I Have A (Wet) Dream

                There had been some discovered sexual impropriety by a member of the extended family, and as you may imagine, it came up as a topic of conversation.  She turned to me and said didn’t you work with sexual offenders for seven years?  Yes, I affirmed that I had.  Well what do you think about this behavior and what can be done about it?  Not much was the short answer. 

                First, infidelity is not illegal and extremely common.  His sexual choices were with women over 18 and there was no perversion that would be defined as illegal, or even risqué. 

So, she lamented, there is really nothing that can be done for a person who constantly cheats on his wife?  There is no way to change him? 

The changes regarding sexual attitudes in this country aren’t going to be made by changing one man.  They must be made on a societal level.  That conversation is not a short one.

                Why not, she wanted to know?  I thought that you would have some answers since you worked with sexual offenders for several years.  What did you do to cure them? 

Nothing cures a person’s sexual preferences and that is my point.  There will always be people with deviant sexual attractions, just as there will always be people who own guns who shoot other people.  Prevention and how, we as a society, approach the topic of sex are the only things that really make any difference.  There is no way to cure one individual sexual predator or sexual deviant because the sex drive is innate.  As it must be for the promulgation of the species, any species.  If you want to protect the innocent or affect the behavior of sexual deviants, society, as a whole, needs a different approach to the topic of sex than we currently have.  That is not going to be easy to do because there is so much information that needs to be communicated just to get a basic foundation on the topic. 

                Imagine it like this, you are an accountant and I know the basics of what an accountant does, but if I wanted you to tell me all about accounting so I could do it myself that would take a long time.  Yeah it would, she said, I would suggest that you go to school and get an accounting degree.  That’s my point exactly.  To understand what goes into changing or preventing deviant sexual choices there is a lot that needs to be covered.  But it’s easy for me to grasp that I’m not an accountant and I wouldn’t understand everything that goes into it.  Sex, however, is a different story.  Everyone in this room is sexually active and few people will admit that they are going to need years of serious academic study on the subject.  This is because we are a sex saturated society.  There are no beer commercials that state, “Sharpen your pencils, because after a few Coors lights you are going to pay much closer attention to detail and be better at math.”  Beer commercials, most commercials for that matter, know that sex sells. So, there are beer commercials in which a woman, defined as beautiful, walks into the room in her underwear/swimsuit and goes to the fridge to get a cold Coors light off the bottom self.  Bending over at the waist of course.  And she stands up and turns to the camera with hard nipples and says, “If the mountains are blue boys, your balls won’t be, because Coors light makes me so horny!” 

                That is as laughable as the accounting commercial, except nobody laughs.  Instead, lots of guys think, I’ll drink me some Coors light and then be able to have sex with an attractive stranger.  Or something along those lines, all relating (insert product here) to heightened sexual prowess. The point being that you cannot retroactively deal with someone’s sexual deviance, in other words, you cannot unfuck this situation, literally. 

                The only way to deal with the problem of sexual deviance, large or small, in our society is for society as a whole to embrace a movement that changes the way we think, talk and act as sexual beings. We need a Martin Luther King Jr. of sexual reformation to be giving a well-attended and publicized speech on the Mall in Washington D.C. that says,

                (in MLK’s speaking cadence)

                I have a dream!

                That I have a hardon,

                And it’s not as bad as it seems!

                I have a dream!

                That one day I will be judged,

                Not by the density, duration, and distance of my pecker!

                But by how I use it in a sexually appropriate context!

                I have a dream!

                That women will be judged by the beauty of their character,

                Not by the curve of their booty!

                I have a dream!                

                That we will one day peddle our products,

                Not by the pedophiliac sexualization of enteral youth!

                But by their utility for the society that utilizes them!

                I have a dream!

                That will we define what is profitable,

                Not by what elongates the shadow of our miniscule, inconsequential, individual egos!

                But by what promotes Liberty for all and does not pervert justice as a privilege for the few!

                I have a dream!

                But then I wake up and none of that shit is actually happening.  It’s going to be a long road to get there.  We are in the infantile stages of recognizing and granting all persons their inalienable rights on topics concerning sex. 

                What about the LGBTQ movement and the fact that gay marriage has been legalized?  Isn’t that a lot of progress on changing how we discuss the topic of sex in this country, she queered?

