I have read your post twice. I was saddened and worried. Your frustration was palpable. I share the same frustration although, I realize I am part of comfortable crowd. I read and listen and think big thoughts of civilizational change. However, I have taken little action save for a couple of Anti-Tesla demos and connecting with Indivisible and Communities Arising. But I am still haunted thst this is nowhere near enough. Every evening and morning starts with a new worry. Today is not so much the Trump/Musk curcus, but the deep well planned and methodical work of Russel Voight, the bespeceled wizard behind the curtain.
You, Anne Applebaum, Ruth Ben Gant, Heather Cox Ruchardson, and AnatShenker-Osono, and others are my anchors.
The minute Black people join the protest en masse there will be violence. There will be police in riot gear, tear gas and batons. People will be hurt and arrested. And it would be an acknowledgment that what we are in is a war. Everyone knows this and is afraid to commit to it.
Re the protests: I think it’s a fair generalization to say that most of the protesters are over 50 or 60 and while we bring what energy we have they are staid affairs. We stay on our side of the line and as such are tolerated.
I get you about being inundated by Trump. I hate the way he occupies my brain. It feels like a cancer of the mind. He has infiltrated the very blood and brain cells of our collective body.
Trust is the currency of human society and that might be the place to focus. So much trust has been eroded and what we have left buys so little.
For my part, I do go to local protests and my focus is on local elections. We have what I call MAGA lite operating in our community and like so many communities we are a microcosm of what’s happening on the Federal level. This November we will elect all of them out of office. We are envisioning a new open-hearted, responsible town government whose job is to serve the people to their highest potential. Sounds like weak sauce, but it would be a profound turning as we’ve had Republicans in charge for 100 years.
Thank you for engaging in protests ! I agree that certainly those I’ve been on have mostly been old and white. It isn’t that young and/or Black people aren’t opposed to this government. But, there’s something we’re definitely NOT doing to invite each other to our Resistance. There, we could exchange ideas, hone our strategies and, if we’re to be successful have a far more dramatic ambition than winning the next election for the Dems.
It is hard to know what to say in response to this article because it made me think so hard-snd I’m still struggling to understand the meaning of the phenomenon you address. But I want to say a resounding thank you for describing it. It so feels like the right direction.
I’ve experienced what you talk about. All of us older liberals at the protests, knowing we’re doing the “right thing” --- cheering and shouting , we’re taking our country back, how dare he?--yet the months go by and this black cloud keeps infecting and killing off pieces of our country. We are in shock. In mourning, we say. Yet we do not know what else to do except go to these protests.
Yet we all love this idea called America. We know what we mean.
Thank you for wading so articulately into a scary phenomenon that shows we need to evolve ... but how and where.
I meet people at these protests who love America, want to do something to bring it back,
I totally agree that the Drmovratic Party has failed to meet the challenge of the Trump presidency. As a life-long Democrat, other than daily fund-raising appeals from the national level, the messages are disjointed and sporadic. I am frustrated and angry and have for now focused my donations and support to the ACLU and local nonprofits directly helping the community.
Anand, what a profound piece that shares devastating truth, one that shook me a bit to my core this morning. But all you have stated is correct, deepening my frustration about how this whole situation will play out. Some days I am filled with optimism that we shall indeed overcome the horror unfolding before our eyes, the pure bombardment of chaos to our minds and senses, and how much we can handle. There are days when I say to myself, no more reading and listening to my substack heroes when I feel overloaded, but within me is the fight and spirit that I cannot let go. I take time each day of the week to call and email my representatives to share my discontent and two cents, and those who have stood up such as Chris Murphy, AOC. Jasmine Crockett,Governor Pritzger, Senator Van Hollen, Reps Ramirez and Standbury to let them know how proud I am for their speaking out and taking a stand. But obviously not enough with the DMC not being on board and others in the party about the reality of what needs to be done. My friends and I who are out there protesting feel empowered every time, and stand strong, but yes, it is the feeling the calvary is not coming. The psychological warfare by the president and all those in the fold on the right seem to be more powerful that one wants to admit. I see it in friends and family who rather bury their heads and go about their business like nothing is happening, and do not want to be reminded by me. That is a hard pill to swallow, yet I refuse to back down and keep fighting for what is right against pure evil. Hopefully the tide will turn down the road. Thank you again for your extraordinary analysis.
Anand, I appreciate the deep caring implicit in your critique. Sometimes all we can do is be the change, model, demonstrate.
