Listening

and accepting death.

From the cradle to the grave, millions of Americans know nothing but enslavement under capital’s dictatorship. ~William Murphy

I’m getting better at not taking the bait. I’m getting better at avoiding fence riding. I’m also getting better at looking at root causes. I’m getting better at looking directly into the eyes of the monster rather than get distracted by the absurdity of culture.

If we allowed ourselves to fully accept our own death, maybe we’d come to see reality as it actually is and, from that place, shift our experience of how we perceive life. Might be our best last chance because not much else seems to be working.

I wrote that. One thing we should all agree on is that we’re going to die. The great equalizer. Silence equals death was the slogan of Act Up during the AIDS crisis. Complacency breeds fascism could be a new slogan when people are ready.

The culture wars escalated yet again. Some dude I never heard of becomes yet another symbol of the cultural zeitgeist. All of a sudden everything is an existential threat again. And all the red blue opinions emerge from the tidal wave of yet another social media feeding frenzy. I honestly feel worse for the families of every other human shot and killed and condemn all the pseudo compassion and rage about Kirk as theater. How many children were murdered in Gaza and elsewhere since he died? How many other gruesome videos have been posted that have been ignored? PBS apparently had a segment about the traumatizing effects of the footage of Kirk’s shooting and how much it’s affecting children. What an insult to Palestinian parents who carry body parts of their babies through the decimated streets of Gaza screaming. What’s always been insane to me ever since I became semi-cognizant is how people consider one life more important than another. Why can’t this be the lesson? Why can’t people pivot to finding actual existential threats like the complete takeover of our hearts and minds by a real zeitgeist of bullshit? Totally warped.

In other news, young people in Nepal had enough and toppled their government. I don’t know enough about the whole situation but my friend Sonam is nervous and excited by the possibilities of change. He texted me throughout the process. Ryan Grim posted the following earlier and it’s worth a read. There are five pages in the dispatch by Rachin Kalakheti, posted on X. Nepal is a country with 30 million people and it’s good to know that people are still willing to do something about their situation rather than sending internet links to their algorithm posse.

On the flipside, there’s all the bypassing going on, the silent complicity. Statements like, “This conversation is making me uncomfortable,” or “Can we just talk about something else?” I wrote poem for these folks.

Complacency

Drive 4x4s in the city, shop at Whole Foods, buy Amazon

Listen to podcasts, binge-watch shows, discuss plots ad nauseum

Waste no time reading; drink nightly, eat gummies, vape; no sex

Bribe kids, reward them with sugar, turn them into tiny Trumps

Prefer comfort, avoid authentic discourse, talk shit; nothing political

Use Instagram, Facebook, X, ChatGTP, AI as main source for data

SSRIs benzos toys cars food vacations pickleball golf skiing

Yoga EMDR ayahuasca shrooms MDMA iboga pilates bucket lists

Correct others when don't agree with their tastes beliefs thoughts

Spawn lies, learn manipulation control hate contempt indignation

Believe everything, scoff at conspiracy theories, be agnostic

Eschew depth, embrace comfort, numbing, disassociation, addiction

Treat the world like a rental house, create chaos and clutter

Buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, consume, consume, consume, consume

Worship sports, celebrities, influencers, chefs and billionaires

Avoid conflict, avoid reality, seek comfort, avoid pain

Detach from mood, improve mood, stay awake, medicate to sleep

Run from feelings, point fingers, play the victim, blame and shame

Salty, sweet, processed, fried, salty, sweet, processed, fried, repeat

Wonkish, hedging, whataboutish, handwringing and pearl clutching

Be smug without saying anything of substance, loathe ideologues

Reject any coherent ideological framework but believe in science

Bicker over small differences but gripe over lack of nuance

Agree on big ticket items and celebrate consensus when all is well

Go on crusades to rid the world of new Hitlers to restore normality

Refuse to stand up for anything not mainstream acceptable

Legitimize what already exists whilst lip servicing for change

Assert all beings fundamentally equal from a place of privilege

Festishize commerce as rational, efficient method of governance

Obscure amorality and irrationality, tout free market as an ethos

Place wealthy and powerful on a pedestal as hard working apes

Condemn idigent as failures who deserve what they get; losers

Land acknowledgment not land back, critical race theory not reparations

Genocide colonialism manifest destiny pax americana murder, inc.

Look at me look at me look at me look at me look at me look at me

Look at me look at me look at me look at me look at me look at me.

I have to give a nod to Grace Blakeley who inspired the poem. I think her essay Is Liberalism Really Dead is worth a read. The final sentence in the piece is a hard pill for the blue team to swallow, “For as long as capitalism continues to exist, liberalism will limp on, forever metastasizing to justify the maintenance of the status quo.” It’s important that we confront the monster and find root causes for the existential dread so many of us are experiencing. I believe remedies and healing will flow more easily from there. As my now twenty-three year old son told me last night on his birthday, it might be time for people to shut the fuck up and listen. I was quieted by that statement. The revolution in Nepal was led by Gen Z after all.

When we arrive at a deeper understanding of our own death, allowing ourselves to fully experience the agonizing depths of despair, perhaps what is born is a yearning for fundamental change, a call to action.