June 20, 2019
I don\’t know why Sleepy Joe called the Donald an existential threat. If I had to look up what Sleepy Joe was suggesting with this phrasing — YOU know that none of the Donald\’s supporters cared to look it up, AND, that 80% of the Donald\’s non-supporters didn\’t know what it meant either…
Fox News probably told its viewers that being an existential threat is a \”great\” thing, and, something that everyone should strive for! I\’m betting it sounds like some type of sexual enhancement to the Fox Zombie.
But just what does being an existential threat imply?
Coming from the philosophy of existentialism — the doctrine of existentialism suggests: the centering of analysis on individual existence in an unfathomable universe and the plight of the individual who must assume ultimate responsibility for acts of free will without any certain knowledge of what is right or wrong or good or bad. (I can only assume that Sleepy Joe was intimating that the Donald has greatly blurred the lines between good and bad and/or right and wrong?)
So, if this is what Sleepy Joe was getting at — why did he couch this sentiment in a term that is generally not meaningful to anyone outside of a college philosophy class?
But I\’m glad Sleepy Joe said it — because I have been having yet another bout with anomie — and for those college-educated readers who have forgotten the meaning of the concept (originally coined by Emile Durkheim in post-revolutionary France) — anomie means: social instability resulting from a breakdown of standards and values — also a personal unrest, alienation, and uncertainty that comes from a lack of purpose or ideals.
I thought everyday of this Summer would be filled with creativity and productivity — whether in writing, or composing, or surfing or gardening — but 30 months into the Donald\’s reign have left me uncertain — as anomie brings with it a sense of malaise…
Why do I want to do ANYTHING anymore when NOTHING makes sense?!
This does not intimate that I don\’t enjoy my home life — which I do immensely! But Trump World — and the immense obfuscations of empirical reality — make it very difficult to function with a sense of purpose.
God! What do I preach to my students?! Do I give them hope for a fruitful and productive future, or prepare them for the apocalypse, or both?
Am I way off base on this Trump shit? Is he truly revealing the essence of human nature (yet again)? Have the many years of word-play about democracy and equal rights been nothing but a pile of shit?? And while I never have been a fan of political correctness (it puts each of us \’at risk\’ for saying something wrong at the right time) — at least PC was an attempt to treat each other in civil and fair fashion.
I fear we are heading back to the Wild West — where we get to carry our 9mm and shoot whomever looks at us askance.
We musicians would like to think that nothing can disrupt our music: we put it out there and let it sail into the cosmos.
But even gardening has become a struggle (aside from my annual battle with the gophers). Why do I bother — global warming will cook everything I attempt to grow!
Shit, Joe — you are right — I am in existential crisis!! Sadly I can\’t blame it on the Donald — he is merely a reflection of what is ugly in humanity — like walking over dead bodies to reach the pinnacle of Everest…
It all reminds me of a caterpillar pillar…is there no hope for the flowers?