                The legalization of gay marriage and the LGBTQ movement are the embryotic stages of the reformation that needs to occur concerning how this society addresses sex.  The path that history had to take to get to MLK’s I Have a Dream speech started with the beginnings of the abolitionist movement in the 1700’s.  To get from there to the Civil Rights march on Washington in 1963 you had to have a lot of things occur throughout history. 

                You had to have the rise of the abolitionist movement that prompted the Northern states to outlaw slavery.  You had to have the Unites States pass a law outlawing the importing of newly captured Africans to be sold as slaves throughout the country.  You had to have Nat Turner’s rebellion and John Brown’s uprising.  You have to have Harriet Tubman’s underground railroad.  You had to have the Civil Fucking War.  The Emancipation Proclamation.  You had to have the 13^th, 14^th, and 15^th amendments to the Constitution.  You had to have Fredrick Douglas, the Dredd Scott decision, the race riots in St. Louis, Jim Crow laws.  You had to have W.E.B DuBois, Marcus Garvey and the rise of the nation of Islam.  You had to have WWI and WWII.  All of these things and many more paved the way for the march on Washington in 1963.  And the fight was far from over.

                Future generations will ask their history teachers, “Did people really discriminate because of genitals?”  That teacher will answer, “it was a backward time with a lot of backward thinking.  The high electrified dark ages.” 

                In order to get to a point where we actually address all the harm that is done in our society by the way we address the topic of sex, and there is much, will need to come to a radical new way of thinking about the topic. 

                That won’t happen in this country, she stated.  There are too many religious people who feel too strongly on the subject and they have their holy books to back them up.

                That was the same thing that was said about the abolitionist movement.  Many preachers, in fact most preachers, preached from the pulpit, quoting scriptures about the virtues and God giving blessing of own slaves.  Those holy books tell a story of time when slavery was a common practice among almost all civilized peoples.  Even Jesus said slaves should abbey their masters.  There are way more Biblical justifications in support of slavery than there are in opposition to same sex sexual acts.  Yet, no preacher I know of today stands in the pulpit and gives God’s blessing on the act of one human being owning other human beings.  The people adjusted to new way of thinking about their holy books and they will again.  And they should. 

                Well where and how does this reformation you speak of get started, she asked? 

                It already has but there will be a long fight before things are put right.

                How do we go about making a difference now?  Do we just say, fuck it, that isn’t happening yet and there is nothing we can do?

                Hell no, be part of the solution.  Examine, openly and honestly your options and beliefs about sex.  Be willing to challenge them and be willing to learn.  Don’t do this in isolation.  It doesn’t work that way.  Engage those around on the topic.  That’s how any difference, ever, has been made.  

There is no gate, stupid.

               Stupid Watergate is a term coined by John Oliver several months ago in a joke about the Trump administration Russian collusion scandal.  The joke was funny and I like John Oliver’s sense of humor.  That being said, referring to modern political scandals with the suffix gate takes away the seriousness of the situation.  The suffix gate has lost all meaning in American culture for several reasons. This first being it’s obvious and hyperbolic overuse.  Second, many Americans living in 2017 do not know or understand their own or world history, therefore, they do not grasp the full gravity which should come with the comparison.  Finally, because of the first to reasons, this political age needs its scandals to have a more well branded moniker as an icon for the current scandals.  I suggest Tower, as in Trump Tower, the stinking, steaming pile of bullshit upon which the current President resides in the top floor.  From now on I will refer to this as the Russian Tower scandal.

                One of the premises of Oliver’s joke is the question of whether those in the Trump administration/family are so stupid as to get themselves tied up in such an obviously illegal and unethical situation.  The answer is that they are not stupid at all.  They have assessed the modern political reality in the United States with Machiavellian psychopathic clarity.  Their analysis, which is sadly on point, determined that shame is no longer a viable persuasive tool in American politics.  This is a big deal.  Without shame as a border between acceptable and unacceptable behavior, acceptable behavior is redefined in absolute Machiavellian terms, the ends justify any means necessary. 

