Rage Against the Machine, But Don’t Take Us Out With It

Correcting humanity’s issues should not cost us the one place we have to live.

Photo by Tiago Aleixo on Unsplash

I sort of understand why Donald Trump was elected the first time. There were people so unhappy with the system of government with its career politicians that they were happy to throw a failed businessman and reality television personality into the mix. They wanted to see the chaos, and they wanted to see the system, as it stood, burn to the ground.

As a woman in the world, I get that. If I could light a match to the patriarchy, I would do it. If I could eliminate white supremacy, I would. But a single-minded desire for chaos for chaos’s sake is a problem.

Here’s what they weren’t seeing while they were watching him be completely inappropriate, undignified, and incompetent across a campaign trail filled with people saying everything and nothing at the same time: Electing an outlier can only be successful when that outlier is motivated to bring about positive change. The system absolutely needed a shock and a change. What it didn’t need was weaponized incompetence, nepotism, and hate.

Nothing that’s happened in either term is a surprise to those of us who were staunchly against his candidacy. We knew he was a predator before the Epstein files were released. We knew he was a con artist and failed businessman on many levels. We knew his success was based on wealth and nepotism and not on talent, competence, or hard work. We knew that he would burn the planet if it benefited him financially. We knew that he would take away the rights of women because he has no respect for any of us. We knew that this so-called experiment to the political system would fail because it failed to take into account the full ramifications.

Rage Against the Machine — But Not That One

It’s strange that people who were upset with the system would want to place someone in power whose entire success was proof that nepo-babies are still among us. Putting the billionaire class into power is head-scratching to say the least. They already have power through wealth, and their wealth eclipses their ability to understand everyday people with everyday problems. They cannot lead or represent us because they don’t even understand us.

How can we rage against the machine of politics but not against the machine of corporations and billionaires? How can we get angry at one system of oppression while actively enabling another? Make it make sense.

A truly revolutionary change would have been to elect an outlier to the political machine who would be motivated to feed the disadvantaged, correct systemic inequality, and overhaul our healthcare system to make it health-focused and not profit-focused. Electing someone like that would have been a great way to take down the system and rebuild something better in its place. What we did instead was make a terrible system far worse by placing into power someone who took away all the diplomacy and dignity that should come with that position.

The System Wasn’t Destroyed, Just the Only Planet We Have

My son often says that we can just move to Mars if we destroy Earth. Unfortunately, I think the world’s billionaires have the same reasoning as my 11-year-old with his fifth-grade education. I explain to him that Mars isn’t Earth, and even if they found a way to make it livable, it would only be live-able for the wealthy and ruling class. Of which we are not members.

I explain it like Titanic. First Class got a lifeboat. Everyone else was offered an ocean grave and far fewer chances for survival.

The Trump presidencies haven’t just rolled back women’s rights and reinstituted Jim Crow-era policies. It’s also harmed the only planet we have to live on. Don’t take my word for it. There is plenty of documentation on how this is impacting climate change and our overall environment, not just in the United States of America but worldwide.

[embed]One Year of Trump: How the US Reversed Climate Progress From climate research funding cuts to the rollback of environmental protections, here's how Donald Trump has reversed…earth.org

Let’s be real: The planet can survive without us. It would even thrive without human beings. But we can’t survive without it. Our lives are dependent on this world we’re treating like a trash can. The lives of our children and our children’s children and every generation after depend on this planet to breathe, to eat, and to exist.

How ridiculous is it that we treat this Earth as if it doesn’t matter? How crazy is it that we would choose instant gratification or convenience over our survival as a species? I sometimes wonder if people are actually short-sighted or if they’ve just chosen not to spend one of their valuable fucks on the planet we call home.

Got Rage? Try a Side of Revolutionary Love

I understand the rage at the political system. I do. I get wanting to burn it all down. But may I suggest pairing that useful and productive rage with a heaping helping of love? I can hate this ignorant administration and passionately love the Earth at the same time. I can strongly speak out against injustice while including environmental justice in the mix. I don’t have a lot of mental health spoons, but I do have plenty of spoons for the one environment we have to support life.

When the outside world is chaotic, I go to my garden. I give my worries to the dirt. I show faith in life on this planet with every seed I plant. I can’t take down a system on my own, but I can create a healthy habitat in this little corner I call my own, although I know ownership of the Earth is an illusion.

While the administration is bombing another country, I’m saving a spider. I’m creating food for the pollinators. I’m doing what I can to contribute to a better world. The impact isn’t the same, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t matter.

I also contact my representatives and hold them accountable. I vote in elections. I advocate loudly and proudly for my belief systems. I make a difference where I can.

Tomorrow, I’m picking blueberries to take to a local food bank. I am looking for ways to help my community. I am contributing to the positive news in a world inundated with the negative.

And I keep calling for other people to join me.

Sure, we can burn the system. Let’s just make sure we aren’t burning the Earth and everyone on it just to cause a little chaos. It might entertain a few, but it hurts far more than it entertains. We do need outliers, but we need them to be caring, compassionate, and competent, too. We need future-thinkers and not people filled with so much malice and avarice that they cannot think of others for a single moment of their lives. We need people who care more, not less.

We need more people who care.

So, I’ll keep writing about the world we’re burning because this is my home, too. I’ll keep tending to my little corner of it and calling it enough even though I know it falls far short. I will remember that it matters, and every single person who joins me in doing the same matters, too.

[embed]The Earth Ached, and So Did I I’ve always felt “too much.” Now I’m glad that’s true.medium.com

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