This post is a pointer to two opinion pieces.
Both are particularly worth reading in light of the re-election – as leader of “our” planet’s most powerful “democracy” – of an incorrigible liar, felon, bully, ignoramus, narcissist, jingoist, misogynist (probably, also a “sex offender”) and racist.
Just published by ABC News, Carrington Clarke’s is an immediate response to Donald Trump’s victory.
The October 2024 edition of The Monthly published Tim Winston’s more finely-crafted essay, which makes absolutely no direct reference to the American presidential election.
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From Carrington Clarke’s piece, published in the early evening of 6th November 2024, eastern Australian time:
None of these scandals seemed to impact his support. Perhaps the public doesn’t believe any of them were disqualifying. Perhaps they think other issues like the economy and immigration are more important.
Whatever the case may be, the American people know Donald Trump to a detail that is quite unprecedented. This isn’t a vote steeped in ignorance.
Click here for full article.
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From Tim Winton’s essay, published in conjunction with the release of Juice – his new novel, set in a climate-blighted future:
Imagine discovering that the way you live now – which is in hardship, under constant duress, contending with capricious, often deadly weather, living half the year underground, in temperatures routinely in the mid 50s – is the direct result of how your ancestors lived. What they gorged on, what they dumped into the air and water. That’d be galling enough, right? But what about when you discover that they knew it would happen to you all along, that this was no accident, no case of unforeseen consequences like Frankenstein’s little fuck-up. The miserable conditions of your existence, and your low life expectancy, these weren’t unavoidable. Your ancestors foresaw them. They had the data, the modelling, the ability to know in advance – for generations.
And here’s the bit that crucifies your spirit. They didn’t care. Well, they cared a bit – told themselves they did. Once a year, every Earth Day. But beyond that brief liturgical moment, not so much that they’d sacrifice a few luxuries or change the way they do business for the sake of your wellbeing. Not enough to bequeath you a life of modest decency and “private sufficiency”, as George Monbiot calls it. In short, they turned their faces from you. Spurned you. By their actions they declared that you were not their natural child.
What does it mean to learn your ancestors were monsters, that those who came before you committed atrocities on a scale unprecedented in human history, crimes against life itself? My God, how do you respond? How do you stay sane? And what would you do if someone then told you there’s a list of names, a catalogue of the chief perpetrators and profiteers? And – by the way – their clans and cartels are still alive, living in luxury, in strongholds hidden from the unsheltered masses? What if someone offered you the means and the training to find those gangster clans and root them out? In your fresh desolation and rage, truly, what would you do?
Click this to read the entire essay.
(photo of unhinged weather vane is copyright Doug Spencer. It was taken in a nearby service lane on 04 August 2024)
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