“hope” is a big word. I’ve mentioned my thoughts on it and just did an essay for the inthedarkness so not in the mood for another right now.
Some might say I’m naive. I know not everyone sees bullies in the same way, maybe I watched too much Popeye, and thought everyone in the world understood that the big dumb guy who threw his weight around was the bully and the bully is bad. And, if we good people just drew on our inner strength, we would defeat them. Until the next episode.
But, then, in the real world (and I see this outside CFI, face-to-face, IRL,…) someone says, that guy is a bully and the other guy needed to be bullied, and it’s good they got bullied. The Dalai Lama has taught me to not get angry at the person saying that but the sinking feeling that the world is messed up never goes away.
But it is not governments that are making and setting the rules, it is individual dictators with their own agenda, like Hitler, Putin, Kim JongUn, Mussolini.
These people do not care for people, all they want is power and treasure.
I don’t understand this question. With the contingency of “adversarial”, you cutting out anyone we are at way with, including economic type war. So, that’s not an ally.
Are you assuming there are two lists somewhere, allies and adversaries? And the rules don’t allow those lists to change?
But in this case, we didn’t even need go that far when the president of Columbia was being an adversary of America by refusing to accept the undocumented Columbians we’re trying to return. Trump was able to win by threatening tariffs and banning visas for Columbian officials.
Moving forward, I suggest we be less like Jon Snow in the Battle of the Bastards and more like Sansa.
For those who have never seen Game of Thrones, there’s an epic battle between two “bastards” (Jon Snow & Ramsey Bolton), the outcome of which carries enormous consequences for their world.
Sansa is Jon’s half-sister. And although they share the goal of defeating Ramsay and reclaiming their homeland, their plans differ significantly.
As archetypes, Jon represents traditional heroism and honor; Sansa embodies pragmatism and political maneuvering.
Despite Sansa’s warning that Jon not underestimate Ramsey’s cruelty and sadism, Jon falls right into Ramsey’s trap and almost loses the battle. All is not lost as Sansa, without Jon’s knowledge, seeks the aid of a vast army and wins the war at the last second.
Like Sansa, we must grow our agency and strategic prowess and see things pragmatically and clearly.
If we begin to see the orange satan’s taint as the abusive, sociopathic, narcissistic ex he is and Maga/the GOP et al. as the apologists and flying monkeys that they are, we will begin to see how them taking away things like funding for cancer or programs that feed children to “own the libs” is perfectly on brand. It will all start to make more sense.
But if we continue to be appalled, clutch our pearls, and stay in a tizzy because we can’t grasp or understand their stupidity or cruelty, we will continue to be shocked, outraged, and disoriented by their behavior. And that way of being does not serve us here right now. It serves them—It’s their goal.
We are empathetic, rational, and humane, so we assume everyone else is. But they’re not. They are Machiavellian. It’s a dog-eat-dog world for them. And whoever has the most power wins. Period.
Therefore, they cannot help but reserve their most vicious contempt, disdain, and rage for those who are kind (weak) because winning is the point. It’s the only point. For them, weakness is pathetic and must be destroyed at all costs.
Again, if we start to see him and his supporters for what they are, we can respond more calmly and intelligently and feel far less reactive. We can then use their stupidity and overt villainy against them. Even though you may not see it now, they are so comic book evil that they’re dumb; they’re predictable. They have so many tells that it’s like listening to a villain in a lousy movie go on and on about their plans.
So, believe me when I say there’s a way to overcome this, but it won’t be by refusing to be honest with ourselves and pragmatic about who we’re dealing with.
To repeat, let’s not be like Jon Snow, who foolishly underestimates his foe in the Battle of the Bastards and almost loses the war. Let’s be more like Sansa, who played the game expertly well because she understood exactly who she was dealing with