Here's my gratitude, Anand, for so well articulation the vision of America'f future and the understand of the current backlash to that vision that's kept me going for decades. After a weekend spent on the street in bad weather protesting the murderous actions and intentions of our very own gestapo corps, I've felt the need for a boost. I've always loved your presence and intelligence. Keep it up.
this frame changed everything for me: "We are falling on our face because we are jumping very high right now. We are trying to do something that does not work in theory.
To be a country of all the world, a country made up of all the countries, a country without a center of identity, without a default idea of what a human being is or looks like, without a shared religious belief, without a shared language that is people's first language at home. And what we're trying to do is awesome. It is literally awesome in the correct sense of that word."
I find it very easy to see only negative outcomes for the future of the USA. It takes mental discipline and optimism to dig in and try to imagine a better future. It takes mental effort. Anand says things that help with this difficult process. Thank you, Mr. Giridharadas and others in this Comment space to keep my hope going.
As a former Peace Corps volunteer who lived two years in Nepal (where Big Brother India is not always beloved), but also as one with many Indian friends and even relatives, my admiration for India--especially under Modi--is mixed. But I have huge respect and admiration for those many, many Indian Americans who have vastly enriched our country with their expertise and remarkable commitment to the deepest ideals of democracy. From them, and other recent immigrants, I have come to realize that paradoxically, it is immigrants far more than "native-borns" who more deeply understand and value the "blessings of liberty" that we claim but too seldom honor in our country.
I've been thinking along the same lines: that we're living through a huge backlash and the death throes of dinosaurs. There's no creativity or forward thinking envisioning of a future that makes this a better world for all living beings. In his newsletter today, Paul Krugman asserts that "drill, baby, drill" is dead"; just one of many examples. I just hope we can stop the violence and cruelty against citizens sooner rather than later.
It should be clear there will (very likely) be a US attack on Iran. Following that will come widespread fear and fear-mongering about horrific terrorist reprisals.
If something violent and soul-shockingly atrocious is actually inflicted on US soil, no one will know for sure who is responsible: Iranians, Israelis, the US Federal government, domestic terrorists with left or right wing ideologies, Christian Nationalists, the Chinese, or the Russians, etc. This uncertainty will drive some into passivity, others into passionate intensity. There will be more violence, perhaps more than will ever be documented or memorialized—and many different actors will seek to control what is being documented or memorized.
There will be furious resistance and venomous reprisals. Do not forget that people are already getting killed. People are already being injured. People are already being jailed. People are already breaking. Most will never be recognized or remembered, but what we do (and what we don’t do) counts. And if we fail to confront this, we are condemning ourselves to the kinds of shame, guilt, and self-disgust that generate all kinds of pathologies with fascism being only one.
In the meantime (and in the aftermath) trumpist MAGAism must be opposed in the streets, in the courtrooms, in the halls of academia, and also within our families, our networks, and individual psyches. The soul-sick violence that fascism relies upon is, after all, part of our human heritage. The time for struggle is always now. Yet, a dreadful, ugly darkness could stave off the dawn for generations and generations to come. That’s because tens of thousands of protesters are not enough. Nor are hundreds of thousands. It will take millions of us: working, thinking, speaking, encouraging, and preparing. It cannot happen only on weekends, and no one can do this alone.
Violence is already upon us, within us, and it is destined to grow no matter what we do. Nonviolence is also, by its very nature, an intolerable provocation to many. This is not offered as an excuse for hopelessness or passivity. It is a reminder that to preserve what we admire about ourselves and each other (in the midst of all this disgust) requires an informed and well-studied courage with multiple levels of social support. There are ways for you to do your part and not be ashamed. There are ways for you to symbolically redeem past victims while providing better foundations for a more hopeful future.
We must be nonviolent, but nonviolence is not necessarily best understood as some “spiritual” stance. It must also be understood as a social technology requiring planning, coordination, discipline, and training. It is also something that anyone can support in many ways either through speech, writing, donations, or physical presence. Nonviolent resistance also requires immense tactical and practical support networks involving legal defense, jail support teams, and mental health resources along with food, water, shelter, and healthcare logistics. There is something for everyone to do, but we should never imagine that our protests will not provoke violence or that success is guaranteed. Yet even without guarantees, now is the time to act. That is the definition of courage.