                What killed shame as a viable persuasive tool in the American Political Theater?  There were a multitude of afflictions which lead to shame’s eventual demise.  One is the daily hyperbolic sensualizing of events on what are considered news outlets.  Second is the relentless ideology of the profit motive within the corporations that control media outlets.  Third is the ubiquitous invasion of personal privacy, real or imagined.  Fourth is the partisan divisions which have given credence to black and white thinking.  Finally, the natural death of nuance that occurs when a people are not adequately taught history and as a result develop poor long term cohesive planning skills. 

                The result has been that American politics and in many cases American life has become an embodiment of a phrase from the opening monologue of the movie Patton, “Americans have never tolerated a man who lost and laughed.  Americans love a winner! Always have, always will.”  While this sentiment makes an excellent battle cry for soldiers you are sending to fight and die, it is a disastrous way for a society to function.  It is this mentality that propelled Trump and his minions to the White House.  Trump’s entire brand is based on the concept, not the reality, of winning.  Trump succeeds to this end by defining whatever he does as winning.  Much like Charlie Sheen.  This is the exact approach that his team used to steal the election and they will make no apology for it.  This not making an apology for it is one of the important reasons why they continue to get away with it.  Don Jr. comes out and says yeah, I met with a hostile foreign government to aide my father in winning the election, so what, it worked. 

                The saddest fact is that the American people are so jaded, divided, overwhelmed, empathy eroded, sacred, and our system is so corrupt that it will work.  It will continue to work for as long as Trump stays in office and those who follow him will adopt his tactics and increase them to absurdity and beyond. 

                This Russian Tower scandal will be the least of the scandals that come out of this administration, so I say we do right by our President and his lifelong goal of promoting his brand and drop the gate and rebrand his scandals appropriately.  

Time Traveling Alien Anthropologist

                He sat down at my table at the coffee shop where I was reading a book and taking a break from my bike ride.  “What is two plus two?” he asked.  “A mathematical equation,” I replied.  His thin lips curled into a small smile.  I’m visiting here do you mind if I ask you a few questions

                No, as long as I can ask a few myself.  Where are you visiting from?

                Form a distant time and planet.

                Really?  So, what brings you to this particular intersection of time and space?

                Research, I’m an anthropologist whose specific area of study is human origins and history.

                From the future, eh?  Wouldn’t happen to have a line on this year’s Super Bowl winner, would you?

                Super Bowl? Is that a reference to one of the primitive contest of speed and strength that your society frequently and with much fanfare likes to engage in?

                Yeah, we shortened all that up and just call it football, but your description is accurate.

                I don’t the winner of any particular contest but the idea as a whole is part of my study.

                Why would you research bring you to this particular time if you are able to travel to any?

                This is what your calendar refers to as 2017 BC, correct?

                If you are looking for 2017 BC you missed by about 4,000 years buddy.  You may need to tweak those dials on your time machine.

                Hmm, I’ve been here for a couple of your weeks and all of the other data confirms that this is the year 2017 BC.

                It is 2017…AD not BC.

                AD?

                After Death

                The death of what?

                Jesus Christ

                I’ve come across that name many times in my research.  He is a hero, of sorts.  Elevated to cult status by the superstitious.  Revered with monuments and symbols throughout this society.  He gained notoriety when he was executed by the rulers.

 

                Never heard it preached that way myself, but that is the Christ story in a nuthouse.  That’s why this is referred to as AD, After the death of Christ.  BC refers to the time before Christ.  What did you think it meant?

                BC stands for Before Collapse.

 

                Oh, Before the collapse of what?

                Human civilization on this planet.

                You paint a rosy picture.  You should be running for office.  So, when does human civilization collapse on this planet?  It’s been a question I’ve been curious about.

                The first interstellar voyagers leave this planet somewhere between 2084 and 2184 on your calendar.  Ancient history is not an exact science so there is a range given by the best data we could collect.

                What’s so interesting about this time that you decided to come to now?

                The calendar years between 2017 and 2024 are the years when the events occurred that accelerated the collapse of human civilization on this planet.  My research is aimed at better understanding what daily life was like here leading up to those events.

                What events are you talking about specifically?

                The dramatic increase of intra and interspecies conflicts that disrupted the planetary support systems and made human civilization inevitably unstainable.  I have observed that the occupying troops are already here in great numbers and we know that is one of the accelerants of violent conflict.

                Occupying troops?  Where did you see them at?

                They have been in great numbers everywhere I have gone.

