The World Staggers

 The globe staggers as the strongest country, previously the strongest democracy in the world, flips to fascism and probably, given Trump's apparent preferences, a totalitarian state in the style of Hitler.  

This is a colossal, defining moment for all of human civilization--forever.  And yet, however, that forever is likely to be short.  

The instability and massive ego of our new dictator, a malignant narcissist, tends toward ceaseless spin and reckless vice, which is likely to spark sporadic travails, scourges and, yes, wars, such as Putin expanding into Poland.  And China going into Taiwan.   

General mayhem and chaos.  Power-grabs everwhere because the global police force led by the US is gone.  World War Three is likely and with it nuclear launch.

Trump, himself, our new dictator here in the USA is mainly interested in being worshipped, so perhaps he will not invade Mexico or Canada or seize Greenland (he has expressed interest in 'buying' it).  

Maybe this evil man is content to destroy the greatness of the USA and shrink it down to a theater of one:  A golden T, akin to the golden Calf of Baal,  constantly in the spotlight, with severe punishment for those who dare to challenge his authority and total control.  

In a sense, all Americans will soon live in the equivalent of a very abusive, violent household, where the police and military will be the abuser's fists.  And the abuser's voice will grate our ears, demeaning us along with the very fabric of country and culture, a suffusion of sickness from every angle of the media kingdom the dictator now controls.

A little segue.  I am grading papers, and may not write poems for a while.  (indeed, this may be my last semester ever grading papers, because the university has not as of yet offered me any classes next year).  But it isn't just about having no time due to grading--

I stagger.  The whole world staggers.  We knew the power of demagoguery.  Of hate and fear when wielded as psychological tools to turn masses of human beings into ignorant hordes.  But Trump, being so odious and disgusting, so generally awful, many of us, perhaps, still clung to some hope that the US citizen wouldn't be that gullible, so hate-bound,  and straight-up self-destructive.  So obsessed by the need to maintain the racism and sexim inveterate and essential to the US "caste system" (Wilkerson).

But no.  

And so ... 

Behold the Idiocy.  Behold the Darkness in the human soul. ugly and bared on full naked display.  The Orwellian gambit.  Hate is Love.  War is Peace.  Slavery is Freedom.  Let me add, Ignorance is Wisdom.

It likely now damns us, our concession to worship a man so vile and disgusting that political satirists lament he is impossible to caricature.  He is a living caricature.  A walking extreme of everything vicious and rotten with vanity and greed. 

Can those of us who resist survive? Can we choose the Light?  Lincoln talked of "better angels."   Will you surrender yours?  Will I mine?  

How will we find a way to preserve our own inner Light?  To keep love and compassion in our core, as Trump's henchman, Stephen Miller, beings the construction of the 'camps' that he has vowed to build across the country?  How will we keep our souls as immigrants and others--potentially people like me, seen as political enemies--are put in those camps?

There has to be a way, even in hell, to not bow down to to devil.  

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