Now comes a fresh entry into the Annals of Hubris and Delusion:
This too shall pass!
˜˜˜˜˜˜˜
Love, Grief & Rage
Towards the end of a week that included Earth Day, recognition of which was mostly obscured by the ongoing chaos and destruction emanating from Washington D.C., we relay the following communication from Extinction Rebellion:
Extinction Rebellion DC (XRDC) joined tens of thousands of people at the “Hands Off” rally in Washington, D.C. The rally was part of a nationwide day of protest, with more than 1,300 protests across the country. In D.C., while protesters directed their anger and outrage at the increasingly fascist tactics and policies of the Trump Administration, XRDC chose to focus on solemnity: mourning the loss of life and livelihoods that an extractive and exploitative capitalist-industrial system creates. The Mourning Rebels meandered silently through the crowds, holding space for grief.
Inspired by other rebels around the world, XRDC uses the Mourning Rebels as a recurring form of performance art to show that we reject the numbness of today’s society and bear witness to the loss – grieving in public to expose the violence, including the destruction of natural ecosystems, the exploitation of people and animals, and the loss of dignity in political discourse and social interactions. Mourning is a form of resistance that breaks the silence and rejects the lie that this destruction is normal.
“When those in power try to silence us, we rise louder”, explain rebels in D.C. “When they attack our communities, we fight back—together. Today was not just a protest; it was a call to defend our rights, our Constitution, and the planet we all share”.
While XRDC keeps focusing on its two main campaigns — stopping the investment in new methane infrastructure in DC and resisting the destruction of a forest for the expansion of a golf course — the Mourning Rebels will remain a recurring action. In the midst of rising violence and crackdowns on dissent, mourning is an expression of solidarity and community. And it is through this crucial process of grief, that we can cultivate meaningful action.
˜˜˜˜˜˜˜
Anti-Constitutional Escapism
Today, as a small group of extremist fanatics continues to attack the legal foundations of our Constitutional Republic, we serve to relay an excerpt from a recent post by the ever-vigilant Timothy Snyder.
˜˜˜˜˜
Our Sacred Honor
To rise up & speak up.
To pledge to each other our sacred honor.
To stand together against tyranny.
To redeem the soul of our nation.
˜˜˜˜˜˜˜
What A Relief
On this first day of April, amidst the ever-expanding chaos, we pause for a wee bit of happy news, forwarded to us by none other than the crown prince of Happiness Studies, Steven Pinker.
A study referenced today by the BBC appears to confirm, without even the slightest shadow of statistical doubt, that sleeping with an iPhone supports a “greater sensation of lasting happiness” than sleeping with a purring cat.
Indeed, those sleeping with their iPhone rank higher on an inflation-adjusted happiness scale than the good citizens of Finland, who rank #1 in happiness on the Global Happiness Scale.
Even a quick power nap with your iPhone is “likely to induce the required neurochemistry for happiness,” according to the peer-reviewed study.
On that note, back to the chaos.
˜˜˜˜˜˜˜
Of Politics & Morality
In the midst of an ongoing collapse of ethical, moral and legal constraints on dangerously unhinged totalitarian power, we are indebted to a longtime DP correspondent for reminding us of Vaclav Havel’s Summer Meditations, dating from 1992.
Two excerpts below:
[…]
Amidst the riptides of the present moment, a sentence worth repeating:
Only one battle can surely be lost: the one we give up.
˜˜˜˜˜˜
Climate Whiplash
Now come three graphs relayed from excellent recent reporting in the Guardian; the data used to create the graphs was provided by the global NGO, Water Aid.
Such extreme swings, like whiplash, have devastating consequences. From the Guardian report:
“The overall results of the new study are consistent with the most recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which found there were both regions with increases in heavy rains and others with increases in drought, as well as some regions with increases in both, said Prof Sonia Seneviratne, at ETH Zurich in Switzerland, coordinating lead author of the IPCC chapter on weather and climate extreme events.
“A few tenths of a degree warmer and the life we know becomes increasingly at risk due to climate extremes such as heatwaves, droughts, and heavy rainfall,” she said.”
First comes the whiplash; then comes the crash.
˜˜˜˜˜˜
Against the Voice of the Dictator
Now comes John K. Glenn, senior director at the International Forum for Democratic Studies at the National Endowment for Democracy, relayed from a recent substack post by Timothy Snyder, with all links active:
We need to renew the story of why freedom and democracy matter: not in the abstract but here and now and why it matters for the world we hope to build for our children. We cannot hope the facts will become obvious and naturally prevail. As one former policymaker put it recently, “democracy has become the incumbent in an age of anti-incumbency.” We need to show that what could be lost is vital.
People living in democracies are more secure, prosperous, and safe than those in unfree settings – and declines in freedom lead to declines in prosperity and security, and create a more dangerous world.
The evidence is clear:
Democracies are more secure: A large body of research supports the democratic peace axiom that democracies do not fight wars against each other. They are also less prone to civil war compared to autocracies because they are better at absorbing and channeling discontent through legal and institutional means.
Democracies are more prosperous: The link between freedom and well-being is well documented. Countries with greater freedom in 1995 tended to be more prosperous decades later. The reverse holds as well. Venezuela’s decline in freedom since 1999 under Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro has resulted in one of the steepest economic collapses in the world, rivaled only by Syria, Belarus, and Russia.
Democracies are safer: As Amartya Sen observed, there are “no famines in democracies,” because free societies are better equipped to make course corrections that dictatorships cannot. The Freedom and Prosperity Indexshows that democracies consistently outperform autocracies on all human development metrics, including health and education. Notably, this holds among low-income countries as well: democracies rank seventeen places higher than autocracies on the Human Development Index, with 25% lower infant mortality rates and children attending two additional years of school on average.
[…]
We must renew the positive story of democracy and its advantages, and we can do so humbly and with respect for cultural differences. We must elevate and support the vital voices of people around the world fighting for their freedoms and their rights. We must challenge authoritarian narratives and create new opportunities to work together in common cause.
We must make the case that when people around the world live in freedom, they can build more secure, more prosperous, and safer societies for themselves — making the world more secure, more prosperous, and safer for all of us.
New Reapers Will Arise
On this day when we, at least ostensibly, celebrate the birthday of George Washington, we bend an ear to the voice of Abraham Lincoln at the age of twenty eight, delivering an address at the Young Men’s Lyceum in Springfield, Illinois on January 27 1838.
A timely excerpt below, with emphasis added by DP.
Let us take these words to heart, as “highly dangerous” individuals who believe themselves to be outside the law or even more arrogantly, ABOVE the law, run amok in the city named after George Washington. Now is the time to stand together, united with each other, and frustrate their designs.
˜˜˜˜˜˜˜
Code Red
Wise and truthful words from Senator Angues King of Maine, words that nonetheless went unheeded on the day:
˜˜˜˜˜˜
Desperado Philosophy 