I’m about to ramble.
Last night I chose to do anything else besides watch the presidential debate.
Today, my twitter feed (which I use mostly for baseball shitposting and thus isn’t nearly as much of a leftist bubble as my feeds on other platforms) looks like this:
I don’t think I’ve ever seen such widespread doubt and derision of the legitimacy of our political system.
And, in the face of this collective moment of despair, I feel…hope?
In 2017, adrienne maree brown wrote “things are not getting worse, they are getting uncovered.” Those words are never far from my mind these days.
things are not getting worse, they are getting uncovered. we must hold each other tight and continue to pull back the veil.
-adrienne maree brown
Things are getting uncovered, and there is a precious gift in that clarity. Even for people who truly believe in the ability of politicians to save us, the cracks in the structure are glaringly obvious. And that presents opportunities.
Scrolling through Twitter this morning, I saw a portal opening to a world where honesty is allowed.
I saw glimmers of a space where people could openly discuss just how deeply ineffective this system has always been, how little protection it’s offered us, even at its best.
I saw the possibility of a cultural conversation about how we can divest from pathways toward progress that leave us constantly waiting on permission from a man in a suit.
A time when we could dream together about what we else could build if we were willing to call this whole thing unacceptable.
Either we utilize this moment to shatter illusions, build willingness, and get grounded…or we let it push us further into our nihilism and apathy, let it deepen our belief that nothing we do matters and we’re trapped on this ride.
To anyone considering the latter, there’s no judgment here. All I’ll say is that the only people who benefit from us acting as if dissociation is our only option are the crusty, genocidal men you watched onstage last night, and all their equally crusty, genocidal friends. I don’t know about you, but I do not want the way I live my life to be something they profit from.
The portal is open, and we have choices to make. How will you talk to your friends and family when they voice their lack of excitement for the election? What do you wish we were all thinking about right now? If you don’t like what you see happening, what would be better? What will you do with the anxious energy sitting in your chest?
Personally, I’m currently obsessed with the question of how to reach people who are trapped in, committed to the idea that there’s nothing they can do to help. So far, that’s looked like feverishly sending the nottoolateclimate.com website to everyone I see saying regular people can’t do anything to stop the planet from boiling us all alive. I hope to discover more eloquent, graceful means of pursuing that end.
I believe that some of the overwhelm and distress we feel is just pent-up fuel for change that we aren’t allowing ourselves to utilize. While getting involved will not save you from feeling fear, there is palpable relief in taking action. Being surrounded by others who are working towards a future you can actually be excited about will be the most cathartic, comforting experience you can access.
In his book They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us, Hanif Abdurraqib writes “I’m not as invested in things getting better as I am in things getting honest”. Any hope we have comes from us planting our feet into the truth of where we are at and what we need. And, while I see our world taking steps closer and closer to destruction, I also see its people taking steps nearer and nearer to honesty. And when I notice that, the air becomes thick with potential.
The portal is open and the choice is ours. What will you do?
I read Good Material by Dolly Alderton and it made me laugh out loud which is the absolute best thing a novel can do, imo.
The Right This Minute playlist that I’m supposed to keep up to date with the music I’m listening to currently got updated for the first time in months? I am once again re-committing to doing that more often.
Last week I ran the Week of Delight workshop and it was so beautiful and energizing and everything I hoped it would be. I made a playlist for the opening zoom room that everyone who joined loved and you can listen to it too!
Thank you Frankie. I plan to share this post with my networks, students, etc. I'm also a chaplain by vocation, and I admire the ways you are acknowledging the overwhelm and inviting folks to discern action, to see the clarity as an opportunity. I am brainstorming how I can support folks who are giving in to the "there's nothing I can do" overwhelm. One of the ways I'm inviting folks is to consider joining a local org. Even if they aren't ready to join the org, find local organizers who move people around alternatives to voting or find people organizing around practical needs. I'm an anarchist, so it's obvious to me to identify community roles and plug in locally, but it isn't always obvious to others unfortunately.