Old Black Friday

“The total opposition of world views between the elites and the people is going to explode.” Roger Hallem, Common Sense for the 21st Century. 

Black Friday. Let the games begin, the shopping and frenzied buying with maxed out credit cards and backpacks full of student loan debt, and the rent, always and finally, the rent. But do your part for the consumer engine and buy a new TV, iPad, toilet seat, latest iPhone, shirts, slippers, ties, underwear, socks, packs of condoms, cigarettes, wine, beer, spirits, hammers, cordless electric drills, cutlery, pots, pans, skillets, coffee makers, blenders, silk panties, leather belts, shoes by the dozen, buy and buy, consume and spend because the folks with ALL the money don’t play in a frenzy. They're sophisticated types, with money here and money there, wealth managers, CPA’s, hefty mortgages, they hoard their dough and wait for the financial winds to shift. Then there’s all the billionaires who can probably weather the storm no matter what. They’ve got fuck you type money. They’ve got the money to buy judges and politicians, to get an initiative placed on the ballot at their own cost, to buy companies for their offspring and private islands for their trophy wives.  Wealthy individuals and corporations hoard the big money, send it chasing its own tail, endlessly, until the inevitable happens, again. How bad this time, how much misery for how many people? The corporations buy-back their own stock to keep the stock prices propped up, and everyday like clockwork the corporate media reports that the market is up another 100 points, the economy is strong, and it’s nothing but high times in the big houses on the hill. And climate change is still far off…

The people down below know something is way out of whack, and they’re showing signs of waking up to the fact. Bolivia. Colombia. Ecuador. Iraq. Venezuela. Hong Kong. Climate activists like Greta Thunberg. Folks who hold membership in the ACLU. Folks who care about mass incarceration and the heinousness of Trump’s white nationalist border policies. Folks who know it’s not normal for a country to be at war somewhere on the planet all the time. Not normal at all. Not sustainable, either. Folks who are just stone tired of Donald J. Trump’s mug, his stupid expressions, his girth, his endless bullshit, his magnificent ignorance, and the sound of his fucking voice. That’s millions of people right there. Fed up enough to vote this time. 

People down below sense that the elites are nervous. That’s why we see so many strongmen types around the globe: Trump ( Note that Trump’s strongman status lies mostly in the tangle of thoughts inside his head.) Bolsonaro. Duterte. Putin. Modi. Xi Jinping. They’re preparing to hold on to power, most by whatever means necessary. The elites know the windows are going to get smashed and the fires burn and the blood run in the streets. It’s starting to happen. The cork’s coming out of the bottle at pace. Better prepare to duck. 

The people are like steam in the kettle, getting heated to a roil by the harshness and insecurity they face, the discrimination, prejudice, injustice, wealth inequality, shit jobs in shit conditions, decay and decline, poverty, and slow death. It’s not entirely their fault, and for the first time in years they see that the Ayn Rand-inspired fairy tale about economic winners and losers, free markets, hands-off government, privatization of everything possible, deserving individuals and parasitic masses, self-made by force of iron will and hard work, terribly hard work over many years, is starting to look like what it is: a con. They might not have a name for it, or any theory, they just know it’s unfair and not right. People know something’s not working, not right, and these people are sensible enough to know that blame cannot be laid solely at the feet of undeserving immigrants and criminally lazy black and brown people. The villains we face are in our midst, though most of us will likely never set eyes on them or know their names. Most are men, most are white, most, but not all, are older. Many pretend pious Christian faith. Many give money to foundations and charities and hospitals and symphonies and libraries. Good works for the little people while they continue the pillage of communities and the planet. 

Wow! That’s some heavy shit on a clear, cool afternoon in November. The yard is muddy from a couple of days of rain. The temperature is in the mid-50’s but feels cooler. It was in the low 40’s when I went to the dojo at 5:30 a.m. Only 10 people willing to roll out of bed at that hour and break a sweat. Went to Smart & Final for provisions. Took a nap. Read. Wrote this.