Think about the abolitionist movement. How did they persevere? There is a famous story of Harriet Tubman asking Frederick Douglas, “is god dead?” when he gave voice to his disillusionment with the lack of progress.
The values and practices you lift up - curiosity, introspection - are ennobling. Together we can make those values “normie.”
Expressing my gratitude for what you have scribed, Anand. Your analysis is spot on and you have articulated it with great clarity. I am particularly inspired by your observation regarding how "incurious" so many of us have become. It is my personal belief, although not my original thought, that curiosity is a cornerstone of psychological health. It is how we allow ourselves to open up to new and alternate possibilities. It is how we can alleviate despair. Your work is so important.
Is this a reposting? I will not repost my first comment as it was long! But I will say that I am not quite convinced that we are ALL in-curious, and passively doormats! That is not what people who are proponents of Non-violence do! It is not being a doormat - the opposite of dysfunction is not oppositely-done-dysfunction! It is BALANCE. We are living with a sickened society and we need to become healers - interrupt the process, learn to communicate and build stronger community! Reformation of democracy needs to happen, transformation of all of us to have more empathy, more courage to live out our values, put shame, anger, and all the shadow self -stuff to work letting those instruct us on how we can meet the needs that are (now) being met in awful ways! Obviously what we were doing did not work well enough for everyone, otherwise we would not be in this pickle jar now! Do what you can ,with what you have, with what you understand, for everyone you can, practice as you go, improve as you practice, and pay attention to how it is working (or not) and make adjustments and for goodness sake, be aware of how to love and understand yourself and others and how to learn... we can do this. If we want to be radicals, live what you know to be true and good (that is open-eyed, reality true)!
The boundless negativity of the commentariat shuts me down. Lots needs to be done but I don't see potential solutions proposed, just minute dissection of what somebody else didn't do. Or did "wrong". Most of the time the "somebody else" is the Democrats" or specifically those leading the democratic party. Or Biden. Sometimes it is venomous. (Thank you for not doing that here)
Long term we need more younger people, looks like quite a few really promising ones are stepping up to run for something in 26. Some of them have some great plans and suggestions. And we have a few terrific ones in Congress. We should support them all.
So far the young people at the DNC aren't settling a great example.
One thing we need to do is support good Democratic candidates in state and local legislatures and other governing bodies. As well as at the national level. Need fundraising for that. I don't like the way they're doing it, but we need it. Any ideas about a better way?
So that's a couple things. Nothing that can fix it overnight. Any ideas? Maybe you should run for something.
This commentary is extraordinary and thoughtful, rare in the world today. The fear of introspection is palpable everywhere but that has been true for most humans forever. I will die in the not too distant future so it’s easy for me to take risks and face the future. Not so much those following behind me. The foundation that our country is built on—misogyny, racism and greed—is finally failing and, perhaps that is a good thing. I wish I was going to be around long enough to see what happens next but I have little hope. The collective is dead—individualism reigns. I will do what I can to make a difference but am afraid that my efforts are futile. Too much railing against the other; and as you so effectively expressed, not enough railing against ourselves. We—all of us—made this mess as we—all of us—will need to fix it.
How can Democratic fundraising emails claim that my contribution will get a four times match?
Do Democrats have our own anonymous billionaires somewhere in the background? Who are they?
And, why is “earned” income somehow in a different category than so-called “passive” income? Can’t it be spent at a grocery store? Is it somehow innocent, shouldn’t be taxed, shouldn’t be used to, for example, fund Social Security?
How do we build a real fighting organization that is unapologetically egalitarian and trusting of regular workers and their power over their dependents - the bosses.
Sigh, have crafted comments and insights twice but I breathe and they disappear never to be retrieved and posted.
Great post. Bottom line for me is to observe
First: good advice isn’t hard to find, it’s just hard to take.
and
Second: what is missing in all this bumbling chaos is talented and inspired LEADERSHIP. It’s beginning to emerge, but we simply haven’t found the secret sauce that allows WE THE PEOPLE to trust and invest in an umbrella of understanding that helps us step away from our fear filled trauma and coalesce along a path of incremental progress towards a positive, thoughtful future. Obsessively focusing on the decades of sleep that brought us to this place is not the answer.
