What a day it was yesterday. For awhile I wondered whether our country was heading towards a civil war. But in the end
The Center Held
I almost never watch television, especially in the daytime, but Jon had been watching the noon news and then began to watch Congress begin the count of the electoral votes. I was eating a late lunch and began listening to the news coverage because I was curious about how the objections to the various states’ counts would play out. As I watched I saw events begin to unfold in our nation’s capital. And I could hardly believe what I was seeing.
At first all I could think of was Robert Heinlein’s “crazy years.”
The Crazy Years, in Heinlein’s timeline, were when rapid changes in technology, together with the disruption those changes caused in mores and economics, caused society to, well, go crazy. They ran from the last couple of decades of the 20th Century into the first couple of decades of the 21st.
— Glenn Reynolds
I was in shock as I watched the capital police completely outnumbered by the angry crowds. This was a kind of reality TV I could never have imagined. Thankfully the riot was quelled (yes it was a riot, angry destructive, and disrespectful of our democracy). The end result ironically was that President elect Joe Biden’s win was confirmed more quickly than he might have been had the process not been so violently interrupted.
“You can sway a thousand men by appealing to their prejudices quicker than you can convince one man by logic.”
― Revolt in 2100/Methuselah’s Children
There are cracks in our democracy
The shock that I heard and saw yesterday from commentators, senators, and representatives was hopefully a wake-up call. There are consequences to not confronting lies and conspiracy theories. The rush to blame President Trump for everything that occurred is interesting. Yes, he lied and lied and lied. And he pumped up the crowd and aimed them at the Capital. But there were so many others who aided and abetted Trump’s lies. And there were countless angry people who embraced and believed the lies despite a complete lack of evidence.
“Social responsibility above the level of family, or at most of tribe, requires imagination– devotion, loyalty, all the higher virtues — which a man must develop himself; if he has them forced down him, he will vomit them out.”
― Starship Troopers
What does this mean for the future of our country? How will the massive numbers of people who believe that the election was stolen from Trump respond to President-elect Biden’s inauguration? My deepest hope is that we may use what happened yesterday as an inflection point and turn towards saner more compassionate governing.
“Democracy is a poor system of government at best; the only thing that can honestly be said in its favor is that it is eight times as good as any other method the human race has ever tried.”
― Stranger in a Strange Land
No one knows what will happen. Will we (our country and the world) mature and grow into a more sustainable, equitable, compassionate way of being? Or will we self-destruct? All any of us can do is the next right thing, working in whatever small ways we can towards a more just and compassionate society.
Back to creating
While pundits probably fill the airwaves with prognostications today, I return to wrestling with what I want my flower photography project to become. I keep looking, imagining, and experimenting. And so far I have far more failures (like the one below) than successes.
What will you create today?
May you walk in beauty.
I woke up this morning to the sound of chainsaws. It seems that the city decided to cut off the parts of the tree that fell in the pond last summer that were above the ice. As much as that downed tree was an eyesore I will miss it.
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