Talk is cheap, but actions speak for themselves.
I felt guilty, but I’m learning from it.
When I see friends straining to be rational with Kool-Aid fans who are convinced that the whole world of facts has become a lie that somehow combines billions of different people, sources and threads and was invented just to confuse them, rather than provide the Occam’s Razor answer (they’re just wrong), I reflect on the wisdom of Danny Partridge (or, you know, the writers of the Partridge Family series):
I refuse to engage in a duel of intelligence with an unarmed opponent.
To all those who whined: “Enjoy this Independence Day, it could be our last”:
What are you doing?
And to quote Jimmy Malone (played by Sean Connery, written by David Mamet, based on stories told by the real Eliot Ness): What are you willing to do?
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Sowing despair only breeds more thoughtfulness in those who overthink. We don’t need more of that, at least not until those overthinkers start acting on their thoughts. Beto O’Rourke: “Action is the antidote to despair.”
Being smart, being right, being sure? That’s not enough. Some people never listen to reason. Reason only works among reasonable people, and all too often that’s just preaching.
Encouraging action is one measure (especially for those who risk being fired for being too openly political).
Other:
- Assistance with voter registration;
- Volunteering at polling stations;
- Speak out on all issues and take action, because anyone who aspires to high office comes from somewhere. Hold all elected officials, all those in power, accountable;
- You’re actually running for office yourself. You think you can do better? Great. Then do it.
- Making noise and causing ‘good trouble’ at John Lewis.
BY the people. BY the people. FOR the people.
Something I learned last month while leading eight children in A Midsummer Night’s Dream: repetition.
Repeat. Repeat. Repeat….
It’s not enough to say “OK, guys, be quiet” once. That has an effective half-life of 13 seconds. Repeat it as needed, until the sun dies of the universe.
And here I am, beating the drum through the skin again, for Mike Judge’s “Idiocracy” from 2006:
“Most science fiction stories … predicted a more civilized and intelligent future. But as time went on, things seemed to be going in the opposite direction. A dumbing down. How could this happen?
“Evolution doesn’t necessarily reward intelligence. Since there were no natural enemies to thin the herd, it simply started rewarding those who reproduced the most, leaving the intelligent ones to become an endangered species.”
In 2006, it was funny and true. In 2024, it is painful and horrifyingly true.
A meme currently doing the rounds on social media – and therefore with a 99.99 percent probability of being false or even completely made up – suggests that the “ancient Greeks” elected their officials for only one year, then reviewed them and executed them if “any discrepancies” were found.
A quick summary: Greece is full of ancient sites, as it is considered the birthplace of democracy, not to mention Western civilization, literature, philosophy, science, mathematics… In southern Greece, what are believed to be the oldest remains of modern humans – 200,000 years old – were found in the Apidima Cave on the Mani Peninsula.
Some of the eras that pass through ancient Greece: Prehistoric/Stone Age, Cycladic Period, Minoan, Mycenaean, Dark Age, Classical, Golden Age, Hellenistic… and we are not even in the year of our Lord yet.
The forms of democracy that developed among the Greeks – mixed with Persians, Romans and the like – were often, but not always, direct. No electoral college. Just direct voting.
Right, if you were a man in your 20s (to vote) and 30s (to be elected) and not a woman or a slave or, you know, anything other than an old, white, land-owning man. Speaking of our Founding Fathers.
No doubt atrocities have been committed over time because: people. But I have seen no evidence of officers being fired for unbalanced accounts – Elvis knows that anyone who went to college with their first bank book wouldn’t be breathing air today – although there were obviously “tough punishments.”
That’s fine with me, as long as the time is commensurate with the offense. Accidentally overstayed, took home some quills for the kids, did a bit of petty elbow work to get a charity table in the Agora? Pay the fines, return the goods, maybe pick up trash along the Via Egnatia from one Olympics to the next.
Mass fraud, theft from the public, lies on a large scale?
“Hanging out,” I say, “hanging out is too good for the duck,” to quote the venerable Foghorn Leghorn, Esquire.
Given that there are still wards for pediatric cancer, I doubt the existence of a benevolent, omnipotent being. But in the unlikely event that The Power has invaded other galaxies, like Captain Marvel, I’d like to believe that they bless us, not just on the Fourth of July, and not just the United States, but all people who strive to cause good trouble.
But as I have learned, everyone from above does not expect you to just complain to him/her/them/it, but that you then…
Move your (dirty word for “butt” implied) and jam.
Courtesy of Rev. George Clinton.
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Stop the dry whining and take action to ensure that not just this election, but ALL elections – from dog catcher to school board to city council to gubernatorial to state legislators – are safe, reasonable and truly representative.
Whoever told you it would be easy was trying to sell you something. Dread Pirate Westley said one thing absolutely right: “Life IS pain, Your Highness.”
But perhaps, provided we stand for freedom, equality and justice for all, there will also be rhymes, promises kept, benevolent giants, respect for artists, deserved comebacks, lessons learned the hard way, chases, escapes, true love, miracles and maybe a mutton, lettuce and tomato sandwich if the mutton is nice and lean.
Not as you wish, but as you do.
Do the hard work. And be committed enough to cause enough trouble.
Mark Hughes Cobb is the editor of Tusk. He can be reached at [email protected].
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