                If there were occupying troops in the United States I would know about them.  What do they look like?

                You have not seen the uniformed soldiers that are openly carrying weapons and drive specifically marked military vehicles? They are ubiquitous every place I’ve been on the continent.

                I don’t know about the rest of the continent but I’ve not seen any occupying troops and I have lived here my whole life.

                There’s one right there.  He pointed out the coffee shop window at a patrol car that had pulled up to the curb with two police officers getting out.

                Those aren’t occupying troops, that’s the police.

                What is the difference?

                The police aren’t soldiers they are just law enforcement.

                Are your laws so unjust that you need armed and uniformed soldiers to force people to follow them?

                Well, I never thought of it like that but I guess we do.  It’s just the way it’s always been and they aren’t really soldiers.

                They wear uniforms?

                Yes

                They openly carry weapons?

                Yes

                Do they communicate with a central command?

                They radio dispatch, I suppose, or dispatch radios them.

                Are they able to stop, question, search, detain and execute other persons who are not in uniform?

                Cops do shoot people.  A lot more lately, but they are not supposed to.  They can stop, question, search and arrest you though.

                Are you allowed to resist them if they do so?

                Not if you don’t want to get shot.  You do have the right to remain silent.

                Would you consider that resistance?

                No, more self-preservation.

                Then why do you not consider them occupying soldiers?

                Because they aren’t foreign and they aren’t in the military.

                What makes them different than the military?

                The color of their uniforms.

                Why does it make a difference if they are foreign or not?  From my study of your contemporary maps the borders of what you call countries are primarily arbitrary and fluid.

                The borders are not really arbitrary, they were agreed upon in treaties and such.  Also, I haven’t known them to be fluid.      

   

                Has your country always had the same borders?

                No, we started out at 13 colonies and then expanded west.

                If your borders are able to expand then they are also able to contract and that would make them fluid.  What’s the difference between what you called a colony and what your map defines as a state?

                They were colonies under English rule but after the revolution they became states.

                So, the borders of the country of England used to be on this continent?

                I see what you are saying, the borders have been and can definitely be fluid.  But that hasn’t happened for a long time.

                That’s a very subjective view of time.  What you call Alaska wasn’t part of this country until 1959. 

                I never really thought of it that way.  I guess I just took for granted that the U.S. has always had 50 states.   

            

                Take from me and I’m a time traveler.  Always doesn’t exist. 

                How do you travel through time anyway?

                By utilizing gravity and the curvature of the universe.

                The universe is curved?

                It’s a sphere.  It was shaped that way by the force of gravity.

                The universe is a globe?

                That’s one way to look at it.

                How do you use gravity to travel through time?

                Gravity warps the fabric of space/time.  So, a time vehicle travels by tuning into the gravitational waves of the universe and then amplifies them.  This creates a high gravitational field centered on the vehicle.  Then you pick an arc of the already established space/time continuum and you can travel to a different place and arrive in a different time.

                Sounds interesting.  Harnessing gravity instead of fighting it isn’t something I had ever considered before.

                What is it that you do consider?  What do you think about on a day to day basis?

                Shit man, I work seventy hours a week.  I don’t have all that much time to think.  When I’m not at work I have to take care of the wife and kids.  I like to drink a beer and watch ESPN if I can get a chance.  Otherwise I just follow the scores on my phone. 

                Doesn’t that life seem like a flawed system to you?

                Fuck yeah it does, but what else can I do.  I have bills to pay.

                What do you mean by bills?

                You really aren’t from this planet.  I have a mortgage, HOA, health insurance, life insurance, car insurance, trash bill, water bill, electric bill, two car payments, I have three kids in school, my own student loans, food, clothes, fuel, cable/internet, cell phone, Netflix, Amazon prime, Spotify, Dollar Shave club, gym membership, and the list just keeps going. 

                And you must work to meet these obligations?

                Yes, and even then, just barely.

                How long do you have to work before you have meet all of these obligations?

                Are you fucking kidding?  These go on for the rest of my life. 

                That does not make any sense.  Why burden yourself with so many obligations that you can never fulfill?

                It’s just the way things are.

                Hmm. Are there not enough dwellings available to live in?

                There are plenty if you can afford them.

                Is there not enough water to meet the demand?

