Given the dire situation of the country I feel compelled to organize my thoughts, expel my demons, and if failing at both, at least leave an account of these times. These journal entries began as Facebook posts. I had mostly refrained from any political commentary during the Biden years. After the inauguration I began to post quotations from various sources including Lincoln and Richard Rorty. Last week I spent about an hour laboring over a post on Jane Mayer's Dark Money. I then spent about an hour on the next post about my sense of isolation (I'm a very slow writer). Here are these first two posts. I expect more to come.
March 21, 2025:
Not sure entirely why, maybe it was the warmer weather, but for whatever reason I decided I had the strength to subject myself to Jane Mayer's 2016 book on the Koch brothers, Dark Money. I thought I already knew enough about the Kochs to skip Mayer's book. The oil moguls are infamous for their outsized influence on US politics, having almost single-handedly transformed libertarianism from the wacky fringe movement of the 60s to the architects of today's dystopian reality (with the help of Krasnov, it looks as though they can now transform government into a for-profit business). The Kochs, and the libertarian movement they've mobilized, have convinced average Americans that true freedom lies in handing over what little power we still have to the ultra-wealthy. Despite plenty of evidence that some institutions function better as public entities than private for-profit industries, Americans have nevertheless decided to allow the dismantling and privatization of these institutions, while abandoning any government project that might impinge on the oligarchs's interests: from healthcare to addressing climate change. Where Mayer's book is most helpful though is in seeing how ruthlessly and relentlessly they've pursued this goal, often to the point of delusion:
"...in one interview, David Koch suggested that if [climate change were] real, it would prove a boon. "The Earth will be able to support enormously more people because a far greater land area will be available to produce food," he argued. Charles's thinking was reflected in the company's in-house newsletter, which featured an article titled "Blowing Smoke." "Why are such unproven or false claims promoted?" it asked. Rather than fighting global warming, the newsletter suggested, mankind would be better off adapting to it. "Since we can't control Mother Nature, let's figure out how to get along with her changes," it advised. A similar line was subtly argued in the David H. Koch Hall of Human Origins at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in Washington, which opened in March 2010. The message of the exhibition, funded by his fortune, was that the human race had evolved for the better in response to previous environmental challenges and would adapt in the face of climate change, too. An interactive game suggested that if the climate on earth became intolerable, people might build "underground cities" and develop "short, compact bodies" or "curved spines" so that "moving around in tight spaces will be no problem."
March 26, 2025:
I think there are signs of growing political awareness on the left. I would like to contribute to this but for the most part I don't see how.
I lost a lot of friends on both the left and right after Trump's previous term. On the left some thought I was too much of a Bernie bro while I was too much of a centrist for others. Despite the contentiousness of those times at least there *were* discussions and debates happening. Now, thanks to FB options like "see less of this" there is almost no engagement at all, at least for me.
I don't follow right wing media, so I'm not sure what the environment looks like over there. I remember the run-up to the 2024 election, which was ominous. My neighborhood had many more Trump signs than Harris, about 3 to 1. Trump street demonstrations, including one guy just standing on the sidewalk recording himself carrying a large Trump sign, were plentiful. I think I saw one Harris demonstration. Not to mention the parade of flag-waving trucks or a large store selling Trump merchandise down the road from me. Oddest of all was a scene on the bus where a chatty guy in a maga hat started sniffing out other right-wing travelers and befriending them. During that short bus ride, about 20 minutes, he had gathered a group of a half-dozen or so...what? comrades? into one big maga party. The spirit of the age.
For being among the most important elections in US history it is amazing how seemingly apathetic the opposition was and is. There are signs that something like a political will is starting to wake up, but to what end? Are the important conversations happening that will steer and direct this nascent will? I fear that if the left does have an opening to act it will fall back into tried-and-failed past routines. I saw a post on reddit the other day where a guy was saying how he felt a deep sympathy with the causes of the left but shut out of the community. I feel mostly the same.
It is strange how open the right now seems to radical change or at least a devotion to their dear leader. I suspect this is because the oligarchs know that Trump is an ally and will not challenge their hold on power while the kinds of changes the left needs to make happen will challenge that power. There is also the possibility that the Democratic establishment really would rather have someone like Trump than Bernie.
