Are We Great Again Enough Yet?
Friday afternoon, I found out what kids today mean when they talk about wanting a "safe space." There I was, trying to finish up my work week, when I heard one of the lab technicians talking very loudly with the engineers about what a great thing it was that we'd bombed Syria, how the current administration was getting tough and not taking any nonsense, and what a great job they'd been doing so far. It took me half the evening to get myself back into the right headspace.
If you've followed my posts over on LiveJournal since the election, you know that I was pretty devastated by it. Not just by Trump and his minions themselves, but by the people who elected him. "My people," mostly - white, nominally Christian and "Midwestern" in attitude if not in point of origin. We have such people even here in California, although not enough to cause much mischief in the voting booth. Every time I hear this Trumpian nonsense spew out of them, it leaves me dazed and confused.
What is it going to take for people to snap out of whatever spell they're under? How bad do things have to get? I'm not sure I want to know the answer. In Kansas, Sam Brownback destroyed the state budget with trickle-down nonsense and still got reelected. That's the worst example I can think of, but similar things have happened in "red states" all over the country. A number of commentaries have been written - the most recent one I've seen coming from the New York Times - pointing out that the administration's policies will cause the most harm to the very people who voted for it. Will that be enough to turn the tide? I'm not holding my breath.
I'd already decided that there's no point in trying to argue with people on the subject. If I'm asked a question directly, I'll answer it honestly, but I'm not going to jump into the middle of anything. It takes me too long to formulate a good, coherent argument, and you just don't get that kind of time when you're facing a Make America Great Again hat (nor is there much interest in coherence). Besides, the problems that got us into this mess run way too deep to be solved by something as superficial as "winning." It's going to take at least a generation to clean up the mess that's being made and to get this country back on track, which is why I'm concentrating on writing my books instead.
As for the office, by a happy coincidence my work area is being moved in the near future, to a much quieter spot that's far away from where the engineers and lab technicians hang out. So maybe I'll get my "safe space" after all.
If you've followed my posts over on LiveJournal since the election, you know that I was pretty devastated by it. Not just by Trump and his minions themselves, but by the people who elected him. "My people," mostly - white, nominally Christian and "Midwestern" in attitude if not in point of origin. We have such people even here in California, although not enough to cause much mischief in the voting booth. Every time I hear this Trumpian nonsense spew out of them, it leaves me dazed and confused.
What is it going to take for people to snap out of whatever spell they're under? How bad do things have to get? I'm not sure I want to know the answer. In Kansas, Sam Brownback destroyed the state budget with trickle-down nonsense and still got reelected. That's the worst example I can think of, but similar things have happened in "red states" all over the country. A number of commentaries have been written - the most recent one I've seen coming from the New York Times - pointing out that the administration's policies will cause the most harm to the very people who voted for it. Will that be enough to turn the tide? I'm not holding my breath.
I'd already decided that there's no point in trying to argue with people on the subject. If I'm asked a question directly, I'll answer it honestly, but I'm not going to jump into the middle of anything. It takes me too long to formulate a good, coherent argument, and you just don't get that kind of time when you're facing a Make America Great Again hat (nor is there much interest in coherence). Besides, the problems that got us into this mess run way too deep to be solved by something as superficial as "winning." It's going to take at least a generation to clean up the mess that's being made and to get this country back on track, which is why I'm concentrating on writing my books instead.
As for the office, by a happy coincidence my work area is being moved in the near future, to a much quieter spot that's far away from where the engineers and lab technicians hang out. So maybe I'll get my "safe space" after all.
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