I keep a list of topic ideas to write about. I write when the words need to come out of me, or, if my stash of writings is getting dangerously thin. I find myself in the later camp this afternoon. Topic 62 looks pretty appropriate for today seeing as Russia has just invaded the Ukraine: Sometimes there are no good choices.
No one wants conflict. No one wants instability. No one wants to let strongmen go unchallenged. No one wants refugees or a hot or a cold war. But what the heck do we do? Even more succinctly, what can or should I personally do? Should I write letters or have a sit-in? What position do I even advocate? I am not likely to time travel to try harder to affect the annexation of Crimea…even if I knew how to really do that. Do we move NATO troops? Do we rely on the increasingly less and less effective sanctions approach? Do we just go shopping or recreate prudently?
Social Security, Medicare, prescription drug prices, narcotics and other hard drug problems, wild fires and droughts and $30 trillion dollar debt? What about falling voter turnout and mask mandates and vaccinations? How many people have unfriended most of their friends by now? Drug resistant bacteria and electronic waste and rising wealth inequality? How to reform prisons and police forces? How do we get more women into senior management? Somedays my bravest action is simply getting out of bed.
Our economy is addicted to cheap money yet we have another month of “transitory” inflation that seems to go unchallenged? Maybe this time is different? Maybe if we simply never open our eyes fully it will all sort itself out.
There definitely are few if any good choices for much of anything if we all continue to cling to our tribe and refuse to acknowledge our lack of omnipotence or omniscience. Just keep changing the channel until we hear the truth that we can live with. Thank God, it isn’t my fault nor my responsibility!
What are we holding onto so steadfastly? What is error in our thinking? Is it just the inevitable extension of Botox injections, Brazilian butt lifts and McMansions? Where did we think all that fat was going to which was taken out of our yogurts and cookies and salad dressings?
We couldn’t imagine telling that fabulous young Russian skater that she could not compete because she had violated the drug policy, yet, how could we tell the Russians, I mean the Russian Olympic Committee, that we will just look the other way, this one last time? In this case we somehow managed to find the worst option, which I thought was likely to be as rare a bird as the best option. The existence of either seemingly violating laws of thermodynamics, yet we sure seemed to find a lose-lose-lose path in Beijing on the ice.
Maybe we can appease just this one last time, maybe we can have our fat-free cake and eat it too and not feel guilty. Maybe sanctions will actually work, maybe limited military conflict will not become this century’s Great War. Maybe if we simply insist that the Russian Military rebrand themselves the Russian Olympic Committee Gun Club it will all work itself out and we can continue in our inflexible belief that we (not the guy across the street) is omniscient and benevolent. Maybe changing Facebook’s name to Meta is all that we really needed to do?
