Last week was incredibly painful. I have never been to the US; I have no ties to the country. I know full well how much I don’t know about American politics. And so, being an outsider and having no special insight to offer, I tend to avoid commenting. But this is different. We are all affected by what happened. We are all hurt. The US is a huge force in the world, culturally as well as economically and politically. We are all now facing increased threat from climate change, war and terrorism as a direct result of this election. Racism has received a boost that will reach far beyond its borders. And women everywhere have lost the chance to see a woman in the White House.
I wrote a much, much longer post about this. But I had to cool down and not publish it. It relieved my feelings, but nobody needs to hear the thoughts of a frustrated white woman with absolutely no connection to America. All I will say is this: we all, everywhere, have to change the culture. And we have to face the brutal fact that “progress” is a lie… unless we actually, you know, progress. How many times have you heard the line, “Oh it sucks, but what are you gonna do, you just have to wait for the dinosaurs to die out.” Well. We see how that works. There is no great march of history, there is a pendulum, and it’s swinging backwards. It’s agonising to see humanity enter yet another stupid cycle. But it’s happening, and it will keep happening. Stop thinking slow, incremental change counts as success. It’s just the shifting of the tide. We need to do way more.
Woolly thoughts (and fuzzy logic) 