I'm fairly new to Kos (that is, as a poster and not just a "lurker") and this is a first attempt at a diary entry. Please be kind!
What I've been noting among posters since the horror of 10/2 is the stages of grief all of us have been going through. It appears, at the 10 day mark, that we're all at different stages:
denial: the the "Kerry really won" / "voting fraud everywhere" group
anger: the "fuck the South" / "fuck the Liberal elite" / "fuck the gays" / "fuck Carville/Clinton/Trippi/Shrum ad infinitum" groups
fear: N.B. EK Ross missed this one. Having gone through two cancer-related deaths of loved ones over the past year as well as more than a dozen deaths of gay friends in the '80s and '90s I've learned that fear takes many forms in grief.
bargaining: all the talk about moving to the right and softening core values
depression: I just confess that I've been stuck at this stage since 9/11 and I can't afford to stay here anymore
acceptance: well I haven't seen a lot of this yet but maybe those of us who are at this stage aren't posting here at the moment.
More below the fold ...
A couple of asides ... for the most part I love seeing this very human reaction:
I love the deniers who cannot possibly believe that a majority of their countrymen could be so deluded/fearful/greedly/hateful to vote Bush in for a second term. You are full of such optimistic respect for the people of this country. It the true patriotism of the American spirit.
I love the anger of many of you (like JamesB3) who express outrage at the powerful: at those who have power on the Republican's side, on our side, and in the "objective" (laugh!) fourth estate and who have failed America. You are true believers in the Constitution and Bill of Rights. You believe this whole American experiment can work with the proper checks and balances in place. You are our true patriotic leaders!
I love the fearful -- and for the the whole multiplicity of reasons: those who are fearful for our exhausted troops already risking their lives every day in Iraq; for our 18- to 34-year-olds who might just be called to serve; for our gay and transgendered friends who were for the first time in this nation's history feeling themselves accepted as equals in this American fabric only to be demonized on November 2; for our Muslim countrymen who we all seem to refuse to understand; for our struggling families and individuals who have been hit hard by the economy and the cuts in support services; for those who are being perecuted for expressing their first amendment rights; for the victims of the fascistic Patriot Act. You all are all too aware of the banal sources of societal evil. You are the watchdogs we can't live without.
I can't say I love the bargaining stage, since this is a losing phase. I can commiserate with the depressed. And I'm jealous of those who've gotten to acceptance and have moved on ... although I'm getting there slowly.
What I can't stand are the people who become permanently stuck at one stage:
The deniers who become so obsessed that they turn themselves into vigilantes. They undermine the cause. (For comic relief, I always think of the comic vigilantes in the movie "After Hours")
The angry ones who turn their anger on the powerless, on those in an emotionally weakened state, or on their compatriots. These are the dividers that must be rooted out and ignored.
The fearful who abandon their compatriots or crawl into their shell and refuse to carry on the principled fight. Well frankly, I understand this impulse completely and "can't stand" may be too harsh a phrase for this group. But this as a permanent phase is poison for any movement. This is what "faith" and "hope" cures for the believer. Can't we have our own "faith" in our principles and "hope" that we will find a way to express them in a viscerally-effective way? "Faith" and "hope" can overcome fear. That's why the more simplistic religions are so successful: they understand this primal human defense mechanism.
The bargainers who think that if they compromise their beliefs or the beliefs of the party that they will win ... as if winning were the sole goal. These people tread water with a broken paddle and sap the energy of everyone around them.
The depressed. Always terrific to sap your own energy. This group is useless. [Hey I just called myself useless!] Change your medication, please!
We have to get to acceptance as quickly as possible and we have to move fast to form a strategy for getting our message understood on a visceral level. Intellectual arguments are worthless to the mass population. And we must develop a logistic network/infrastructure for diseminating this message and mobilizing the "faithful". We can't wait four years, or even two. It has to be done now!
How do we get this done?