We\u2019re living in strange times.\u00a0 On the one hand, the trend toward equality, acceptance, and accountability that can be traced from abolition of slavery and women\u2019s suffrage through the civil rights movement, same-sex marriage equality, transgender equality, and #MeToo is continuing, weakening age-old patriarchal structures and giving me cause for hope.<\/p>\n
On the other hand, we are living in a nation increasingly divided by hatred and fear, where ideologies and stereotypes metastasize in online echo chambers and dissenting voices are silenced.\u00a0 \u00a0We can no longer even agree on simple facts, let alone compromise on questions of values.\u00a0 Our political systems are gridlocked, our infrastructure is decaying, and our collective response to looming crises such as climate change, dwindling fossil fuels, and topsoil loss has entered a pattern of public denial and blissful ignorance.<\/p>\n
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What is Going On?<\/em><\/p>\n In a phrase: systemic financial insecurity.<\/p>\n Roughly 50% of Americans cannot afford an unexpected $500 expense without incurring debt.\u00a0 This in a time when car repairs frequently cost $2000, an unexpected broken bone can cost $10,000, raising a child to adulthood costs around $200,000, and a comfortable retirement savings \u2013 with enough to cover assisted living and long-term care \u2013 approaches $1 million.\u00a0 We are a nation on the edge, surviving day to day with uncertainty filling both short-term and long-term horizons with anxiety.\u00a0 In this state we can\u2019t bear to think about larger challenges like climate change, so we simply ignore them.<\/p>\n When we are feeling afraid, we have a tendency to protect ourselves, to put our family first, our self-identified communities first, our nation first.\u00a0 Fear is divisive; it is not at all coincidence that pre-war Syria, pre-war Germany, and perhaps a majority of pre-war states were marked by a high level of economic insecurity.\u00a0 We become suspicious of anyone who appears to be competing for our resources and vulnerable to propaganda that would blame immigrants, minorities, religions, or other nations for our woes.\u00a0 And there is plenty of such propaganda, released and encouraged by those who control the wealth (and the media), and who have much to lose should their prominent role in creating this situation come to light.<\/p>\n We have gone so far in our fear as to elect a master propagandist to lead our nation; one who is the very emblem of profligate wealth and who gives control of government to the richest of the rich while convincing those who are most insecure that he is their champion.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n How Did We Get Here?<\/em><\/p>\n There have been books written on this subject; in being brief I will inevitably be incomplete, but I believe that the pattern is quite simple.\u00a0 In short:<\/p>\n In one sense, we are all complicit in getting where we are, in that we are a democracy and we have allowed money to buy power.\u00a0 We have believed in \u201ctrickle-down\u201d promises.\u00a0 We have often accepted our plight while idolizing the wealthy.\u00a0 We have looked up, toward those better-off, and aimed to get there ourselves without considering how our lives are already disadvantaging others.\u00a0 I feel this myself as a duplex owner; extracting money from poorer student renters in order to pay interest to the wealthy investors who own our home loan.\u00a0 We have accepted a tacit assumption that everybody could<\/em> be as well-off as we are, and that if they are not then they have failed somehow, or they will get there someday.\u00a0 We have focused primarily on individual<\/em> access to opportunity, while ignoring the systemic<\/em> problem that a majority of the job\/career opportunities now available do not pay enough to provide any semblance of financial security.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n What Can We Do About It?<\/em><\/p>\n There is much that we can do locally, if we have the resources.\u00a0 We can choose to buy from local farmers, artists, and producers, even when cost is substantially higher.\u00a0 We can buy through local retailers rather than big box stores or online outlets.\u00a0 If we sell a good or service, we can offer a sliding scale to increase accessibility, or we can accept trades of goods or services in return for our own.\u00a0 In wealthier communities, with enough commitment, we can create thriving local economies and fairer compensation in the face of a broken national and global system.<\/p>\n However, to really effect change \u2013 and to help impoverished communities where few have enough wealth to vote with their wallets \u2013 we must change legislation at local, state, and national levels.\u00a0 There is much we can do; here are a few ideas:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n So\u2026where to start?\u00a0 Bernie Sanders had the right idea in many ways, though he is too old to really lead a movement.\u00a0 I\u2019m a personal fan of Tulsi Gabbard or Tammy Duckworth as presidential options.\u00a0 But it\u2019s not only about a president, and we can\u2019t invest too much hope in a political savior.\u00a0 We need to build a movement on all political levels.\u00a0 We can\u2019t ignore the atrocities of the Trump administration, but we also can\u2019t let his wham-bang shock doctrine tweetstorm distract us from building a coherent strategy in time for the next election cycle.\u00a0 We don\u2019t need to allow the current government to set the terms and acceptable limits of debate; we can elect a new Congress that will change the terms entirely.<\/p>\n Women are wise in many ways, less willing to accept the winner-take-all, pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps, \u201cindividual responsibility\u201d story that is parroted as an excuse for the status quo.\u00a0 I\u2019m hopeful that the rise of women with #MeToo and #TimesUp will bring about a corresponding influx of feminine wisdom into political discourse.<\/p>\n The news \u2013 in the various national media sources \u2013 is not fake, no matter how much some would like to believe it.\u00a0 We have not stooped to that level, and I hope that we don\u2019t.\u00a0 The news is, however, selective<\/em>.\u00a0 Advertisers and media moguls alike belong to the privileged classes, and we can expect that movements to reclaim wealth and power for the masses will receive biased coverage or no coverage at all.\u00a0 For that reason we need to create unbiased media outlets, carefully moderated and purged of conspiracy-type or speculation-based stories but also not beholden to corporate money.<\/p>\n Things seem to be getting worse at present, but as long as we maintain our democracy \u2013 one person, one vote \u2013 then we stand a chance of driving change for the better.\u00a0 I haven\u2019t been especially politically active to date, but I\u2019m thinking it might be time to change that, to raise my voice and help to build a chorus demanding a nation in which Americans are truly free.\u00a0 Not just free from foreign invasion and government incursion into daily lives, but free from the anxiety of not knowing where the next rent payment will come from, free from choosing between food and essential medical care, free from living from paycheck to paycheck at age 60 and doubting if retirement will ever be a possibility.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We\u2019re living in strange times.\u00a0 On the one hand, the trend toward equality, acceptance, and accountability that can be traced from abolition of slavery and women\u2019s suffrage through the civil rights movement, same-sex marriage equality, transgender equality, and #MeToo is … Continue reading \n
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