Anand - Thank you for detailing so many examples of how aspects of our society are unable to ask themselves the hard questions that will result in adopting strategies that finally break us free of the world we find ourselves in today… A world in which those seeking to dominate us are winning … because they are using psychological warfare of the kind abusive spouses use in their marriages. And for context, my father, abused my mother, my sister and I for many years. I know what psychological warfare looks like at a very personal level. But what saved me as a child was sources of hope from outside the system of my family. My father could not control that I had a television that showed me other ways that people could live and eventually showed me sources of knowledge and wisdom like British historian James Burke, whose masterful documentary series in the 1980s “the Day the Universe Changed“ helped me understand how cultural transformations have happened throughout human history. While you write of people not asking questions, I think people also need to be motivated to seek out solutions that enable us to achieve our dreams, not just enable us to defeat fascism. I urge you to contact Dr. Bandy Lee, who is a highly regarded expert on the psychological dimensions of the time in which we live. She has written and held conferences on the subject of Donald Trump literally being a psychological virus that has affected society… The condition of which you write about today without using the viral terminology she employees. Not only does she understand how our culture has been made literally mentally ill by Trump and his supporters, but she understands that the cure is an aspirational vision of the future that causes us to seek out strategies for breaking free of this mental illness… healing ourselves through hope … and from that starting point curing others of this mental illness as well. Dr. Lee is on Substack and has previously been interviewed by mainstream media (but not for some time because mainstream media seems to find it uncomfortable to talk about Trump as being mentally ill. They would rather just report on his actions not the root cause of those actions). I also request that you follow up with me because not only does my family history give me insights into today’s condition, but I have researched the aspirational vision (see Buckminster Fuller and W Edwards Deming for two starting points) that can help cure society … and the strategies that can be employed to implement that cure. These strategies include reporting on a transformational plan developed by President Bill Clinton and his Commission on Sustainable Development back in the 1990s. I will look for other ways to connect with you, but hope that you will see this comment and reach out to me first. Thank you again for writing with such passion about the crisis we are in. It is definitely a psychological crisis in which people are not challenging themselves. But again, I believe people are more likely to do the self reflection necessary when they are not just working to stop something bad, but are also fighting to do something new that enables us to achieve dreams previously felt to be impossible. I look forward to speaking with you about all this!
Anand,
I have read your post twice. I was saddened and worried. Your frustration was palpable. I share the same frustration although, I realize I am part of comfortable crowd. I read and listen and think big thoughts of civilizational change. However, I have taken little action save for a couple of Anti-Tesla demos and connecting with Indivisible and Communities Arising. But I am still haunted thst this is nowhere near enough. Every evening and morning starts with a new worry. Today is not so much the Trump/Musk curcus, but the deep well planned and methodical work of Russel Voight, the bespeceled wizard behind the curtain.
You, Anne Applebaum, Ruth Ben Gant, Heather Cox Ruchardson, and AnatShenker-Osono, and others are my anchors.
Keep it up.
Warren Burrows, MD
The minute Black people join the protest en masse there will be violence. There will be police in riot gear, tear gas and batons. People will be hurt and arrested. And it would be an acknowledgment that what we are in is a war. Everyone knows this and is afraid to commit to it.
Re the protests: I think it’s a fair generalization to say that most of the protesters are over 50 or 60 and while we bring what energy we have they are staid affairs. We stay on our side of the line and as such are tolerated.
I get you about being inundated by Trump. I hate the way he occupies my brain. It feels like a cancer of the mind. He has infiltrated the very blood and brain cells of our collective body.
Trust is the currency of human society and that might be the place to focus. So much trust has been eroded and what we have left buys so little.
For my part, I do go to local protests and my focus is on local elections. We have what I call MAGA lite operating in our community and like so many communities we are a microcosm of what’s happening on the Federal level. This November we will elect all of them out of office. We are envisioning a new open-hearted, responsible town government whose job is to serve the people to their highest potential. Sounds like weak sauce, but it would be a profound turning as we’ve had Republicans in charge for 100 years.
Thank you for engaging in protests ! I agree that certainly those I’ve been on have mostly been old and white. It isn’t that young and/or Black people aren’t opposed to this government. But, there’s something we’re definitely NOT doing to invite each other to our Resistance. There, we could exchange ideas, hone our strategies and, if we’re to be successful have a far more dramatic ambition than winning the next election for the Dems.
It is hard to know what to say in response to this article because it made me think so hard-snd I’m still struggling to understand the meaning of the phenomenon you address. But I want to say a resounding thank you for describing it. It so feels like the right direction.
