A Gnawing Sense of Disconnection

I’ve been struggling over the last couple of weeks to know what to say, write, or even think about everything that’s happening socially and politically. I’m left with emotion.

The GOP has capitulated to their “strongman”. The Democratic party is failing to form effective modes of opposition. DOGE employees are running roughshod over multiple agencies with no accountability or oversight. Trump himself is starting trade wars and trying to humiliate President Zelensky (and only succeeding at humiliating America).

Meanwhile, the same forms of disconnection that have plagued American society don’t seem to be getting any better. Within Christianity, progressive Christians talk amongst themselves, moderate evangelicals bemoan the fascistic turn that the majority of evangelicals have taken, and Christian nationalists of all stripes look upon the rapid deterioration of “the administrative state” with glee. And the rest of the country not caught up in these internecine Christian battles looks on with confusion, disgust, and rage. We are all Yabushige from Shogun:

Somehow, it feels as if the people that need to talk are still not talking. I’m not talking about depolarization or some mealy-mouthed bipartisanship here. I mean people with vision being connected to people with means. It shouldn’t just be red-pilled billionaires who get to enact their will on the world.

I feel disconnected from all but my own immediate family and close friends. I sense disconnectedness in a number of ways. I know and trust that there is a lot of advocacy and activism happening. And while I see the phantom connections that need to be forged, at least in part, that vision isn’t yet clear. I’m clearly depressed.

Destruction is quick. Building things takes time. Time I fear we don’t have.