I am so grateful you said the chaos is the end of something. I believe the chaos is the dying of old thinking, of men who have held power over the masses. I vacillate at times between sadness and anger but then go back to meditation and Reiki. A better world is coming even though it doesn't feel like it right now.
I believe you are right about the future. We can help if we will stop agreeing with the sanitized version of our own history. We began in racism and violence which we can barely manage to acknowledge. Reversing that is, I believe, part of growing up.
When people say "we've never been more divided" I point out that America has always been divided - did you see Hamilton? Do you know anything about the labor movement in this country? What about the 1960s? And we had a civil war that lasted EIGHT YEARS - more Americans died in that conflict than any other war Americans have been involved in. But there is a consistent outcome in our moments of division - progress triumphs. Stay the course my friends.
Excellent essay. I often think about this view of what we are going through. From one standpoint we are are in a battle with the millennia-old dominance of greed and lust for power, as so perfectly stated by Stephen Miller in his recent viral quote:
"We live in the real world, Jake, that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power. These are the iron laws of the world since the beginning of time.”
But from another standpoint, deeper and truer I believe, we are always evolving toward the wiser, more compassionate, more inclusive world expressed so beautifully by Becca Good, talking about her wife René who was killed by an ICE agent in Minneapolis. Becca said René knew that:
“... all religions teach the same essential truth: we are here to love each other, care for each other, and keep each other safe and whole.”
We are at a critical junction in this ongoing struggle, and when we prevail over the Miller-exemplified darkness in this country, we will have made an enormous contribution to humanity's ultimate victory over our deep-seated greed and lust for power.
Here's my gratitude, Anand, for so well articulation the vision of America'f future and the understand of the current backlash to that vision that's kept me going for decades. After a weekend spent on the street in bad weather protesting the murderous actions and intentions of our very own gestapo corps, I've felt the need for a boost. I've always loved your presence and intelligence. Keep it up.
this frame changed everything for me: "We are falling on our face because we are jumping very high right now. We are trying to do something that does not work in theory.
To be a country of all the world, a country made up of all the countries, a country without a center of identity, without a default idea of what a human being is or looks like, without a shared religious belief, without a shared language that is people's first language at home. And what we're trying to do is awesome. It is literally awesome in the correct sense of that word."
Damn. This is good. This is so good. Let's keep jumping!
I am a native of Rhode Island, now in Connecticut. Rhode Island’s motto is HOPE ⚓️
They named it Providence for a reason!
Yes, they did🕊️⚓️
I find it very easy to see only negative outcomes for the future of the USA. It takes mental discipline and optimism to dig in and try to imagine a better future. It takes mental effort. Anand says things that help with this difficult process. Thank you, Mr. Giridharadas and others in this Comment space to keep my hope going.
As a former Peace Corps volunteer who lived two years in Nepal (where Big Brother India is not always beloved), but also as one with many Indian friends and even relatives, my admiration for India--especially under Modi--is mixed. But I have huge respect and admiration for those many, many Indian Americans who have vastly enriched our country with their expertise and remarkable commitment to the deepest ideals of democracy. From them, and other recent immigrants, I have come to realize that paradoxically, it is immigrants far more than "native-borns" who more deeply understand and value the "blessings of liberty" that we claim but too seldom honor in our country.
Just what I needed to reread today. Jump, fall, AND GET BACK UP!
I've been thinking along the same lines: that we're living through a huge backlash and the death throes of dinosaurs. There's no creativity or forward thinking envisioning of a future that makes this a better world for all living beings. In his newsletter today, Paul Krugman asserts that "drill, baby, drill" is dead"; just one of many examples. I just hope we can stop the violence and cruelty against citizens sooner rather than later.
It should be clear there will (very likely) be a US attack on Iran. Following that will come widespread fear and fear-mongering about horrific terrorist reprisals.
