Don't Blink

Challenging the status quo is ridiculously hard work.  There is a tremendous amount of inertia in a culture, holding all who operate in it within it's orbit.  The resistance comes in many forms - passive resistance, mockery, isolation and, ultimately, simple refusal to change.

As the challenger to the status quo, it's easy to eventually give into this. Who wants to keep dragging people, kicking and screaming towards a new outcome?  The effort involved is exhausting, especially if there are one or two saboteurs simply torpedoing every move you make.

That thought process, however, has no agency.  It's simply a fiction I tell myself to hide from my responsibility to be an agent of change.  The powerful story that I need to speak about has a strong element of personal ownership and accountability.  As Peter Block might ask, "To this very thing I am complaining about, what is my contribution?"

Is my story going to be one of giving in to the power of the collective comfort zone?  Or is there simply another path that exists that gives no quarter or concern to the existing culture, and, instead, charts my own path?

This requires continuous leaps of faith from me. Leaping when I'm not sure others are with me or that the circumstances are ready.  No one is really ever ready - you can only be prepared.  To not know whether something will work or not work is exactly the time when you should do it.

When you're at the precipice and are leaping, don't blink.

One Drink to Remember and Another to Forget

The 2016 election had all the makings of a status quo rejection.  From the primaries forward, voters were rejecting anything that even hinted at establishment.  There was common ground between Bernie and Trump as they both railed against free trade agreements, greedy corporations and the loss of US jobs.  Voters in several swing states simply didn't see Clinton as a change agent and gave Trump squeaky victories in enough of them to provide him with an electoral college win.

Flash forward and the agenda has been revised.  Gone is the Trump talk of 'draining the swamp' and bringing back jobs.  Replacing that is the standard conservative agenda - repealing the ACA, tax cuts for the rich and famous and more boondoggle for corporations.  That's before we get to the breathtaking audacity of refusing to confirm a presidential nominee to the Supreme Court for more than a year so that Trump gets to pick the replacement.

The impact that this will have on working-class Americans will be felt for decades.  The bait-and-switch conducted by the ultimate con-artist turned politician.  I think this gets really ugly, really fast.

Can't You See?

It feels very surreal to watch the Trump transition team begin to set in motion the destruction of the commons.  From education to HUD to medicare, Trump is aligning with the free market forces.  We may be on the verge of a privatization effort of epic proportions.

The working class has been hoodwinked by the establishment and just don't know it yet.