I seem to be hearing more people prefacing whatever it is they are thinking and doing with some variation of, “during these difficult times...” or “during these dark days...” or “considering the state of the world today…”. Someone posting a very charming cat video will feel the need to preface the post with, “Something cheerful amid all the bad news”, as if we are living in a dystopia—the Middle Ages during the Black Death or the post-apocalyptic desert of Mad Max. I find this annoying.
Right off, the hubris and ingratitude rub me the wrong way. The reason it feels like the world is falling apart for them is because it is not. In a world that was actually falling apart, we’d be far too busy finding drinkable water and edible food to care much what someone we will never meet (but who describes our world from the television) cares about or says. At any given moment, anyone’s world—yours, mine, anyone’s—could take an awful turn and be difficult, but those moments do not define the world. For some reason this appears to be a difficult concept for many to grasp. Sometimes, for everyone, whatever their status or station, life is going to be rough. Loved ones will depart or die, there will be days of sickness and pain, there will be moments of doubt and despair. These moments do not define the world, however. People who conflate their individual condition with the state of the world confuse me. Are they invisible, I wonder, when they close their eyes? Do they believe that they are?
Today, my life is pretty awesome. I’m healthy and I can do whatever I like. I can read any book my heart desires, listen to any piece of music, see any film. I can eat, and even overeat. If I chose to I could eat nothing but delectable candies, or fresh fruit, or pizza. I turn the tap and hot water comes out. When it rains, I do not have to get wet. When it is cold, I can stay warm. When it is warm, I can stay cool. I am under no delusions, however, about the temporary nature of this condition. It’s great now, but there will be illness, loss, suffering, and death in the future. I figure it would be crazy to look up the road and say, “Oh well. Twenty was fun, but look at that shitshow coming down the road! How can I enjoy anything knowing that is out there?” Or “Boo hoo! I’m not rich and famous and I’m getting old. Life is so unfair!” It is crazier still to be upset because the world (and the people on it) do not conform to what I think the world and the people should be. Yet, this is inherent, the assumption made, whenever someone says, “In these dark times.”
Dark times? I think. WTF are you talking about? Watching your children perish from starvation and dysentery is dark times. Living in an actual communist dystopia is dark times. Knowing there are people in the world who think you an idiot or not getting your dream job is not “dark times”. On any scale you choose, life in the USA in 2021 is just about as easy as it has ever been. It’s so easy, in fact, we have to invent things to worry about.
There is a series of videos on Youtube that feature a couple from Cuba (Yoel and Mari) visiting places in and around Miami. Mari has been in the USA for a time, but Yoel has only recently arrived, so Mari shoots videos of Yoel visiting places we just take for granted (The Home Depot, a supermarket, Walmart, an amusement park, Best Buy, a car dealership) for the first time. Yoel’s mind is boggled by the options and luxury. Sometimes he literally tears up thinking of all of the family and friends left in Cuba who will never (barring some major changes) have the opportunity to choose between twelve different toilet papers, or five nail guns, or cuts of steak, or the color of their car’s interior. Very quickly it becomes apparent that Yoel does not see a dystopia. He sees a magical land where he can have anything he is willing to work for, and even the smallest purchases (ice cream, a hammer, a cell phone, a radio or a television) are miraculous, having been totally beyond his reach a few months ago. The aisle of roofing materials at Home Depot bowled him over. Apparently, his roof in Cuba always leaked, and he had no way to repair it. He was startled to find that anyone in the US can fix their own roof, at any time, using materials that are readily available.
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="
title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Yoel sees clearly and understands immediately the difference between an actual problem and whining. You’ll never hear Mari say, “We thought, in these dark days, you’d enjoy watching Yoel experience Walmart for the first time.”
Exactly because we have it so good, we notice when things begin to slip away. I do, anyway. When free speech is attacked, or some un-elected boob tries to tell me what I must do, or prices climb, or I can’t find something basic on the store shelf, subtle alarms begin to go off an I wonder if this is indeed the beginning of a long, ugly undoing. This concern, though justified, is far from existential. These are not dark days.
Unless, of course, one spent the last four and a half years in the mainstream bubble and believed Trump to be evil and an agent of destruction. Those who really believed in their hearts that Trump was a racist and always on the brink of starting a war, who thought only someone with a “D” after their name could right the ship, are now running headlong into reality and the days do feel dark. Everything they were sure was true is proving false, and all of the things they fought for and won are now bearing bloody, tragic fruit; and there is nowhere to hide from the facts. The Taliban was given an $85 billion windfall and is now better armed than most nations in the world. Hundreds, maybe thousands, of Americans and Green Card holders were left as hostages to fend for themselves. A human tragedy is unfolding on the southern border. Crimes is up. The economy is down. The FBI is a corrupt, politicized clown show. We droned a car full of children and water, driven by a relief worker. No one is being held responsible.
In the New York Post Paula Froelich wrote an essay detailing why she is done with the Democrats. I suspect she mirrors the feelings of many today.
“I am ashamed to admit: I voted for them all (with the exception of AOC, who is not in my district). Because I felt I had no other option. The right is too far right and the left has now become unrecognizable with #defundthepolice and insane handouts that stagnate our economy. It pains me that I fell for the promised equity of Main Street and tax parity time and time again. Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me five times, well. Let’s just say I’m done.”
But this is fascinating:
“It is time for our system to open up and truly become a democracy for all, with representation for all, by expanding beyond the two-party system. With people who mean what they say and say what they mean, and who will fight — not to stay in power and enrich themselves, but for the people they represent.”
Gee whiz! Whatever could she mean? We need to elect people who “mean what they say and say what they mean”? But what if their tweets hurt someone’s feelings? Someone who will fight “not to stay in power and enrich themselves, but for the people they represent.”?
Hey. Does that remind you of anyone? A particular Orange Man, maybe? Or maybe some Democrat from the past—a Hubert Humphrey or a George McGovern? People who didn’t view winning an election and getting a government position as winning a lottery.
The nation was bamboozled. All of us. The DNC teamed up with the media, academia, and big tech to sell us a bill of goods and we bit. We believed the fake narratives and we took the deal and now, like the poor bastard who bought a K-Car in 1981, we’ll have to live with the rattles and watching the wheels fall off until we can make a wiser decision. It’s up to us to choose better and to not be so easily manipulated by those without honor or honesty. It’s going to get a little bit rocky going forward, but these are not awful times. These are the best of times. We just need to be a little bit less gullible, a little bit less silly and ego driven, and remember who we are. Don’t get fooled again.
These are the best of times, and even better days are coming.
I wonder what the public reaction would be if, for just one evening, all of the anchors on all the "news" networks took 5 minutes of air time time and expressed perspectives similar to yours.
Instead of providing a link to information about vaccines in response to a posting about alternatives to vaccines, Facebook should provide a link to Mark Trumble whenever it detects a posting with a complaint about life in the United States of America.