Saturation

Featured image by TheInvertedFan. Follow the link for more of this artist’s work.

I am unsure whether to write this post as a simple observation of where we are in our society, or as a grim warning for those who think that we can be pushed too far, or as a a miasmatic voice in the wilderness. It is likely that it will turn out to be a mixture of all three.

The American people are reaching their saturation point. The lockdowns that were promised to be only for a short while have spanned months. The relief that was being promised by the federal government has been jammed up by partisan bickering and election year politicking. The calm that was supposed to come when Biden was elected has vanished like a mirage in the desert as the loose coalition of disparate interest groups fractures and jockeys for power. Small businesses, just eking by on shoe string margins are being forced to close as the major corporations and favored industries of various politicians receive their exemptions. Cancel culture wears on, scraping away at all definitions in their infinite rage like a hurricane of politically correct BS. People post toxic and venomous things on their social media feeds to score brownie points within their echo chambers and dig in when any outside voice chimes in.

Most Americans, in my opinion, are tired. Tired of the lockdowns, the politics, the perpetual state of rage and fear. Most Americans don’t pay enough attention to the world outside their bubbles, their family and friend groups, and their communities. Problems existing on the other side of the country and around the world don’t have as much importance as the price of gas and milk, or the availability of household essentials or whether their job will exist tomorrow. Most Americans just want things to be over: Covid, the election, cancel culture… all of it. The uncertainty that all of it generates is not normal, but everywhere they hear that this is what life is like now, and that it will be years before we go back to “normal.”

In the meantime, multi-billion dollar corporations extract the wealth of communities and shuffle it around to diminish their tax burdens. Government officials sweep allegations of corruption aside, lobbyists push for things that will enrich their firms, industries, and companies while the American people flounder. And yet, the people sit and bicker amongst each other, dividing ourselves by gender (real or perceived), sex, age, race, religion, creed, ethnicity, origin, or whatever other BS metric we want to use as a scalpel to cause division and strife.

And maybe, just maybe, this is the journey through the wilderness that will purge our society of such deficiencies. We may very well need to fight this battle and deal with these demons in order for all of us to come together again and realize that the people aren’t the enemy, that our differences are a matter of how and not what, and that the real people benefitting are the ones pushing this strife so they can keep their hands on the levers of power and wealth.

The American people need to learn again that the government isn’t going to help you when times get tough, and that more often than not, they’ll screw things up. I’ve seen the joke floating around online: Socialism for the rich, rugged individualism for the poor. But maybe that’s exactly what we need, wealth and property that may not be as valuable as the riches of the wealthy, but that is private, and not dependent on the influence and power of the wealthy. If the rich only care about their material things, then so be it.

I spent about a year as a rental car sales agent. The company I worked for gussied up the title to make me a “Customer Service Representative,” but I was failing to meet sales goals, and so left because the alternative was to be fired. I came to the realization that this company, for all the emphasis they claimed to put on their customer service and relationship building, was primarily concerned with making money. The best agents routinely engaged in shady practices with little to no correction from management. I had told people, particularly when I was frustrated at not making my sales goals, that I would not stoop to that level. I would not sell my soul to make a buck. I suppose that means I would never be rich. And honestly, I don’t mind that. I’d rather be happy.

We forget that the rich will be least in heaven, that the love of money is the root of all evil, and that it’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter heaven. We’ve focused so much on money in this country, that it is our god. We worship it because it dominates our lives. We depend on it to keep the illusion of life afloat. Maybe, just maybe, less really is more. Because the more you have, the more you have to lose, and the more you have for someone else to take from you. The working folks of this country need to learn to be independent once again from the government, to stop expecting someone else to do something that they could do themselves. They need to accept no handouts or bailouts because they always come with strings, and be prepared once again for hard times.

And the American people need to say enough. Enough of the complaining, the whining, the bickering, the partisanship, the sensitivity, the tribalism. If you don’t like what someone says, then steer clear of them. Don’t make them shut up or be silent. Don’t stifle them or cancel them. Don’t ruin their lives. Because the moment you begin doing that, you invite reprisal. And that is really what we’re beginning to see. People saying enough, not because they don’t care, but because they’ve been pushed to the brink, and are tired, frustrated, and feel as if they have nothing left to lose.

They’ve hit their saturation point.