Hic Sunt Dracones

an0maly

an0maly

Well-Known Member
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65
I apologize to those who think I should not waste a thread on this, given there are likely others I could tag onto with what follows. I'm not seeing them. For purposes of my mental health, I and my significant other are cutting off most all news and commentary about domestic and foreign policy, and politics. I know many things will leak through, but I will try to manage that in specific ways.

One thing I don't care to deal with is, what happens now. I will read in this thread if others are handling this differently, or think I deserve criticism for this, which I will accept in a way.

I almost admire the courage to attempt to write ideas of what could happen. Personally, I have been thinking about the old semi-mythical notion of ancient maps of uncharted areas labeled Hic Sunt Dracones. We rocket into them now. No human being anywhere on planet Earth has any idea what will happen in the next four years (including, very, very, quite notably, Trump). Various experts have detected advancing dementia in his speech and behaviors, and quickly over even just recent weeks. I've seen the term in print and various friends and colleagues have used the term "stupid Hitler," but this is so inadequate. Blenderized in his head too: malignant narcissism, paranoia, and a revenge-driven-life with the dementia and outrageous stupidity. His Supreme Court has ruled, with circular completion, that what Trump does is legal because Trump does it. This will be called the dark web, 4 chan election, for its deluge of accepted disinformation, but I fear all predictions from people meaning well are no more connected to anything real.

We enter, hand in hand, the Here Be Dragons world. I need to place personal limitations on taking in the view.

"May you live in interesting times."
 
I get your concern and can't say a thing to reassure you except that it's been true every day of your life. It might not have looked this scary for this many to you before, although the 60s looked worse to me, but personally, professionally and emotionally, they are right around the corner for everybody. SOBs caught me a time or two. You just have to get up every day, try get through it and improve what you can when you can.
 
finesse said:
I get your concern and can't say a thing to reassure you except that it's been true every day of your life. It might not have looked this scary for this many to you before, although the 60s looked worse to me, but personally, professionally and emotionally, they are right around the corner for everybody. SOBs caught me a time or two. You just have to get up every day, try get through it and improve what you can when you can.
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Agreed. The world is always on the precipice. It's the hope that there will be just enough good people in power to keep the ship from capsizing that keeps me going.

I do believe, however, that we have reached a point where, as generations die out and new generations are born, people have forgotten the lessons of World War 2 (and the period surrounding) and are rapidly forgetting the lessons (positive and negative) of the Civil Rights Era. In their place, we are seeing a rise of ignorance and distrust in experts, alongside more efficient propaganda and increasingly powerful weapons, which can be used by people who don't have to see the consequences of the destruction they cause.

At the same time, maybe I've fooled myself, for most of life, in believing that good will prevail, and am only now fully understanding that all good can do is limit the power of the corrupt.
 
donbosco said:
Ya know I am aware that there was some sort of meme on this theme some months ago but I never took the time to find out what that was about.
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It's the moment that I realized just how fucked we are.

TLDR, it formed out of the masculinity/alpha male movement (and the marginalization of women) and is being used as a way to build the white power movement without appearing racist. It's taken over most of the European history groups on facebook, which were, at one point, at least somewhat intellectually driven. We are developing a generation of young men who believe that the lessons of the Roman Empire are that it was a period where men could be men - glorifying violence and physical strength (Miller/Snyder's 300), alongside no real desire to understand the senate/philosophy of that era. The belief instead, is that valuing diversity and challenging gender roles weakens society, whereas brute force makes society stronger.

And it's going to lead to a new era of empire expansion, which I'm very much afraid is one of the goals of Russia's relationship with the Trump administration.
 
Yea, I went through four years of reacting to everything Trump said and did, watching Rachel Maddow every night, doomscrolling twitter, listening to Pod Save America, etc. I'm sure he'll fuck up a lot of things, and then we'll have to get back to work.

I ain't doing that again. I've got more important things to do with my time here on earth.
 
sringwal said:
I do believe, however, that we have reached a point where, as generations die out and new generations are born, people have forgotten the lessons of World War 2 (and the period surrounding) and are rapidly forgetting the lessons (positive and negative) of the Civil Rights Era. In their place, we are seeing a rise of ignorance and distrust in experts, alongside more efficient propaganda and increasingly powerful weapons, which can be used by people who don't have to see the consequences of the destruction they cause.
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I made this very point to my first period class. It is also why I teach history and refuse to whitewash my content.
 
The worst part is that not only does it marginalize the event itself, but also the people who survived, against all odds, and were catalysts for change. It's why I don't love the phrase "those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it." They may well be doomed to repeat the mistakes, but history is about how we survived terrible times, and sought reformation, and not just the terrible times themselves.

It's also why I dislike the phrase "history is written by the winners." Historically, history has been written by those in power. And there are those in power on both the winning and losing sides of the equation. At the same time, the vast majority of people, on either side, winning and losing, have not gotten their stories shared. The best thing about the internet is that it has given voice to the voiceless. The worst thing about the internet is that the algorithms often keep those stories from being properly shared, the glut of current information can feel overwhelming, and people don't truly appreciate the value of seeking those stories out.
 