I’ve experienced what you talk about. All of us older liberals at the protests, knowing we’re doing the “right thing” --- cheering and shouting , we’re taking our country back, how dare he?--yet the months go by and this black cloud keeps infecting and killing off pieces of our country. We are in shock. In mourning, we say. Yet we do not know what else to do except go to these protests.
Yet we all love this idea called America. We know what we mean.
Thank you for wading so articulately into a scary phenomenon that shows we need to evolve ... but how and where.
I meet people at these protests who love America, want to do something to bring it back,
The best piece I’ve read since the election
I totally agree that the Drmovratic Party has failed to meet the challenge of the Trump presidency. As a life-long Democrat, other than daily fund-raising appeals from the national level, the messages are disjointed and sporadic. I am frustrated and angry and have for now focused my donations and support to the ACLU and local nonprofits directly helping the community.
the Southern Poverty Law center is also doing great work
Anand, what a profound piece that shares devastating truth, one that shook me a bit to my core this morning. But all you have stated is correct, deepening my frustration about how this whole situation will play out. Some days I am filled with optimism that we shall indeed overcome the horror unfolding before our eyes, the pure bombardment of chaos to our minds and senses, and how much we can handle. There are days when I say to myself, no more reading and listening to my substack heroes when I feel overloaded, but within me is the fight and spirit that I cannot let go. I take time each day of the week to call and email my representatives to share my discontent and two cents, and those who have stood up such as Chris Murphy, AOC. Jasmine Crockett,Governor Pritzger, Senator Van Hollen, Reps Ramirez and Standbury to let them know how proud I am for their speaking out and taking a stand. But obviously not enough with the DMC not being on board and others in the party about the reality of what needs to be done. My friends and I who are out there protesting feel empowered every time, and stand strong, but yes, it is the feeling the calvary is not coming. The psychological warfare by the president and all those in the fold on the right seem to be more powerful that one wants to admit. I see it in friends and family who rather bury their heads and go about their business like nothing is happening, and do not want to be reminded by me. That is a hard pill to swallow, yet I refuse to back down and keep fighting for what is right against pure evil. Hopefully the tide will turn down the road. Thank you again for your extraordinary analysis.
Same.
Well said, thank you.
Anand, I appreciate the deep caring implicit in your critique. Sometimes all we can do is be the change, model, demonstrate.
Think about the abolitionist movement. How did they persevere? There is a famous story of Harriet Tubman asking Frederick Douglas, “is god dead?” when he gave voice to his disillusionment with the lack of progress.
The values and practices you lift up - curiosity, introspection - are ennobling. Together we can make those values “normie.”
Broke me open. I find I have to sit with it, ferret out the incurious me and what's to be done.
Expressing my gratitude for what you have scribed, Anand. Your analysis is spot on and you have articulated it with great clarity. I am particularly inspired by your observation regarding how "incurious" so many of us have become. It is my personal belief, although not my original thought, that curiosity is a cornerstone of psychological health. It is how we allow ourselves to open up to new and alternate possibilities. It is how we can alleviate despair. Your work is so important.
Is this a reposting? I will not repost my first comment as it was long! But I will say that I am not quite convinced that we are ALL in-curious, and passively doormats! That is not what people who are proponents of Non-violence do! It is not being a doormat - the opposite of dysfunction is not oppositely-done-dysfunction! It is BALANCE. We are living with a sickened society and we need to become healers - interrupt the process, learn to communicate and build stronger community! Reformation of democracy needs to happen, transformation of all of us to have more empathy, more courage to live out our values, put shame, anger, and all the shadow self -stuff to work letting those instruct us on how we can meet the needs that are (now) being met in awful ways! Obviously what we were doing did not work well enough for everyone, otherwise we would not be in this pickle jar now! Do what you can ,with what you have, with what you understand, for everyone you can, practice as you go, improve as you practice, and pay attention to how it is working (or not) and make adjustments and for goodness sake, be aware of how to love and understand yourself and others and how to learn... we can do this. If we want to be radicals, live what you know to be true and good (that is open-eyed, reality true)!
The boundless negativity of the commentariat shuts me down. Lots needs to be done but I don't see potential solutions proposed, just minute dissection of what somebody else didn't do. Or did "wrong". Most of the time the "somebody else" is the Democrats" or specifically those leading the democratic party. Or Biden. Sometimes it is venomous. (Thank you for not doing that here)
Long term we need more younger people, looks like quite a few really promising ones are stepping up to run for something in 26. Some of them have some great plans and suggestions. And we have a few terrific ones in Congress. We should support them all.
