“When Will the Darkness Begin to Lift?”

The old adage promises that “It’s always darkest before the dawn.” This sounds hopeful and all, but my pessimistic side can’t help but wonder how many shades darker does it have to get before we see a glimmer on the horizon? It seems that we are now perpetually trapped in the darkness of an Arctic winter, devoid of sunshine, devoid of hope.

The current GOP hegemony, fueled by the mean, Objectivist solipsism of Ayn Rand and openly advocated by its current crop of acolytes with names such as Tillerson, Ryan and Trump, continues to threaten all of the aspects of a common purpose and public good that was so painstakingly built in the post-Depression era, swapped for the selfish individualism of the modern conservative movement. Robert Reich, though I don’t always agree with all of his analyses, recently released a short video regarding Rand and her adherents. Take a look here.

When Donald Trump was elected, much to the shock of most who thought that there was no way that this was ever going to happen, we had an inkling as to what we were in for. But just an inkling, a rudimentary impression of what the near-term held for us. Very few had any real understanding just how dark the path upon which we were embarking would grow. But here we are now, over a year of trudging down the murky, rutted lane of the Trump Administration and the inky darkness continues to press upon us, threatening to extinguish the dimming light of the common good with the incessant barrage of deregulation, salaciousness, saber-rattling, growing proto-fascism and corporatism, burgeoning economic inequality and neoliberal influence, denial of a changing global climate, acts of mass public violence…the list is both exhaustive and exhausting.

What do we do? I have found myself staring into this depthless void, wondering how to combat it, how to fight it, how to wrap my head around the outright lies and obfuscation force-fed to us via the corporate media. Frankly, it’s soul-numbing and terrifying at the same time. Especially so when there are so many people who are cheering this further decline into national dysfunction and attacking those attempting to stand against it as being unpatriotic and anti-American. I have a difficult time watching as our civil liberties are being hauled out like so much refuse, the commons are being staked out by extractive industries in land-grab fashion from our distant past, the working poor and middle class being asked to constantly sacrifice more and more while corporate executives and shareholders reap the benefits of others’ labor, privatization runs rampant and so, so much more. When did it become anathema for us to want to take care of each other? When did the idea of the public good become worthy of derision? The last I checked, the concept of the General Welfare was still part of our Constitution.

I struggle to understand how these foundational beliefs of our republic have become targets for the conservative movement, earning heaping plates of tirade from the likes of Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Alex Jones, et al in the right wing media as well as public statements from GOP officials. The vitriolic pipeline flows both ways, of course, as those who continue to stand up for the Enlightenment ideals of our country have also doled out unkind, scathing broadsides. I’m definitely not advocating that we all just sit down, play nice and act like nothing untoward is occurring, but I think, in order to salvage some vestiges of our collective American soul, we need to try to understand where we stand and why. Another daunting task, I know.

Forgive my broad assertions, but we as a people are tragically inept at understanding those in opposition. We like to have our way and automatically have others agree with us and when that doesn’t happen, we devolve into the playground fights of our childhoods, hurling slanders, slurs, epithets and an occasional fist or rock or stick when things get really heated. Social media, website comment sections and other online locations, as we all know, have created for us an unlimited playground on which to fling our verbal volleys, unleashing invectives and insults that would earn us a bar of Lifebuoy if our mothers heard what we were saying or saw what we were typing. Until we develop a keen sense of self-knowledge, the ability to understand the motivations of others and the gift of self-censorship, we are doomed to continue stumbling down the dark, pock-marked path upon which we currently find our feet.

I struggle with this. It is so incredibly easy to deride someone who has been the beneficiary of one government welfare program who turns around and castigates the recipients of a program with which he or she doesn’t agree. The cognitive dissonance observed threatens to make my head explode. I’m sure my beliefs and things I say do the same to those who don’t agree with me. In a quickly fading past, it was okay to have differing beliefs and still be able to have a civil discussion. The fear-inducing darkness pressing in on us, the fear that I think the majority of Americans feel as tectonic shifts occur constantly, fueled in a large part by non-stop corporate media, has many of us in incessant fight mode, clouding our ability to slow down our reactions and think through what is really going on, pushing us to lash out when we perceive a slight against our side.

How much darker is it going to get until that faint glimmer on the horizon appears? Who knows? I fear the further erosion of our Constitutionally-granted rights as well as the smothering of the principles of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness that have for so long lit our path in the meantime. Have we ever been a perfect country? Absolutely not. Have we allowed abuses to happen? Far too often. Have we been a better country than we are right now? Most definitely. Let’s demand moving back in that direction. It is up to us. Let us continue to carry the light ourselves, no matter how exhausted we become, until the light of dawn begins to split the darkness.