TarSpiel said:
Yea, I went through four years of reacting to everything Trump said and did, watching Rachel Maddow every night, doomscrolling twitter, listening to Pod Save America, etc. I'm sure he'll fuck up a lot of things, and then we'll have to get back to work.

I ain't doing that again. I've got more important things to do with my time here on earth.
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This is where I'm at. I've read more in the past two weeks than I have in the past two years. Good shit, I mean, not political shit. I plan to continue. Wasted too much time the last 8 years...
 
hedge said:
This is where I'm at. I've read more in the past two weeks than I have in the past two years. Good shit, I mean, not political shit. I plan to continue. Wasted too much time the last 8 years...
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The Prime catalogue on Kindle is like a woman's purse. There's a lot of stuff you don't want to see, but you can get lost in there forever.
 
@finesse mentioned the '60s above as something that he is looking back upon...I'm not that old but I do look back to the 1980s and the Reagan years as a time when resisting was kind of the essence of my own life and of many of my friends...many of whom remain so. There was also a good deal of art going down in those days that channeled those sentiments. This is the way of the world historically in some times and places...I think about Isherwood writing about pre-WWII Nazi Germany as well as the opposition to "The Establishment" during the 1960s. In the 1980s we stood against Reagan's policies almost 24-7 and that way of seeing was incorporated into our everyday lives in many ways.

The standard "Poo Poo" on such rememberings is that "...and you didn't accomplish squat." But one needs to remember that sometimes the results of resistance is not particularly 'knowable' in that when one stops bad things from happening -- well, they didn't go down, so there is basically no evidence, or at least very little, of success.

I don't know how this pertains to me these days but I have an 18 year old and I very much hope that resistance becomes a key component of her life moving forward.

@Wolfslayer -- I've thought often of what may become of the world once those that remember a World War are all gone...been thinking on that for years now.

@sringwal -- Thanks for the explanation. I can see it now. But more obvious to me is the glorification of the Norsemen. Perhaps that is what stands out most in my world.
 
Oh, for sure. It's all part of the same design. And it's cyclical, of course. (It's like the cycle of interest in vampires, werewolves, and zombies). It's Rome/gladiators, norseman, and vikings. And for awhile there, liberals were able to explore those, in television and film, as a way that promoted the value of diversity and explored the philosophies behind each. Right now, though, they are being co-opted by the right, who definitively do not understand each era, nor what history really is, and does. And it deeply concerns me.
 
an0maly said:
I apologize to those who think I should not waste a thread on this, given there are likely others I could tag onto with what follows. I'm not seeing them. For purposes of my mental health, I and my significant other are cutting off most all news and commentary about domestic and foreign policy, and politics. I know many things will leak through, but I will try to manage that in specific ways.

One thing I don't care to deal with is, what happens now. I will read in this thread if others are handling this differently, or think I deserve criticism for this, which I will accept in a way.

I almost admire the courage to attempt to write ideas of what could happen. Personally, I have been thinking about the old semi-mythical notion of ancient maps of uncharted areas labeled Hic Sunt Dracones. We rocket into them now. No human being anywhere on planet Earth has any idea what will happen in the next four years (including, very, very, quite notably, Trump). Various experts have detected advancing dementia in his speech and behaviors, and quickly over even just recent weeks. I've seen the term in print and various friends and colleagues have used the term "stupid Hitler," but this is so inadequate. Blenderized in his head too: malignant narcissism, paranoia, and a revenge-driven-life with the dementia and outrageous stupidity. His Supreme Court has ruled, with circular completion, that what Trump does is legal because Trump does it. This will be called the dark web, 4 chan election, for its deluge of accepted disinformation, but I fear all predictions from people meaning well are no more connected to anything real.

We enter, hand in hand, the Here Be Dragons world. I need to place personal limitations on taking in the view.

"May you live in interesting times."
Click to expand...
I’m with you. No criticism from me on this take. I am (and my wife too, for the most part) “… cutting off most all news and commentary about domestic and foreign policy, and politics…”

And yes, many things will “leak through” as you say, but they will be dealt with in my own mind accordingly.

Used watch some local news or cable news, maybe a little bit of MSNBC or CNN… some PBS News Hour, or listen to NPR News on the radio in the car… perhaps watch a Stephen Colbert monologue or John Stewart…

Now we’re avoiding any of that. I don’t even want to read Dr. Heather Cox Richardson anymore, and that was an every morning, first thing with coffee ritual.

I feel like the 1 or 2 year old baby who hides their eyes thinking that if they can’t see anything, then they can’t be seen either. A little bit of egocentrism at work in our house. Object permanence. If I can’t see it, then it can’t see me and therefore it doesn’t exist.
 
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