Just a happy thought on a gray day, while we watch the forces of dull competence fight a standing battle against the blind horde intent on tearing down our society so that they can root amongst its ruins. It is a “standing” battle, because our side is not trying to gain ground; this time, it will be enough to simply stem and hold back the tidal onslaught.
But, y’know . . . that’s okay too. I’m sure you’ve seen this bit, from the late and great Hunter S. Thompson, in his Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and his paean to the acid culture of mid-60’s California:
There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right, that we were winning . . .
And that, I think, was the handle – that sense of inevitable victory over the forces of Old and Evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we didn’t need that. Our energy would simply prevail. There was no point in fighting – on our side or theirs. We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave . . .
So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look West, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark – that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back.
Yeah.
I’ve always thought that Thompson was right about this, albeit just a little too prescient. And it wasn’t the acid culture that would bring us to the place we needed to be, it was always just going to be us. And it might take years and decades of useless, pointless suffering, and none of that useless suffering is laudable or to be admired, but eventually we would climb above the kind of stupidity we traditionally have chosen to inflict on ourselves.
This came to a kind of flashpoint for me, personally, years ago during the dark reign of Bush II. (Times may seem dark now, but let’s try to remember that they were so much worse back then.) I was meeting with clients of mine – a gay couple – to draft up some real estate documents and we started talking politics, and I hit that flashpoint:
I am so pissed off about what I see coming out of my government, and the people who control it. Listen guys . . . I’m a white, middle-class, middle-aged schmuck, and I’m the guy these people are targeting. And d’you wanna know what they’re targeting me with? Fear!
I’m supposed to be afraid of immigrants, I’m supposed to be afraid of black people, I’m supposed to be afraid of gay people, I’m supposed to be afraid of the poor, I’m supposed to be afraid of women, I’m supposed to be afraid that someone, somewhere, sometime, might somehow get something to which they’re not absolutely entitled, and I’m supposed to be afraid that this – in some way – is somehow going to hurt me.
Well, fuck these people! Fuck them. I’ve been around for a long time, and I have way too many friends who are gay, or who are black, or who are women, or who are immigrants, or who are a little down on their luck, and how dare these people – how dare they! – try to convince me that I’m supposed to be afraid of my friends? My friends!? Fuck these people.
A lot has been written, now, and for decades, about the inevitable demographic demise of the revanchist wing of the Republican party. A lot of it will probably prove to be correct . . . eventually. Until then, we will have to bear Cassandra’s burden, waiting to be proved right and watching the world suffer the indignities visited upon it by those not cursed with self-awareness and foresight.
And, of course, it could all still go horribly wrong. Every day people like us get up and don’t try to make this a better place, the day we are looking for gets pushed back another 24 hours. Engagement, commitment . . . these are still watchwords.
And, yet . . . I like to think that Thompson will eventually be vindicated, and that it won’t be by blood, or force, or violence, fuck no and thank you very much. It will be because – ultimately – our energy will simply prevail. Youth and Hope will eventually win out over the forces of Old and Spiteful.
So, on a rainy day here, I’m going to take a breath, get some breakfast, and face the day knowing that I’m still on the winning side.
And then I’m going out there again.
Salud!