Memoir, from just outside the box
The Resistance
She said…
Good morning. You once said to me, “Greg doesn’t shop.” I thought of you when I watched the Functional Melancholic deliver his sermon on “The Joy of Less.” I thought of myself, too. I want less. I still have many times the equivalent of his four cheese graters.
I loved spending a summer in my pop-up tent trailer at the campground on Flathead Lake. I loved the seven months in my little motor home. Now I’m living in a fifth wheel on the coast of Oregon. Somewhere in my past, there is overkill, the closets and drawers and boxes that still haunt me… too much stuff.
He said…
You started with “The Joy of Less,” the Functional Melancholic’s 18-minute deadpan pep talk that I took personally. The Functional Melancholic is a singular guru, part social critic, part psychologist, part comedian.
The following is my reader's comment for “The Joy of Less.”
For six years I lived in a 12x12 cabin on the Blackfoot River in Montana. The privacy there was massive. Inside my asylum: bed, desk, wood stove… two bowls, two spoons, two forks… books, animal bones, fly rod, art reprints on postcards. In those days I explored from a distance the world of social and political intercourse. My credo: withdraw, observe, take notes. I filled my journals with quotations, cartoons and ravings. My mission: piece together a worldview. I'm 78 now and I’m still a minimalist. Years after I left the cabin and rejoined society as a self-employed carpenter, my sister confessed that she thought I might be the Unabomber.
This morning, I thought of you and your professional expertise when I read "How Narcissism Became Everyone's Obsession" by Amanda Marcotte (Salon). She had just seen the new HBO movie Mountainhead, which features four billionaire tech bros brainstorming in a mansion in Utah, a movie which she felt had a Dr. Strangelove level of absurdity," an absurdity that was "understated in its satire when compared to the ridiculousness of the Trump era." She noted "our current political misery" and "the ego-delusion that fuels so much of Silicon Valley's C-suites, as the tech industry enters its snake oil phase."
"That narcissists are evil is why their supporters love them."
The narcissist "is always the boss and always the victim, and everyone else is either the adoring audience or the reviled enemy."
"Social media puts the gloss of entertainment on the narcissist's bad behavior, a gloss that makes real cruelty and torture feel like a mere TV show."
Amanda Marcotte wonders if we, too, "are becoming so self-obsessed that we are losing touch with our humanity."
In the beginning, the purpose of my Substack site was to rewrite my published work, a one-last-time grand finale. Over the last year, the content has become more political and has been guided by one anchoring word: relevance. The overt challenge of the pathological Trump era awakened my political side, and for the last decade I have been keeping up, taking notes and sharing insights. This is the kind of energy that was missing in my college years... focus backed by a sense of mission.
In the background, there are three women who are contributing to the fight for "truth, justice and the American way." One has the blood of Balkan warriors in her veins and in her dreams; one is a Montana cowgirl who fights for the rights of bears and wolves and the majestic landscape; and one is a dry-witted left-wing activist whose husband is a cranky, dissolute MAGA cad.
These three women inspired the following response to Heather Cox Richardson’s recent post at “Letters from an American.”
TACO Don, a.k.a. Ku Klux Don, a.k.a. Don Pedo de Epstein "has declared his right to deploy the military against any protest of his illegal acts." His "intentional chaos" is in service to his "wet dream of declaring war on America." The protests in Los Angeles "have all been in response to ICE provocation." Trump's version of "The Little Dictator" is "hopelessly outmoded," as is his right-wing MAGANAZI Party, his white nationalist redneck lynch mob, his terminally lame cabinet members and his Bloated Bigot Bill. "Do not be cowed by Trump's and Stephen Miller's jackbooted theater."
She said…
I love it that we three women have been muses on your focused mission. One thing we know: people will fight for justice and freedom. That is the true mission of all Americans.
He said…
There is way too much WTF in this second Trump administration. When it comes to The Resistance, we must be more imaginative. I’m going to start a raffle. Buy a five-dollar ticket for a chance to…
Participate in a Ten-Minute Shouting Match with Trump’s Pet Nazi, Stephen Miller!
I found myself wondering what ChatGPT would say if we asked...
What are ten clever and creative ways to express our resistance to Donald Trump and MAGA?
She said…
Here you go. I don’t think Chat understands the gravity of the current moment."
He said…
I just read Chat's suggestions for the second time. Chat has laid out the soft response, an understanding of what the creative resistance has been doing for the last ten years, “using satire, art, activism, and culture to make a statement that is meaningful, nonviolent, and thought-provoking."
But what we are really looking for are the actions that thwart American fascism… and we need to engage in those actions RIGHT NOW, TODAY, IN THIS HOUR.
This morning I was at the computer at 5 AM. I clicked on the first article that appeared...
"Genocide Scholar Issues Dire Warning"
An early sign of impending genocide is... likening members of the ostracized class to animals, vermin, insects and disease.
I thought of Chat's suggestion #6: Reclaim the Language. I have co-opted one of Trump’s favorite words. For a while, I've had a character in mind, as yet undeveloped, who will make his first appearance at a large family's Thanksgiving table. Uncle Vermin is a smug, smooth-talking, thin-skinned MAGA sleazeball with a slight Southern accent.
Uncle Vermin: “I don’t appreciate you callin’ Trump’s cabinet a carnival of crayon eaters.”
Uncle Sam: “The only person Trump ever hired who was actually qualified to do their job was Stormy Daniels.”
I've already mentioned the word I created to replace "the Republican Party" which, from here on out, shall be known as... the MAGANAZI Party. We must not only reclaim the language, we must invent a new language... new words, phrases and narratives... clever and funny, with the sting of a bullwhip. When it comes to nicknames, Trump is Teflon Don. Still, today's nickname for Trump is... El Problemo Grande.
It is not easy to accept that fascism is actually happening here in America... that our descent into right-wing authoritarianism could be so rapid... that the institutions of democracy could be so weak… and that the orchestrator of it all is such an obvious and venal perversion of the American ideal.
She said…
We are about to find out if The Resistance to this MAGAlomania can muster the imagination and the courage to stop these smirking pricks, creeps and liars.
One of my friends said she is done making protest signs; she is going to reclaim the American flag.
We know what the problem is, Greg, offer some solutions!