                No there’s plenty of water in this area but it cost money?

                Are there not enough sources of power or fuel?

                No there is plenty of fuel and power, you just have to pay for it.

                Is there a scarcity of places to obtain an education?

                No there are public schools, and charter schools, and private schools, and home schooling is an option.

                Is there a shortage of modes of transportation?

                No, you can buy a bike, ride the bus, buy a car, fly in an airplane.

 

                Is there not enough food to feed everyone?

                No there’s plenty of food.  Hell, we waste tons of it every day.

                Is there not enough medicine to treat the sick?

                The only medicine we are short of is the death penalty drug.

                What is that?

                It’s the drugs we use to inject people on death row to end their life.

                Is that considered a medical treatment?

                Ha, no it’s considered justice.

                How is it considered just?

                Because they did bad things, unless they were innocent, which happens occasionally, and they deserve to die.

                Everyone dies.  How can it be considered just to do something that is going to happen anyway?

                Well, they usually killed people, and murder is wrong so their punishment is to be killed.

                What’s the difference between killing them and murder?

                A bunch of paperwork.

                I do not follow.

                There’s legal system and a bunch of paperwork and a trial, so it’s not the same as murdering someone.

                You said that sometimes innocent people are executed.  Is that considered murder?

                It should be but it isn’t.  We all know the system is going to make some mistakes. 

                So, if the system makes mistakes it goes on unchanged, but if people make mistakes they are punished. 

                If they don’t have enough money to hire a crafty lawyer.

                So, some people who kill are not punished?

                Yeah that happens.  OJ is a good example.

                What is an OJ?

                He’s guy who was a football star and then an actor.  He murdered his wife and her lover and he was found not guilty. 

                So, your legal system kills innocent people and lets the guilty go free.

                It happens.

                That does not sound like a good system.

                What kind of system would you have then?

                If killing people is wrong than a system that doesn’t kill people.

                Then they just stay in prison for the rest of their lives.  That doesn’t seem like justice for the people that they killed.

                If you kill them do the people they killed come back to life?

                No.

                Then I do not see the justice in killing them.  What is a prison?

                It’s where you go if you are sentenced for a crime.  It’s a cage we keep criminals in, kind of like an absurd human zoo.

                How does that help?

                It keeps them away from the rest of society so they can do no more harm.

                They are kept in cages by themselves until they die?

                Well, no they are in there with other criminals.

                Are all of these criminals guilty?

                No, I told you the system sometimes makes mistakes and innocent people get convicted too.

                Can the guilty harm the innocent in these human zoos?

                Yes, prison is a bad place no one goes there on purpose

.

                Once they are there they can no longer contact society?  This is their punishment?

                No, they can have visits and phone calls, and write letters and such.

                So, they are still part of society they just are required to live in a cage?

                Yes, that pretty much sums it up.

                How is this considered justice?  What is the good that comes from this practice?

                It makes the rest of society feel safer.

                Is the rest of society safer?  Has this practice put an end to crime?

                Not by a long shot.  It’s just the way it is.  What would you do with the criminals?

                I would examine the most frequently broken laws to see if those laws were, in fact, just.  If they are found not to be just I would remove them.  Of those who broke the laws that are found to be just I would look to see why that person was broken and work with the rest of the society to restore them to wholeness.

                That sounds like some hippie shit to me.

                I do not know what hippie shit is?  It is a system that works for the betterment of all.  It has worked for millennium on my home planet.

                A planet without prisons and cops.  I would like to go there.

                You do not have to go there.  You could help make the same system here.  It seems to me that origins of the collapse of human civilization on this planet are obvious.  More so than I ever suspected they would be.

                What origins of collapse are you talking about?  Nuclear weapons, global warming, World War III. 

                All of those are the logical conclusion of this system.  So, they are symptoms not the cause.  The causes are obvious.  You have more than enough food but people go hungry.  You have more than enough dwellings but people are denied them.  You have the technology to promote life and wellness but you restrict access to it.  Your laws are unjust and therefore must be enforced with the club and the gun.  You believe that justice is the practice of capturing, caging and killing people.  This is not a sustainable system.  It will always collapse.

                What kind of system would you suggest?

