At night the demons come play. Disguised as good ideas, pretending to help. The dawn is such a relief. Thank god I don’t have the bottle or a gun. Just this slow suicide: the interminable news feed. The comments, my comments. Their comments.
Dead sinners out of the sky, from the west these malicious spirits fly like birds. A great flock surround the house. They shake at the doors and windows, they want to rob me of my soul. Only the thin winter dawn, mother of pearl, glistening snow-covered lawns can save me every day, restoring rational thinking and hope.
In Irish and Scottish folklore, the Sluagh (Irish pronunciation: [sɫuə], Scottish Gaelic: [slˠ̪uaɣ], modern Irish spelling Slua, English: “horde, crowd”) are the spirits of the restless dead. Evil people who are welcome in neither heaven, hell nor the Otherworld, spurned by the Celtic deities and earth itself. Troublesome and destructive, they fly in groups, coming from the west, known to enter the house of a dying person ready to carry their soul away. West-facing windows should be kept closed to keep them out. The Sluagh carry souls they’ve kidnapped, holding them for all time.
2.
On the train, on the subway, at breakfast, lunch and dinner… on-line, off-line, across the world everyone has an opinion about Donald Trump. Conjecture, suspicion and ‘facts’ muddle our minds. Everyday he outrages some and delights others. He is shaking the tree as the people demanded. He is shaking the tree so hard. When the big rain comes it will afford us no cover. He roars into the man-made monsoon, tied to the mast. His people love it.
I know folk who hate him but what’s to do? There’s no self-examination, no Democratic autopsy. They are still convinced the Russians lost them the election. The genteel Democrats play gin rummy as if the parlor wasn’t burning down around them.
Oh, I’ve found myself loathing Obama this week. I can’t bear his smiling face. Appeasing the Republicans, remembering his first year pathetically chasing bi-partisan approval, wasting all that precious time. Never bloodying the nose of his opponent. Delighting the gays by making marriage equality easier and dancing with Ellen whilst he bombed the same seven countries whose refugees Trump has now signed executive orders to ignore.
There are simpering blog posts hankering after Obama. This isn’t one of them.
Last week our very own unelected default Prime Minister Theresa May made a dash ahead of all other world leaders to Philadelphia where she gushed ecstatically over xenophobic republicans at their winter retreat then to Washington where she met Donald Trump.
Very bloody pleased with herself… conceited and smug, the gym mistress thinks her team is winning the match. When will she realize no one else is playing? Most other Presidents, Prime Ministers, Kings and Queens are either biding their time or have cancelled their visit.
Trump holds Theresa’s hand as they negotiate a marble stair case, she wags her finger at him from across the podium smiling her snaggle toothed, coquettish smile… gently chiding her new fascist friend for his unpopular NATO plans.
Ignoring what the rest of us find impossible to ignore… Theresa May, in search of a mythical post Brexit trade deal (that may or may not include poisoned beef), offers up our very own Queen Elizabeth to Trump, including a full-on State visit. Mall, flags, banquets.
I have no sympathy for the Royal Family, our Queen Elizabeth is well-known for shaking the hand of any murderous dictator her government insist she meet. I mean, why wouldn’t she? It’s an amazing deal! Shake a few undesirable hands for a life time of state sponsored, guaranteed luxury for you and your extended family in perpetuity. The British are utterly corrupt. See us for who we truly are when we see the world through the prism of Donald Trump.
Like the Democrats here in the USA, the British must find and define a credible opposition. Something to interrupt this love affair the people are having with these simplistic right-wing leaders and their discredited ideology… and I don’t mean some wooly, middle ground centrist opposition… a charge against fascism needs to be convincing. If we fail to find somebody charismatic… May will win the next election and so will Trump. Both of them will sell whatever we have that is left of a good life to the super rich. Their base don’t care.
Trump and Brexit voters are hungry for chaos/intensity. They may not know what they want is inevitably chaotic. They have no clue they are jonesing for intensity. Yet, it’s not for nothing we have a reality TV star as President of the United States. He drives the narrative with cliff hangers, ticking clocks, drama and intrigue. Every day he delivers a perfect hit directly into the veins of the masses. If our opposition are unable to deliver an equally potent drug… they will not win.
The Democrats are not currently looking for anyone to lead a battle against Trump. For the time being corporate Democrats will keep their mouths shut. Paid to lose and acquiesce to the Republican establishment. We watched Obama defer to the same establishment for eight years and we didn’t complain. He was a nice guy, he could tell a killer joke and made funny and heartwarming videos in the oval office. We were content with marriage equality and Beyoncé.
This game of Monopoly is nearly at an end. One of us owns all the green houses and the red hotels. We throw the dice, we dread landing on anything that will make us even poorer but we know we are losing the game. The same player owns the utilities and the railroads… soon they will own me and all the other players. Owning everything means the game is at an end. Yet, there is no civillised end for this game of monopoly. The electorate is demanding radical change, as humans tend to do. It will lead inevitably to mass murder: whether it’s by imperial invaders or tribal slaughter or mechanised death camps, mass human death is an essential part of our human experience.
We will only benefit from the near extinction of humans.
After the great plague of 1666 humans in Europe enjoyed a better standard of living. The plague killed up to 80% of the population, those who survived organised themselves using established structures: they found and cultivated land, for the first time workers demanded good wages from employers and for nearly one hundred years the working class enjoyed a fair and equitable existence.
We are at a turning point. Some people are very angry. A world war or civil war may be in the offing. It’s what we do. It is cyclical, it is essential for the human race that millions must die.