Post-Trump
You see I’m in
such a hurry to get it over with I’m already speculating on what a post-Trump
age will look like. Philosophically speaking, because all that carnage he
eluded to in his inauguration speech will be the world post-Trump ie bad laws,
bad water, bad leaders, people afraid, hiding, stockpiling=all these
descriptions might actually apply to a Trump administration.
Some people are
coping by tuning out—ie avoiding the news, the Internet (which might be good
since Trump wants to rip it out: Dec 8, 2015 - Donald Trump has called for a
shutdown of the Internet in certain areas to stop the spread of terror. ... He
recommended a discussion with Bill Gates to shut off parts of the Internet.) I
have friends who range on the scale of Internet use from Neanderthal to Little
House on the Prairie. They simply have decided they’re going to have nothing to
do with Facebook, the news, the TV, radio . . . . and go live in the woods of
New Hampshire—where I’m sure they still can get the Internet.
In other words,
they’ve chosen not to be engaged. How does that really work?
That might work
for a certain generation ie retirees, snowbirds, the
super-rich preparing for total collapse in bunkers. But what about
Generation Z, the Millennials, the ones who are going to inherit the “carnage”?
If you were
born after 9/11 you are totally screwed.
What have you
got: fake news, fake facts, climate change deniers, post post modernism, aka
Post-Trump—a place beyond surreal, a place where you have to ask is that fact
true or not, is this reality, virtual, or something else? You actually tip your
hand that you are an oldster if you think there is such a thing as truth. That
measuring stick is long gone.
Even I’m
beginning to sound like Steve Bannon. Ugh!
I’d like to propose
a joyful resistance, the kind of engagement that rallies hope.
But, you may be
asking, isn’t that also a type of denial, of not living in reality (once we can
figure out whose reality). Listen, I
know we’ve all been let down. I can still vividly recall the utter betrayal,
the disappointment, the stages of grief I moved through (and am still working
on) when Hillary lost. She was supposed to win. Everyone told us she was going
to win. Or at least they told us Trump was going to lose.
The shocking
reversal has re-set the planet and told us that things/life/what’s happening
now is not what we thought. That the unbelievable (as in grotesque) can happen.
This is also post-Trump—questioning, everything.
I totally get
why Millennials have decided to go back and re-read Harry Potter, reach for the
familiar. Just don’t forget to be brave, to fight for what’s right, to stand up
for those weaker than you are, use your voice. We’re counting on you. Make memes.
Create art. Write that novel. Do stand-up comedy.
Here are some
links to art post-Trump, resistance and protest art that have popped up:
One of the best
examples of I’ve seen so far of art imitating life, in fact it was art and in
fact it was life, verbatim: An exact
transcript of Trump introducing Black History month, satire at McSweeneys.
And most
recently
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