Game The Blame

It's all my fault. I'm sorry, truly I am.

…However, don't blame me, that would be horrible for you. Not as horrible as, say, blaming MAGA or Trump personally (or the Libs, same diff) for our collective woes, blaming them is a catastrophe of epic proportions. In fact, the only hope we have is for you to vociferously argue how it's all your fault. Of course, far be it from me to cast blame further than my own reflection.

You see, I have spent too much time zooming all the way out on life, the universe and the meaning of everything to parse out individuality anywhere at all. Once I started to accept my indivisibility from everything else I was compelled to act and think differently. Blaming anyone for anything outside of a court of law is simply a waste of time. Once I accepted my own culpability for whatever obstacle arose in my life, as it appeared before me, I could immediately begin to overcome the obstacle or seek another course based on what I had the power to do, not on who I was going to blame.

To be fair I am still new to my megalomaniacal world view but I do try. I still find myself doom scrolling and occasionally hurl objects at the wall whereupon my projector transmits the grim view of the outside world's unbridled descent into madness. Yet, I would consider myself in recovery from politics. I was way out there on politics too my friends. I worked the streets for 30 years using every two bit hustle to get those sigs, cash donations or contributions in kind If you know what I mean. From dirt in my teeth grassroots to Beverly Hills fundraisers and beyond. Still, the more seemingly ubiquitous the issue, the more divisive the politics surrounding it and the more dire and extreme the warnings from concerned CEO’s and pundits.

Remember how even talking about Universal Healthcare in the USA would cause Lenin to leap from his lounge to take a victory lap? Good news though, I can happily report that every crocodile tear drenched concern that kept any Fortune 500 dude up at night turned out to be ok after all. Remember the hand wringing by the private insurance companies as they bemoaned the passage of the Affordable Care Act? How is the insurance industry doing now over a decade later I wonder?

Every once and a while something brilliant slips through relatively quietly, like the “Obama phone” or Lifeline program. Of course putting internet access in the hands of millions of Americans made lots of sense considering how much of it had moved online by the time Obama took office.

Nevertheless, while inside the Obama White House an administration worked on practical apolitical solutions to the nation's problems outside the newly formed Tea Party movement formed in indignation over the supposed pending tyrannical liberal overreach that totally had nothing to do with the President's skin color.

What if all those tea-baggers, who never even got the joke of their name, had just spent that energy working on their own grassroots solutions in their hometowns instead? Oh what? They were all paid political activists you say? Well, never has a more blameless group of folks existed.

Bottom line, if there is not something you can do to address an issue it's still your fault for getting out of bed and therefore your RESPONSIBILITY to act accordingly in response to your own convictions and find a place where your actions can have an impact. Simply booing JD Vance everywhere he goes, while our sacred duty and hilarious, doesn't forgive us individually for the responsibility of letting the government of our country become the victim of a coup that was well planned and announced.

This country has always been a work in progress. I have been a vocal advocate and critic of policies both domestic and foreign many times over the years. Now I stand for, at the very least, a clear headed recognition of what is going on so we can give an accurate report to History. That's my lot I choose for myself as a writer and historian, but to each their own. And I don't believe everyone is obligated to be involved in politics or civil life in any way. I would request that my neighbors not vote or be politically active if you don't know what the Hell is actually going on in the real world beyond a TikTok feed. However, if you are trying to take responsibility for The Great Hack, in whatever way you can then please take heart in this; History is about movement forward in time of our collective story. Nobody ever made the news for going backwards, in fact, it's not even possible.