driving back down out of the Green Mountains last night, i found myself getting really mad at the radio.
namely, at "truthquake radio" on the local low-power legally-not-considered-a-pirate-radio-station.
in fairness to both host and caller, i stopped the station scan on this show because i knew it would make me mad. and i knew this because the caller was talking about "Sandy's artificial trajectory" and how it was "sent" right into downtown manhattan.
by the end of the call, the Gentleman Caller (himself also a host, for another show on the same station) had cited "Mama Nature's revenge on Wall Street" and his initial elation at Sandy sticking it to the Man by decimating northern Jersey Shore and New York City, as foretold, no joke, in the Book Of The Hopi.
the host felt obliged to point out that some poor people were also affected, citing "people living in beach community motels" and "renting beach houses for cheap in the off season." which are maybe marginally good points, if you're unaware of the existence or geographical position of Hoboken, Staten Island, Queens, Chinatown, and Brooklyn, where i'm pretty sure a few working class and poor people might live.
Gentleman Caller graciously conceded that, yes, those people living in beachside motels in Far Rockaway were also affected, and that wasn't fair, but in closing, reminded us that "Mama Nature doesn't discriminate," and that this is what we, as a species, could expect as "earth changes" begin, and "mother nature moves to re-establish equilibrium."
i was particularly primed to be mad at this, having just watched this explanation of how a violent, catastrophic return to a pre-anthropocene equilibrium is better than the best-case scenario, because at this point, we're rushing towards the threshold of never being able to have any sort of (even very warm) stable climate, ever again.
in the community health training i'm helping put together, we talk about handling emotional trauma, and how guilt and blame are coping mechanisms. when faced with a situation that's beyond our control, it's much easier to say "it's my fault. i was in control, but i screwed up." or "it's their fault. the situation was under control, but then they did the wrong thing."
because both blame and guilt rest on the reassuring fiction that We Are In Control. or failing that, "it's in god's hands," or "it's nature's way."
all of that is reassuring. there are rules, and a certain justice to those rules. but we move to re-complicate the narrative, because blame, guilt, or abdication of responsibility to a higher power are all temporary, protective coping mechanisms that will prevent their users from moving towards coherent plans of action.
and if we don't move towards some coherent plans, damn quick, then what will happen to "us" (U.S.) might be poetic justice. but it will happen to the rest of the world too. and i don't mean just humans. and that doesn't sound much like justice to me.
then Truthquake broke for a public service announcement. which was a message from "Architects and Engineers for 9-11 Truth."
Then some of the people who might have a hope of understanding the urgency of our situation got back to their magical thinking and their echo chamber, thanking each other for their problematic "insights," congratulating each other for seeing through the veil of smoke and mirrors.
Without ever looking at themselves, or asking what was burning.
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