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A wise (self-proclaimed) old man is asking for help. The task at hand is to make sure our country's political mess resolves in the better of two possible directions with the November 2024 election.
Two other old guys are competing to be President of the United States for the next four years. One of them is not a good choice because he has repeatedly demonstrated and stated clearly that he doesn't like the place, our cherished "village." It doesn't make sense to hire somebody to take care of a place he doesn't like. And some of his supporters are barbarians who would burn it down.
The unqualified guy we'll call Chaos Man. Chaos by design is the last thing we need. This is especially a time for a steady hand (and one is available) because a couple other potential disasters loom just ahead. The first is the social explosion that's inevitable if the wealth inequality trends of the past forty years continue unabated. Disaster two is potentially the last disaster, the end of a climate that has been habitable since humans evolved as humans.
The wrong choice will set back efforts to survive both threats. If we choose wrong, count on eight years of movement in the wrong direction. Count on complete dismantling of every environment/energy initiative of the previous administration, reversal of those four years of progress, and then use of the federal government to move even farther back into the fossil fuel age. The inequality problem will only get worse because Chaos listens to those with the money, those who already have most of it ─ and want all of it.
The immediate task is to wake the sleepers, and make it clear to them that if they sleep through this election, they will be effectively making the wrong choice. They will help elect a chaos disaster. There is no escaping the responsibility to protect the interests of the grandkids and their grandkids, and their interests are at stake. The other part of the task is to talk to the neighbors. Listen to and converse with the fence-sitters. Coax them down on the right side of the fence, the side that does love this country and this habitat and will preserve it.
This is a rant...about billionaires, bad food, and oil. Hopefully you hear it in a tone that's a little softer than rant, more like something that would have come from Samuel Clemens, aka Mark Twain, or a modern commentator like a Jon Stewart. There is reason to be grumpy, but another grumpy, angry, voice blasting into our common space won't help. Hope the volume and tone when it reaches your ear is just right.
Attributing villainy is always a fraught endeavor, but recognizing bad behavior comes naturally. We know it when we see it. Intentional ignorance is one sin that is hard to forgive. This writer would award it a scarlet letter. But maybe just rewards is a less important task at this moment. The most urgent one is getting the election right.
This isn't a totally pessimistic, all is lost, book. There is reason for optimism. We have technology that can probably help us avoid worst-case climate catastrophe, and we can produce enough food so that everybody eats, and it can be better food. Enjoying life until age 100 will in the very near future be a reasonable plan. And we can make the deal a little fairer for the folks who are struggling now to just get by - and who will be in the streets with pitchforks if we get it wrong. This old guy is just asking for a little help.