to raise a question. I was reading a post on sonar21. I would link to it, but instead I would ask the curious to go out and find it (it’s easy) because linking to it makes it seem like I’m vouching for it, and I’m not. I just found it compelling. It listed reasons to believe that the strike on Russia was not nearly as devastating as the western press would have you believe — as in, they damaged 5 not 41 bombers. Do I believe this? I don’t know, although maybe. But why. Who benefits from the overstatement? Given that Trump seems to be more on the side of Putin at this point, I don’t think he would want to overstate the damage. (Is he even engaged at this point?) But I guess what is a little scary is the following: if the west facilitated the attack (many people think so), and it was rather underwhelming (was it?), and the attack is seen as against Russian nuclear arms with the support of a nuclear-enabled ally, is this actually quite a scary moment? If the attack demolished a significant portion of their nuclear capabilities, less scary. If it didn’t… I’m not a military strategist by any means, but it’s on my mind. Curious to hear thoughts.
https://archive.ph/RhoHc
New York Times piece by NS Lyons
Keep going.
Where?
Forward?
(Joni Ernst)
Except for you
Daniel
Thomas Jefferson.
actually no
So it’s up for grabs?
apparently