QAnon persists because people want a community. Without any longer having much of an idea what that might be, but elated by the experience of being involved with others. A familiar cul-de-sac, and for a very long time, in these United States.
From "Slouching Toward Bethlehem" (1967), Joan Didion:
"Of course the activists — not those whose thinking had become rigid, but those whose approach to revolution was imaginatively anarchic — had long ago grasped the reality which still eluded the press: we were seeing something important. We were seeing the desperate attempt of a handful of pathetically unequipped children to create a community in a social vacuum. Once we had seen these children, we could no longer overlook the vacuum, no longer pretend that the society’s atomization could be reversed. This was not a traditional generational rebellion. At some point between 1945 and 1967 we had somehow neglected to tell these children the rules of the game we happened to be playing. Maybe we had stopped believing in the rules ourselves, maybe we were having a failure of nerve about the game. Maybe there were just too few people around to do the telling. These were children who grew up cut loose from the web of cousins and great-aunts and family doctors and lifelong neighbors who had traditionally suggested and enforced the society’s values. They are children who have moved around a lot, San Jose, Chula Vista, here. They are less in rebellion against the society than ignorant of it, able only to feed back certain of its most publicized self-doubts, Vietnam, Saran-Wrap, diet pills, the Bomb."
1.) We worry that our kids might be killed in a school shooting and that the dis-interested government in D.C. is doing nothing about it.
2.) Childcare is insanely expensive. 5 years of childcare (daycare) costs more than the cost of a university education. In our case my wife and I have already spent nearly $80k USD in daycare costs.
3.) No universal healthcare. The first cause of bankruptcy in America is due to obscenely high healthcare bills.
4.) Deteriorating quality of education.
5.) The Covid vaccine isn't available for kids yet. I pray that the Delta variant doesn't find my kid. We're taking all the precautions. Wearing a mask, social distant, parents are vaccinated, etc. He could still get it and get seriously ill. As a parent, that really bothers me.
6.) Fascist insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan 6th. I worry that this country is speeding towards some form of political and economic collapse.
7.) We have to fund his university education. Somehow we need to save over $100k to pay for this meanwhile also saving for our retirement, meanwhile paying for daycare.
8.) Just to round it out my list, I'll include something about Climate Change. Globally and here in the U.S. we're failing tremendously at this. Maybe Europe is doing a better job, I don't know, but here in the U.S. we're doing awful. Everyday this past week I wake up and the air is hazy and smoky from wildfires in Canada. We're living through a drought. It just feels like an omen.
So yeah we're worried and for good reason. Things are bad and I don't see it getting any better soon. But as a Dad, you try and do what you can to improve one little thing at a time. I try to focus on making a positive change on my little block. That's all I can control at the moment.
QAnon persists because people want a community. Without any longer having much of an idea what that might be, but elated by the experience of being involved with others. A familiar cul-de-sac, and for a very long time, in these United States.
From "Slouching Toward Bethlehem" (1967), Joan Didion:
"Of course the activists — not those whose thinking had become rigid, but those whose approach to revolution was imaginatively anarchic — had long ago grasped the reality which still eluded the press: we were seeing something important. We were seeing the desperate attempt of a handful of pathetically unequipped children to create a community in a social vacuum. Once we had seen these children, we could no longer overlook the vacuum, no longer pretend that the society’s atomization could be reversed. This was not a traditional generational rebellion. At some point between 1945 and 1967 we had somehow neglected to tell these children the rules of the game we happened to be playing. Maybe we had stopped believing in the rules ourselves, maybe we were having a failure of nerve about the game. Maybe there were just too few people around to do the telling. These were children who grew up cut loose from the web of cousins and great-aunts and family doctors and lifelong neighbors who had traditionally suggested and enforced the society’s values. They are children who have moved around a lot, San Jose, Chula Vista, here. They are less in rebellion against the society than ignorant of it, able only to feed back certain of its most publicized self-doubts, Vietnam, Saran-Wrap, diet pills, the Bomb."
Why do American parents worry?
1.) We worry that our kids might be killed in a school shooting and that the dis-interested government in D.C. is doing nothing about it.
2.) Childcare is insanely expensive. 5 years of childcare (daycare) costs more than the cost of a university education. In our case my wife and I have already spent nearly $80k USD in daycare costs.
3.) No universal healthcare. The first cause of bankruptcy in America is due to obscenely high healthcare bills.
4.) Deteriorating quality of education.
5.) The Covid vaccine isn't available for kids yet. I pray that the Delta variant doesn't find my kid. We're taking all the precautions. Wearing a mask, social distant, parents are vaccinated, etc. He could still get it and get seriously ill. As a parent, that really bothers me.
6.) Fascist insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan 6th. I worry that this country is speeding towards some form of political and economic collapse.
7.) We have to fund his university education. Somehow we need to save over $100k to pay for this meanwhile also saving for our retirement, meanwhile paying for daycare.
8.) Just to round it out my list, I'll include something about Climate Change. Globally and here in the U.S. we're failing tremendously at this. Maybe Europe is doing a better job, I don't know, but here in the U.S. we're doing awful. Everyday this past week I wake up and the air is hazy and smoky from wildfires in Canada. We're living through a drought. It just feels like an omen.
So yeah we're worried and for good reason. Things are bad and I don't see it getting any better soon. But as a Dad, you try and do what you can to improve one little thing at a time. I try to focus on making a positive change on my little block. That's all I can control at the moment.
still catching up in newsletters. enjoyed this clip.