How to Make Sense of an Insane World
I find a calm center - and it's hiding in plain sight
If you’re reading the news these days, and care about losing personal and legal rights that we Americans take for granted, you might feel overwhelmed with dismay. You can go on as usual, or you can think about it.
I’ve decided to try to make sense of it all so I’m studying it, as if for the final exam in grad school. I’m in a dream where I can’t find the exam room. Then I can’t find my car to go try another part of the campus. And now it’s getting dark. Total anxiety!
When you read the news, real life can feel like a roller coaster of raised and dashed hopes.
One instance of a dashed hope —
Some recently published library books on my desk, above, are about the world’s increasingly empowered women artists. Reading through them, I think we’re in a new wave of feminism. This is so heartening! - until I see headlines about our country’s new wave of misogyny and prejudice.
The reality is we’re drowning in the effects of unprincipled power, with reports of brutal wars abroad and cruel Republican policy at home. The media’s daily need for drama gives Trump free coverage and a platform for his influence, along with the false story that the economy under Biden is failing Americans and ruining the county.
“Stay tuned,” they say. It’s as if we the people need to carefully weigh the benefits of autocracy against democracy from now until the election.
Really? Where is this insanity taking us?
Something different, but as deeply puzzling, is the popular denigration of Joe Biden because of his age.
Despite his huge economic and social achievements, and his standing as a pro-American, pro-democracy world leader, the American press continues to belittle him. Even Stephen Colbert, who is all for democracy, uses Biden’s age for a laugh.
My purpose in this post is to get beyond the disorder that these things make me feel, to find some realistic hope for a way forward.
One of my library books led me to a clue. Siri Hustvedt recently said,
Since the Greek philosophers, feelings have been associated with the feminine.
Also, Alexander Nemerov wrote that in the 1950’s Helen Frankenthaler
created her painted sensations from her own feelings – the world she encountered was the world she felt.
But today, says Hustvedt,
We are in an anti-feminine, anti-feeling time.
I would add that feeling has to be disabled before atrocious acts can be carried out, and then tolerated. We see that happening now with men like Putin and Trump. Their idea of how to re-make the world and Biden’s, in the deepest human sense, is the difference between a selfish spirit and a generous one.
Katy Hessel’s book The Story of Art Without Men begins by saying that women artists have been left out of art history. The achievements and opinions of women are still often in the shadows of men, or invisible.
I’m realizing that what is missing in the news of war and cruelty, and in characterizing Biden as incompetent, is right here in plain sight. We just have to care enough to see it.
It is that President Biden’s running mate is Vice President Kamala Harris.
She has worked for the people for a long time, and felt for them.
Kamala Harris often visits hard-hit neighborhoods. "You have to see and smell and feel the circumstances of people to really understand them," she said.
Together, Biden and Harris represent a certain balance that the world needs. Early in 2021, a reporter wrote that
Vice President Harris will be a key partner in Biden’s administration. She often spoke alongside Biden at transition events, a constant presence by design, in a way past vice presidents have not been.
Biden and Harris share a balance of what in this post I have called the feminine principle of feeling for others, and what I call the masculine principle of re-ordering the world to fit an idea. They share it not only as a team, but each within themselves.
And I equate balance with health, either within a person or a relationship, or within a social system.
It’s okay with me that Harris is still being ignored at this point, out of the line of fire and going about our country’s business.
But she will need protection.
I agree with Stephanie's remarks.
Vote Dem Up and Down the ballot 2024!
Hang in there--we can win for all of us!!
YES! Thank you for bringing this to light. Well done. And the art/photos are excellent. Biden Harris 2024!