Ever try to find five contiguous minutes in which to try to understand the crazed world of ours? Find it impossible? Either to find the time or to grasp, a tiny little bit, of the New World? Then find, frighteningly so, that this world of ours is following that old, but true, statement that Life Imitates Art. And not in a good way either. Oh, there is good stuff in Art, but somehow it gets passed over for the glaringly very bad content and ideas.
Well, it has long been quite true that the evil that mankind does, is always more attractive. It is the various versions of Lola, the temptress of the movie Damn Yankees. Or the bad dude, who till now was meek, hiding in the shadows along with his most unappetizing thoughts and plans, who, at the opportune moment, comes on full blast. Along with him come those of the same nasty bent, the same perverted thoughts. All planning go to hell vendettas against those who dissed them somewhere along the road. At least in their own minds.
Those proverbial closets are now opening, full blasts, and the ugliness is terrifying. No, not LGBTQ+ closets, for those are simply people, plain old everyday people, who simply wish to live as everyone else does, obeying the moral laws of humanity, contributing to society -or not - just like the rest of us. No, these closeted denizens are those who delight in steering that bus whose wheels are in perpetual motion, dripping with the remnants of those destroyed, the shattered lives and hopes of those in their perverted paths. Try to understand all this in that five-minute pause! No way. No how.
This morning, we wake up to a new godawful ruling by yet another Trumpian court of supposed justice, manifestly not so. This court has thrown the entire society under the wheels and ground back and forth, back and forth, dealing yet another mortal blow to a society trying to do the right thing. Trying to help those in need and trust me on this: we are all affected by their oh so not just decision. We all have had need of this agency and its purpose and actions. But screw us, for they decided it was unconstitutional. Yet another flawed decision based on more of their bigoted, ignorant, biased, immoral reading of the Constitution.
Today, here is the new reality and if one follows the trail, the vile drippings on the path it has begun to build, oh are we in trouble.
"Three judges appointed by former President Donald Trump handed down an astonishing decision on Wednesday, effectively holding that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the federal agency charged with protecting consumers from a wide range of predatory activity by lenders and other financial services, is unconstitutional and must be stripped of its authority."
There are so many regulatory, protective of society measures and institutions, departments of government which are financed in the same way, through fees and fines. As these institutions impact negatively on the nefarious plans and schemes, the greed of Trumpian denizens, they must go. The rest of us? Welcome to Hell.
Where does Art come into play? Understand that Art is all inclusive. The creative aspects of life, be it in sculpture, painting, writing of essays, novels, new technologies, new understandings of the intertwining of Nature and Man, new dreams of a better world - all are within Art. Art often warns us of frightening trends of society. Countless novels have taken to heart the responsibilities of educating society. Brave New World, Animal Farm, Lord of the Flies, The Grapes of Wrath, the list is endless and eternal. And here we are, growing, devolving, into our own version of a not so brave new world. Restrictions on rights, returns to openly adopted and approved forms of hatred, up to and including death for the 'offenders'. The phrase "Burn books, then people" is emerging more and more in our new, retrograde, emerging Awful New World. Again, try grasp all this, gain a modicum of understanding of all this in five minutes. Nope. No go.
Sadly enough, most of us do not even try to allot five minutes on a daily basis to understand what is happening and our responsibilities re this existential situation. We are too busy trying to survive, or getting ahead, climbing viciously over the corpses of those in our way, throwing them under the wheels of that perpetual motion bus if that works better for us. Our humanity is leaking with very little in the way of restoration and reformation, or repair and sealing of these leaks.
The darkness of which I wrote yesterday is deepening. I am not sure if that is good or bad. Certainly bad, as darkness of soul and deed are always bad, but on the other hand, maybe we are getting closer to seeing the light of those beautiful stars, observing, and joining in the beauty and reassurance of those stunning Pillars of Creation. Maybe.
In Black Adam, a newly released film, with mammoth action scenes, there is one line that rings through. "Only through death is the path to life.
Is that what we must do? Literally, figuratively, kill ourselves off, throw away the useless remnants of society gone berserk, amok, and rebuild, find new life? Maybe, but not a reassuring thought. With such a drastic change comes violence, major upheavals, and death. The choices for our future are becoming more and more limited, strictures placed on possibilities. Is there yet time and room enough to avoid the worst, reach a New World but a more welcoming one? For the little ones to whom we will be extending a welcome to in the days, weeks, months and years to follow? I do hope so. I do pray so. Join me.
No comments:
Post a Comment