                You feed the hungry.  Provide a safe space to live to all persons.  All access to medical technology and treatments for all.  Clothe the naked.  Provide access to transportation to everyone.  Educate all persons.  End unjust laws.  Stop capturing, caging and killing people.  This is the model of every successful civilization in the universe. 

                Where are you supposed to get all the money it would take to do that?

                Why is money important?

                All of the stuff you said we need to do cost money?

                It cost money to end unjust laws?  It cost money not to capture, cage and kill people?

                Those would be the cheapest aspects of your plan.  But where would you get the money for the rest of it?

                It does not take money.  It takes cooperation.

 

                I promise you it would take a great deal of money to get the people who own the food, the hospitals, and the houses to cooperate with a plan of providing it to those who cannot pay. 

                Who owns all these things?

                Mostly a bunch of different corporations.

                Corporations are a cooperative, correct?

                In a manner of speaking.

                Then why would they not provide these things?

                Because there would be no money in it.  They would all lose their ass and go out of business.

                Why would they go out of business?

                Because they wouldn’t collect any money and there would be no profit so they would run out of money and have to shut down.

                Why do they need money to provide these basic things?

                So, they can pay the people doing the work and pay for the goods.  If they didn’t, people wouldn’t do the work or provide the goods.

                Why would the people need this money?

                So, they can buy things.

                What would they need to buy?  They would be provided with food, medical care, housing, clothing and transportation.   

                What if they wanted cell phones?

                Then there could be a cooperation that provides cell phones and operates a cell phone network.

                Why would people do that if there was no money in it.

                Because there is a desire for it and it helps the people of the planet.

                It wouldn’t happen without the profit motive.  People are motivated by the opportunity to make money.

                Then the people need to be reeducated.  Do you think that your form of currency will be accepted on any other planet in the universe?

                I hadn’t thought of that, but no probably not.

                I assure you it won’t.  Any other civilization in the universe who has the technological ability to reach you would easily replicate your currency and take command of your digital networks as soon as they realized how easily you are plied with it.  A realization they would come to with a quickness you cannot comprehend.  A planet wide system of cooperation that works for the betterment of civilization, however, is much harder to, if not impossible to overcome. 

                Is that what you plan to do?  You came here from both a distant planet and another time so you must have that technology.

                No, I have no interest in that.  I’m only here for research.  Your civilization collapses and those voyagers you are able to send out before the collapse must seek assistance from those they come in contact with and therefore already know the wisdom of cooperation. 

                Why don’t you provide us with some future technology to prevent the collapse?

What you need to prevent the collapse is already here. The change must come from you.

                Don’t you have some future time travel technology that could save us.

                No visiting intelligent life form with ever provide you with more advanced technology than you can develop on your own.  This planet’s first priority would be to weaponize any new technology that they receive and this would have ramifications, not just for this planet, but the whole universe. 

                Is there anything you can do to save us?

                Your salvation comes from an accurate assessment of your problems and the cooperation that is required to implement the necessary solutions.  It will never come from an outside source.

                So, we are fucked.

                If you choose to be.  I have appreciated our conversation it has provided me insight that will be helpful in completing my research.

                Are you taking off?  Do you have an appointment that you are afraid you will be late for?  Sorry, time travel joke.

                No need to apologize for having a sense of humor.  It is one of the finest qualities of any intelligent mind.

                As he got up and left my table I took a sip of my now watered-down coffee.  Intelligent mind huh?  I wonder where I’m going to find one of those.   

Buyer’s remorse gets Trumped

Every time that Trump does something stupid and disastrous that will have lasting effects on both our national and foreign policy and disgraces the office of the President, so about seven times a day.  I see yet another article by some news outlet pondering the question of whether or not the Trump voter will now finally regret their decision to have voted for him.  The answer is and always will be no. 

                This question is analogous to asking if a habitual lottery ticket purchaser regrets the money they have wasted each time they don’t win the jackpot.  You can sit down every day with this person and go over the numbers.  You can show them that their odds of winning are miniscule.  You can show them how much money they could save every year and every decade if they just chose not to spending it on the lottery.  This will have no effect on their mindset or their behavior.  Someone who buys five dollars’ worth of lottery tickets twice a week will continue to do so in spite of your best logical arguments.  The fact that you have worked out the numbers and can show them the facts of these numbers will make no difference. 

