I was without television or internet for about a week after returning to Potlatch. During this time I got a lot done on the property – cutting, mowing, hauling rocks and grading the roads. It was a time to reflect and think about how most of us live today connected to the 24 hour news cycle and a virtual barrage of information on our digital devices and computers from friends, businesses, politicians and hustlers of all types.
When I did get reconnected with everyday life, I was taken back by all the negative stuff, bad news and awful carping that was still going on. Just a short time away was enough to help me see more clearly the posturing, fakery and disinformation in public life today. It was disheartening and demoralizing, especially the realization that the same behavior has increasingly come to characterize too many personal lives as well.
Our former president would be a clown if he did not play the maniacal Joker sowing discontent and preying on the fears of his followers. We have Republican governors callously risking the lives of their constituents for personal and political gain. Millions of Americans have refused to take the Covid vaccine because they have drunk the “cool-aid” of the Republican Right, conservative media and talk-radio celebrities posing as epidemiologists. White Supremacists march as boldly as the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s.
All of this and more hit me hard when after a short seven days I got back to the routine of contemporary life. Much of this is the Trump legacy. He managed to corrupt Republicans and call long latent malcontents to action, aided by social media and an irresponsible conservative media driven by profits and ideological nonsense.
I wonder what our parents and grandparents would think about America today.