When I re-read Dead Memory last year, one of the bits which stuck with me was this: “if you could only learn to read the present, your memory might be of some use to you. Telling you what the future holds won’t help you. Change occurs when systems reach their breaking point, and then it’s too late.”
I feel like I can read the present, but the problem is processing what I know.
America and the world are really scary right now. Reflecting on my adult life, the last time things felt this scary was maybe the 2004 election, when it seemed like America would either evict Republicans from power, or lose democracy, and the first one didn’t happen. As it turned out, within two years things were falling apart for Republicans, but that now seems either illusory or a wasted opportunity, and now it looks like we have lost democracy after all.
This is all stuff that I have been writing for a while, I know. More and more I’m probably just posting here as an attempt to step back from the ritual and shouting which seems to obscure the present rather than read it.
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