The Colonel left the army and became an investigator for the Southern Pacific railroad. As he traveled for his work, he encountered the dying native worlds of the Pacific Southwest. He told me stories about the Indians he met, and about his days as a child in the 1800s in Indiana. His French wife was raised in wealth and luxury, then saw it all destroyed during the Great War.
So many worlds, gone.
I come from these workers and officers and communists and casualties and heroes. They existed. They had identities. Most were workers. That's an identity, too.
As for the other "elderly white man" running for president: I don't know Joe Biden. Our ideologies differ. But I'm guessing he has a story, too, and that we don't know all of it. And, while I'm all for pressuring the Democratic Party, it is worth noting that its highest-ranking official is a woman. Nancy Pelosi is the second-most powerful person in the United States and third in line to the presidency. Where did her story go?
I get it. It's alienating, even for me, to see the presidential race reduced to two elderly white men. I want a woman president, but I don't want Margaret Thatcher. I want younger people to take charge, but I don't want Paul Ryan in the Oval Office. It would be good to have a worker for president.
I'm not minimizing her pain, but when that woke writer proclaims that "I can finally go back to being bored by electoral politics," I can almost hear my late aunt saying, in a stage-dramatic voice,
"Come back to Earth! Hello!"
My aunt had reasons for calling me back. I was almost gone, all the way gone. Like I said, I'm not minimizing anyone's pain. Don't minimize mine.
Aging in a Time of Neoliberalism
I've got bad news, haters: Waiting for my generation to die is not a viable political option. Millions of us will still be voting in 11, 12, 15, 20 years, as we lose our last chances to save the planet and prevent economic collapse. This planet's chances may breathe their last before we do.
Do a lot of older voters fear change? Almost certainly. Some African-American voters surely share that fear. A lot of people in both groups are forced to operate without much economic margin of safety. The same is true of the disabled, at every age. And children are the least safe of all.
Here's something worth knowing about older voters: Theirs is a shrinking universe. They're clinging to what they've got. Sure, you can tell a retired waitress or seamstress, a 75-year-old woman who can barely stand up anymore, that she's one of the lucky ones. Maybe she gets $1,080 a month from Social Security to pay for rent, food, medications, transportation. Maybe she can wring a little joy out of the remainder, perhaps by calling the grandkids on a prepaid phone card or something.
Tap, tap. Is this thing on?
You can tell her she's lucky, but she won't hear you.
'Til Tuesday
Someone on social media brought up the analogy of the psychology experiments they've done with children, the ones where they can have a piece of candy now or wait an hour and get three pieces. The common interpretation is that the children are using deficient logic, because they can't time-shift their reward to make the maximally efficient decision. In today's world of predatory capitalism, however, the kids aren't wrong. They may not get the candy if they wait because, under neoliberalism, promises are made to be broken.
Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
1
