fAngus is tired of my bullshit.
I finished the first draft of my next CCB book two days ago. As of the end of today I’m on vacation for a whole glorious week. No deadlines, no work, no obligations, just fun reading and naps in the hammock and no schedules. We won’t be leaving our house alone, if you’re getting nefarious ideas: Ragnar and Minerva are far too old to allow that much doggie daycare.
I’ve been thinking about how privileged we are to take any sort of time off these days, even a low-cost vacation like the one we’re doing, where we’ll have usual groceries and stay in a cabin owned by family members. Gas is high, groceries are high. I’m a contractor, so I don’t have paid time off, much like many people in this country. I HAVE a job, unlike many more people in this country right now. That’s lucky as hell, and I know it. I saved and planned for a few months, carefully budgeting to be able to take a week without pay. I’m doing the same for a week in November, I do the same for any national holiday or other time off.
Earlier this week I had a work dinner with some folk from Denmark, and of course some of the discussion became comparison between social expectations, taxes, and governing. At one point, the topic rolled into talking about how university is free there, as is healthcare, but taxes are 55%. That got me thinking about democratic socialism and how this country’s current fearmongering is all about communism (which is NOT the same thing, nor is that even a thing right now, but those in power are scared and trying every bogeyman they can come up with).
I’m incredibly lucky that I live in a place that requires sick leave even for contractors, so if something happens I’m covered for a certain number of days. Many people aren’t. According to Heather Cox Richardson’s article, today is the anniversary of the signing of the Medicare and Medicaid bill, sixty years ago. Sixty years ago society in this country was full of people who believed the government exists to serve the country and people (of course it wasn’t everyone, and of course there were detractors, but it was enough of a majority to get things passed). The concept shouldn’t be revolutionary here, since it’s rather literally what America is based on: the revolutionary concept that the people’s government should serve them, not that the people serve the government as it did in the monarchy.
How the super-wealthy have managed to bamboozle so many middle class and poor people in this country into believing community and social responsibility for each other is bad is utterly beyond my comprehension. There’s a sickness of selfishness and pervasive base meanness that seems to be the worst extreme of individualism resulting in a disgusting, almost sociopathic refusal to consider anyone else’s humanity. It’s everywhere: in newspaper opinion letters and local politician articles, in community pages, in social media comments and posts, in every speech and press release by people who are supposed to be leading us. My time in corporate America has taught me a valuable lesson: when the CEO of a company is shitty, the culture of that company is shitty, too. Culture comes from the top, as example. Make of that what you will.
Humans aren’t meant to be completely individual and unsupported. When archaeologists and anthropologists study ancient societies and the progression of humans from animals to civilization, one of the hallmarks is healed wounds that would otherwise be fatal. Broken legs, for example, which would kill a person without support, but bear the marks of healing, suggesting the person with the break was fed and cared for until they were able to function again, show compassion, love, and community.
America is an incredibly wealthy country, yet we’re the only wealthy country who actively hates citizens out of some misplaced Puritan punishment-style values, and that’s just shameful. The way we take care of our own, especially those who need help, is downright offensive, because while the extreme right wing want to push nationalism, they don’t actually care about the nation or citizens at all. Anything that actually helps citizens is cut and funneled back into the pockets of the wealthy. I know that’s a cycle; I can see the cycle over and over in our own history, from the wealthy Southern oligarch plantations pre-Civil War to the railroad oligarchs around the turn of the last century, to the backlash against social programs of the 60’s by voting in Reagan, to rise of the tech-bro billionaires. Eventually I hope we can rise up and fix this mess, but the apathy of ALL of us who aren’t the billionaire “ruling” class need to stand up and be vocal and be insistent. This mess is going to take time and effort to fix.
Where is the power of the people of the 1960’s who had dreams of making our society better for everyone? We need that to come back, because apathy is terrifying, and so very disheartening. I know we can do better, and I know there is compassion and kindness. I’ve seen it, after 9/11, after massive floods and fires, after other disasters.
Communities matter, taking care of each other matters, and goddammit, a government who serves US with all of the social services for everyone who needs them matters. THAT is the hallmark of a civilized society, not fucking billionaires bilking all of our taxpayer money out of the treasury for themselves and their cronies. What the actual fuck.
So I’m going on my vacation that I saved and planned for, then I’m voting in my state’s primary two days after I get home. And I’ll vote again in November. Because enough is enough, and our voices matter. Society will be what we make it, but, like all things magic and mundane, we have to do the work to make it happen.
Then, I’ll have to get onto editing, and my time won’t be my own again for a while.
No Pithy Phrase 