I keep having this awareness that we are living in, or about to be living in, a third world country, a banana republic short on bananas.
A viral pandemic, hospitals overwhelmed, health care workers burned out, mass shootings, murders on the rise, guns everywhere, food shortages, breakdown of all kinds of infrastructure, fascism taking hold, the rich sucking the wealth out of the entire society, power hungry autocrats consolidating more and more power, alternative narratives diluting truth, global warming laughed at, melting permafrost and plant and animal species threatened or disappearing, collective amnesia of civility and respect...but there is TV and Jeopardy and Entertainment Tonight, and NFL Football and plenty of beer at the grocery store, and weekend dinner plans....I can go on.
"This is how it happens. Precisely what you’re feeling now. The numbing litany of bad news. The ever rising outrages. People suffering, dying, and protesting all around you, while you think about dinner."*
I came across this short article cited by a reader on J.M.G. (Joe.My.God. - the LGBT News Blog). It is worth a read:
2 comments:
Ancient Rome had its bread and circuses too, didn't it!
"A banana republic short on bananas" - very clever, Frank. It would be funny if it weren't true.
I read that same article a while back, and it gave me a shiver of recognition, too. All the points you named and more are the very things I've felt I should blog about but somehow can't, as I said in my post earlier this week. I suppose it all just makes me too angry and upset - but I know my ranting won't be heard and won't help.
. . . I can't even finish this comment. I don't know what to say. Except that it's important to hold fast to what is good as an individual - there are still good people in the world who never make the evening news. A sane and sensible middle still exists - but they are sheep without a shepherd at the moment, it seems.
God help us all.
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