Nuking the hurricane is almost the same as the Biblical sowing the whirlwind. A shift came about two decades ago, most commentators think, but they can't quite identify what caused the shift. Was it economics? Diminishing resources for too many people? The end of the half-century ago arrangements we made after WWII, the world too changed to use the same measures? Was it the internet? Was it the realization that climate change had already affected the planet?
Why did we lose our taste for an elegant careful thinker like Obama and instead go to a ridiculous mafia tin duck like Trump that even warrior Putin didn't recognize was half-mad and all-criminal? Someone noted that the Millennials have been adults for twenty years. The Boomers are entering senility. Is it that they were raised so differently? Did one enable the other?
A big black metaphorical dog has been lurking around my doorstep. He joins a wolf, but I'm not afraid of this wolf. In the early 1970's I was hard-pressed by the emotional depression dog, so I recognize him now that we're about to enter the 2000's, but I've spent a lot of time thinking about him and now I have a few defences. I'm not so pressed to be rational, to be a great success, to make room for narcissists. In fact, even my inability to handle fancy technical stuff is a protection. I don't "get" it.
This is Trump country. Pandora's box is only partly open for a lot of people -- they haven't gotten to the Hope on the bottom. Most people depend upon their families to save them and most of the time it works. But it's a tough economy and the standards set by advertising are high: a bathroom for every bedroom, a computer for every person, fitted kitchens and two-sink bathrooms. But no need for a lot of bookshelves.
People define religion via slogans for institutions which they recognize as forces in history but only the 19th century kind of institutions. They have been told about the people leaving the pews but not about the people leaving the pulpits. My own "affiliation" simply erases clergy who leave, never discovering why they went or where. I've thought about trying to form a newsletter or discussion group, but how can it be done if no one has a list of who and where they are? I don't think this sort of person is on Twitter; it's the congregations who are all on Facebook being surveilled.
It would be easy to withdraw into knitting or novels or costume dramas, but how can I? At our borders children are being emotionally mutilated, habituated to lockstep life, poorly fed, barely educated, away from parents and a familiar place. A percentage of kids already here and part of families are also being damaged, deserted, neglected. Violence and suicide rates are rising. But I don't get active in organizations that offer direct individual help. Why is that?
My temperament and education call me to stay apart and look deeper than counselling or food boxes. If I can't write a best-seller, maybe I can still form an insight. If I can't publish, at least I can blog.
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NOTES FROM AN ESSAY ON HOW TO SURVIVE
https://elemental.medium.com/why-calmness-can-be contagious-17d6c36f4012
Co-regulation
Self-settling
Self-talk
Humans are hardwired for connection. The brain relies on input from others — this includes unspoken input, like a gentle touch or a warm smile — to shape emotional and physical experiences. Whether people know it or not, they’re constantly borrowing from other people’s nervous systems and lending out their own.
Neuroception, an automatic process by which the nervous system detects cues of safety and danger, and triggers biological changes accordingly.
One possibility is the renowned neuroscientist Stephen Porges’ polyvagal theory. The concept hones in on the function of the vagus nerve, which wanders through the body starting from the brain stem (the part of the brain focused on survival, safety, and danger). According to the theory, the vagus, which influences the heart, lungs, and digestive tract, overlaps with a neural network that controls body language like eye contact and facial expression. So when someone smiles or sneers at us, we first experience it physically, then the vagus nerve sends a message to our brains, which tells us to feel either calm or safe.
Severe early childhood trauma creates a child with equally intense coping mechanisms— these children are often see as “mature for their age” & “old souls”. While maybe true, it often negates the fact that their innocence was taken away at an early age & they are in survival mode.
Survival mode becomes ingrained into their very psyche. They are most sensitive to the energy around them bc they are (subconsciously) assessing everything, always, because their life experiences have taught them that a threat can arise at any moment.
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So how will they vote? Will they be able to form systems and organizations that can deal with threats? Can they be sentimental or will they be too sentimental? I had not known until recently that "moral sentimentality" was discussable as a discipline, a school of thought. The idea is that what is good will be beautiful and loved, as a reliable guide.
One of my aunts, now gone, was a fine poet, published in magazines, admired for the sentiments which also guided her life. We didn't know then that her mother had been seized as an orphan in the streets of London and sent to America for service. This meant that the daughter, my poet aunt, had been taught that "good" was love and attachment and she lived with that as her guide. It was effective, except that dislocation threw her into depression until there was time to form new attachments. This must be alive in our whole society or we wouldn't be so passionate about PBS costume dramas. Authorities who offer safety, protection, and security appeal to this population. Is that what's going on?
Is that what gives us this terrible fascination with the old values of Empire, even in England where the Empire is lost except for the sentimentality, even in Russia where the USSR is lost except for sentimentality about the Tsar? Is that why we cocoon in our houses even though the wind has taken us far from Kansas? Seeds come from charming flower arrangements.
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