                This is because playing the lottery fulfills one of the basest human needs that there is, it provides a sense of hope that allows the purchaser to continue to dream impossible dreams.  They say that prostitution is the world’s oldest profession.  If this is true, then in the waiting room of the first brothel someone started a numbers racket and everyone present bought a ticket.  This racket has been alive and well ever since and it isn’t going to end. 

You may be asking me what sense of hope Trump inspired that would have caused someone to cast their vote for him?  The answer is simple.  He said he would make America great, again.  I know that great is an ambiguous and manipulatable term just like patriotism, which can mean completely different things to each person, but this doesn’t change the fact that he hit a nerve.

 

                The people that felt America was no longer great don’t have to be completely bigoted, racist, misogynistic, homophobic pricks.  They just have to live with an underlying and daily sense of dread, real or imagined.  Though I will concede that a false sense of dread not tied to reality is much harder to overcome then one based on actual threats.  The majority of those who feel this sense of dread are not ignorant, openly racist rednecks.  They are the pseudo-educated, who hold certificates of education whose main purpose is the constant reminder of the debt burden they accumulated for such a privilege.  They are those that just signed for a loan on an overpriced house on the “right” side of the tracks.  Those who make $75,00 to $150,000 a year and still live paycheck to paycheck.  Those who do whatever it takes to get their children into charter schools and still feel that their kids won’t have it as good as they did.  Those who distrust and dislike law enforcement but still put blue lights out on their porch in solidarity because they believe that the alternative to militaristic law enforcement is to be overrun by those who are worse off than they are. 

                These people believe that the “system,” however they define it, is and has for a long time been rigged.  The reality of the situation is that they are right, for all the wrong reasons, and the reasons fucking matter.  Trump played to these fears and promised to be something different.  This is what jumpstarted his campaign for President.  He was able to win because he was the perfect storm of the American illusion.  Trump is the icon of modern extravagant wealth.  He’s a thin-skinned braggart that believes his wealth is the source of meaning and purpose in life.  He openly states that this wealth is a sign of his betterness and that he is therefore entitled to act as he pleases in all situations without fear of consequence or retribution.  Something he believes he is entitled to dole out to others on a daily basis. 

                This sales pitch is not new.  It has been the mantra of monarchs and depots throughout long course of human civilizations.  If you want a biblical reference for the same type of herd behavior look no further than the people of Israel beseeching God to provide them a king.  They perceived that they were surrounded by overwhelming threats both foreign and internal.  They willing gave their functioning form of tribal democracy for the presence of a strong leader.  In spite of the warnings by their own prophets of what type of destruction such a leader always does to their own people.  If you want to know the aftermath of this horrible decision read Kings and Chronicles. 

                Many of the people in the United States today feel those same pressures the tribes of Israel felt, and have turned to the same solution.  It is my opinion that much of this fear is real even if it is grossly misplaced.  The constant cycle of endless consumerism driven debt coupled with a digital permanent record of all financial and personal failings that can and do occur over a lifespan of seventy plus years.  Removes a sense of wellbeing from most individuals that is impossible to get back.  In a vain and misguided attempt to do so we elected a blowhard charlatan who promised greatness with even not knowing what the term meant. 

                I believe Trump as President will cause much great and irreversible damage to the once sovereign country of the United States.  He already has with his actions in the realm of foreign affairs.  This so-called, travel ban, just being the latest blow. 

                Our Statue of Liberty proudly proclaims, “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore, Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”  Yet, we as a people have forgotten that those masses are not supposed to remain forever tired, poor and wretched. 

                As the wealth gaps grows daily by leaps and bounds, between the wealthiest few and the rest of us.  The gap between those who are just getting by and those who aren’t closes just as rapidly.  This is the real terror that we should be waging a war on.  Yet we are giving up our freedoms that allowed for us to prosper together. In exchange for a false sense of security, which we will find out to late, is going to be our undoing. 

                The Trump voter can see all this happening but they will still never regret their choice in the ballot box.  This is because, just as the lottery player, they never truly expected to win.  They voted on the outside chance that something other than their worst fears would become reality.  When those fears and more, do become reality, which they will, those who voted for and still support Trump will recite the same tired excuses they were taught in place of an actual education.  It would have been worse if we elected the other one.