If something violent and soul-shockingly atrocious is actually inflicted on US soil, no one will know for sure who is responsible: Iranians, Israelis, the US Federal government, domestic terrorists with left or right wing ideologies, Christian Nationalists, the Chinese, or the Russians, etc. This uncertainty will drive some into passivity, others into passionate intensity. There will be more violence, perhaps more than will ever be documented or memorialized—and many different actors will seek to control what is being documented or memorized.
There will be furious resistance and venomous reprisals. Do not forget that people are already getting killed. People are already being injured. People are already being jailed. People are already breaking. Most will never be recognized or remembered, but what we do (and what we don’t do) counts. And if we fail to confront this, we are condemning ourselves to the kinds of shame, guilt, and self-disgust that generate all kinds of pathologies with fascism being only one.
In the meantime (and in the aftermath) trumpist MAGAism must be opposed in the streets, in the courtrooms, in the halls of academia, and also within our families, our networks, and individual psyches. The soul-sick violence that fascism relies upon is, after all, part of our human heritage. The time for struggle is always now. Yet, a dreadful, ugly darkness could stave off the dawn for generations and generations to come. That’s because tens of thousands of protesters are not enough. Nor are hundreds of thousands. It will take millions of us: working, thinking, speaking, encouraging, and preparing. It cannot happen only on weekends, and no one can do this alone.
Violence is already upon us, within us, and it is destined to grow no matter what we do. Nonviolence is also, by its very nature, an intolerable provocation to many. This is not offered as an excuse for hopelessness or passivity. It is a reminder that to preserve what we admire about ourselves and each other (in the midst of all this disgust) requires an informed and well-studied courage with multiple levels of social support. There are ways for you to do your part and not be ashamed. There are ways for you to symbolically redeem past victims while providing better foundations for a more hopeful future.
We must be nonviolent, but nonviolence is not necessarily best understood as some “spiritual” stance. It must also be understood as a social technology requiring planning, coordination, discipline, and training. It is also something that anyone can support in many ways either through speech, writing, donations, or physical presence. Nonviolent resistance also requires immense tactical and practical support networks involving legal defense, jail support teams, and mental health resources along with food, water, shelter, and healthcare logistics. There is something for everyone to do, but we should never imagine that our protests will not provoke violence or that success is guaranteed. Yet even without guarantees, now is the time to act. That is the definition of courage.
I am so grateful you said the chaos is the end of something. I believe the chaos is the dying of old thinking, of men who have held power over the masses. I vacillate at times between sadness and anger but then go back to meditation and Reiki. A better world is coming even though it doesn't feel like it right now.
Thank you Anand, Love your commentary! Needed a boost!
I believe you are right about the future. We can help if we will stop agreeing with the sanitized version of our own history. We began in racism and violence which we can barely manage to acknowledge. Reversing that is, I believe, part of growing up.
It's the last desperate grasp for power by white men.
When people say "we've never been more divided" I point out that America has always been divided - did you see Hamilton? Do you know anything about the labor movement in this country? What about the 1960s? And we had a civil war that lasted EIGHT YEARS - more Americans died in that conflict than any other war Americans have been involved in. But there is a consistent outcome in our moments of division - progress triumphs. Stay the course my friends.
Excellent essay. I often think about this view of what we are going through. From one standpoint we are are in a battle with the millennia-old dominance of greed and lust for power, as so perfectly stated by Stephen Miller in his recent viral quote:
"We live in the real world, Jake, that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power. These are the iron laws of the world since the beginning of time.”
But from another standpoint, deeper and truer I believe, we are always evolving toward the wiser, more compassionate, more inclusive world expressed so beautifully by Becca Good, talking about her wife René who was killed by an ICE agent in Minneapolis. Becca said René knew that:
“... all religions teach the same essential truth: we are here to love each other, care for each other, and keep each other safe and whole.”
We are at a critical junction in this ongoing struggle, and when we prevail over the Miller-exemplified darkness in this country, we will have made an enormous contribution to humanity's ultimate victory over our deep-seated greed and lust for power.
indeed the future will
prevail, thank you Anand..
The more darkness there is. the more light, it's inevitable