General

What a strange and terrible month November has been. It feels like huge things have gone horribly wrong and a bunch of the little things have fallen apart, too. After the first six days it has been a struggle to write anything–my NaNo novel, this blog, thoughts on a napkin, anything. I feel not just uninspired but kind of depressed. Not in the clinical sense, just blah and unmotivated, a pervading sense of “Meh, what does it matter, the world sucks” overriding everything. And it does. The world is full of stupid, ignorant people. I have long suspected this but as the years passed and I grew older and gained more experience and perspective, I shed my cynicism and chose to believe that people are fundamentally good, that they are decent and do the right thing (most of the time).

I no longer believe this.

People are fickle, prone to acting on often irrational emotion, are easily swayed to act against their own interests and are generally not interested in logic, rationality or anything that might disrupt their world view, however absurd or unrealistic it might be. It is the veneer of civilization (which is going to be sorely tested in the next decade or two) that holds everything together, but that veneer is thin and, I think, on the verge of peeling away, with dire consequences.

If you think we are removed from our savage, primitive past, consider what has happened in the last century, the wars, the acts of terrorism, the millions upon millions of people killed. And what were they killed for? Not believing the right ideas. Living on the wrong chunk of land. Nonsense. We fight and kill over nothing worthwhile because we can do no better.

We see people like Trump elected president–an ignorant, bullying, racist, sexist and entirely unfit individual for the office–because we can do no better.

The best we can hope for is that our species somehow survives itself long enough to evolve well past where we are now. Climate change–and remember, Americans just elected a man who thinks it’s a hoax–will force us to face reality, not the preferred bubble so many prefer to see as reality, but the actual, horrible truth.

But we won’t pull together, we will tear apart. We will devolve to our worst selves, incapable of adapting to the massive changes to come. We will do this because we prefer ignorance to reality, because in the end we’d rather help ourselves than help others.

I wish I didn’t believe this because it means the only thing that makes sense to write any more is post-apocalyptic dystopian fiction. And while I love a good post-apocalyptic dystopian story, I’d prefer to write whimsical, funny things, stuff that is slight but entertaining in its own way. But it’s been challenging this month. The news is just so relentlessly awful (the real news–the fake news is even worse).

But if the choice is to despair or hold onto hope, however slim, I have to go for the latter. Who knows, maybe there really is some benevolent alien race waiting to swoop in and harvest save us. Or we’ll figure out cold fusion and lick global warming at the same time. Or a comet will sweep past Earth and the dust in its tail will boost everyone’s intelligence exponentially. “You’re playing 3D chess again? The challenge only starts when you move to 4D chess.”

And flying cars for everyone.

I conclude with two promises to myself: the first is to write something every day. On this blog, in a story, on a napkin. But somewhere. And every day. The second is to retain that thin hope, to stave off pessimism.

Okay, one more: no farmer’s tan next summer.

I saw a phrase used the other day that neatly explains so much of the recent election of Donald Trump as US president (typing that out still feels like indulging in the worst sort of fan fiction).

It’s just two words: post truth. You could hyphenate it or capitalize it or both to make it look more official:

Post-Truth

It is a simple concept. Trump ran on a campaign built on fear, hate and unworkable, impractical promises. He would bring back manufacturing. He would revive the coal industry. He would force Apple to make their computers in America. He’d build a wall along the border and make Mexico pay for it. Muslims would be essentially banned from entering the country until he could “figure out what was going on.”And nearly 50 million believed enough of these promises/threats to see him elected.

The reality will be much different, of course. But it doesn’t matter because we are now living in the era of Post-Truth. Objective facts, reality itself–these things no longer matter to a large swath (or swatch, if you prefer) of the population. And this is not just a US-specific phenomena, it has just manifested most spectacularly there, with chilling results for the world at large.

Simply put, a lot of people do not care about reality anymore. They don’t care about facts or science. Reason and logic are meaningless. These people have retreated into the safety of the world as they perceive it, as they want it to be. These people are essentially unreachable through conventional means, whether you are seeking their vote or simply asking them to listen objectively to what you have to say.

They will not listen unless they hear what they want to hear.

The danger is a demagogue–like Trump–can manipulate these people and acquire power by telling them what they want to hear, then use that power to do terrible things. And when re-election comes, the people like Trump will deflect and again tell people what they want to hear. “It’s not my fault, I want these great things for you, but the system is against me.” And he will retain their support.

I don’t see an easy way to get past Post-Truth. Maybe everything must collapse before it can be rebuilt.

Climate change may very well provide the key to that.

So as people elect demagogues who placate them by telling them foolish lies they want to believe, the Earth undergoes dramatic transformation as the climate goes through significant warming. Millions, maybe even billions, will die as we collectively do too little and do it too late to help ameliorate the worst of the effects. It sounds like indulging in the worst sort of fan fiction again, but it could happen. All evidence points to it already having begun.

Well, that was depressing. At least we’ll have funny cats on the internet until it all comes crashing down. Promise us you won’t take away the kittens, Mr. Trump.

October is my official “complain about all the stuff I haven’t complained about previously this year” month.

Tonight I’m complaining because my throat is sore and we are heading into a three-day weekend. The timing is unsurprising, my body has a knack for this sort of thing.

On the other hand, we are also heading into what will be the first big storm of the season, so it’s going to rain and blow and I’ll be happy to just curl up inside all weekend with a nice cup of hot chocolate, anyway. So lose-win(ish).

Also, I should correct the above, as it is already raining and blowing. And I had a cup of hot chocolate.

That is all.

I know, you’re thinking, “Isn’t eggnog that thick, indulgently sweet stuff you drink over Christmas? Why are you talking about it in reference to Halloween? You must have the holidays mixed up, lol!”

And yet here it is, October 1st, and not only do the stores already have their Halloween candy (appearing when summer had barely officially concluded) but today I noticed whilst in the neighborhood grocery store that there was eggnog in the dairy section, next to the milk. I was there in the morning so there’s a good chance it was actually shelved the night before, when it was still September.

It’s popular to mock and jeer the commercialization of every holiday, official or otherwise. And for good reason. This is silly. They are going to be selling eggnog for the next three months.Their initial shipment will expire before Halloween. Before summer has been over for even a month. Before some people finally stop wearing open-toed sandals for the rest of the year.

I was tempted to get some.

I remained strong, though. I don’t want to encourage further acceleration of the great merging of all holidays, even though that seems inevitable. I figure we’ll be more than 50% of the way there if Valentine’s candy shows up before Christmas. This is a real possibility.