So far the young people at the DNC aren't settling a great example.
One thing we need to do is support good Democratic candidates in state and local legislatures and other governing bodies. As well as at the national level. Need fundraising for that. I don't like the way they're doing it, but we need it. Any ideas about a better way?
So that's a couple things. Nothing that can fix it overnight. Any ideas? Maybe you should run for something.
This commentary is extraordinary and thoughtful, rare in the world today. The fear of introspection is palpable everywhere but that has been true for most humans forever. I will die in the not too distant future so it’s easy for me to take risks and face the future. Not so much those following behind me. The foundation that our country is built on—misogyny, racism and greed—is finally failing and, perhaps that is a good thing. I wish I was going to be around long enough to see what happens next but I have little hope. The collective is dead—individualism reigns. I will do what I can to make a difference but am afraid that my efforts are futile. Too much railing against the other; and as you so effectively expressed, not enough railing against ourselves. We—all of us—made this mess as we—all of us—will need to fix it.
Some questions we are not supposed to ask:
How can Democratic fundraising emails claim that my contribution will get a four times match?
Do Democrats have our own anonymous billionaires somewhere in the background? Who are they?
And, why is “earned” income somehow in a different category than so-called “passive” income? Can’t it be spent at a grocery store? Is it somehow innocent, shouldn’t be taxed, shouldn’t be used to, for example, fund Social Security?
What other questions do we need to ask?
How do we build a real fighting organization that is unapologetically egalitarian and trusting of regular workers and their power over their dependents - the bosses.
This is why I subscribe, Anand. I'm sharing this widely. Thanks.
Sigh, have crafted comments and insights twice but I breathe and they disappear never to be retrieved and posted.
Great post. Bottom line for me is to observe
First: good advice isn’t hard to find, it’s just hard to take.
and
Second: what is missing in all this bumbling chaos is talented and inspired LEADERSHIP. It’s beginning to emerge, but we simply haven’t found the secret sauce that allows WE THE PEOPLE to trust and invest in an umbrella of understanding that helps us step away from our fear filled trauma and coalesce along a path of incremental progress towards a positive, thoughtful future. Obsessively focusing on the decades of sleep that brought us to this place is not the answer.
Anand - Thank you for detailing so many examples of how aspects of our society are unable to ask themselves the hard questions that will result in adopting strategies that finally break us free of the world we find ourselves in today… A world in which those seeking to dominate us are winning … because they are using psychological warfare of the kind abusive spouses use in their marriages. And for context, my father, abused my mother, my sister and I for many years. I know what psychological warfare looks like at a very personal level. But what saved me as a child was sources of hope from outside the system of my family. My father could not control that I had a television that showed me other ways that people could live and eventually showed me sources of knowledge and wisdom like British historian James Burke, whose masterful documentary series in the 1980s “the Day the Universe Changed“ helped me understand how cultural transformations have happened throughout human history. While you write of people not asking questions, I think people also need to be motivated to seek out solutions that enable us to achieve our dreams, not just enable us to defeat fascism. I urge you to contact Dr. Bandy Lee, who is a highly regarded expert on the psychological dimensions of the time in which we live. She has written and held conferences on the subject of Donald Trump literally being a psychological virus that has affected society… The condition of which you write about today without using the viral terminology she employees. Not only does she understand how our culture has been made literally mentally ill by Trump and his supporters, but she understands that the cure is an aspirational vision of the future that causes us to seek out strategies for breaking free of this mental illness… healing ourselves through hope … and from that starting point curing others of this mental illness as well. Dr. Lee is on Substack and has previously been interviewed by mainstream media (but not for some time because mainstream media seems to find it uncomfortable to talk about Trump as being mentally ill. They would rather just report on his actions not the root cause of those actions). I also request that you follow up with me because not only does my family history give me insights into today’s condition, but I have researched the aspirational vision (see Buckminster Fuller and W Edwards Deming for two starting points) that can help cure society … and the strategies that can be employed to implement that cure. These strategies include reporting on a transformational plan developed by President Bill Clinton and his Commission on Sustainable Development back in the 1990s. I will look for other ways to connect with you, but hope that you will see this comment and reach out to me first. Thank you again for writing with such passion about the crisis we are in. It is definitely a psychological crisis in which people are not challenging themselves. But again, I believe people are more likely to do the self reflection necessary when they are not just working to stop something bad, but are also fighting to do something new that enables us to achieve dreams previously felt to be impossible. I look forward to speaking with you about all this!