Everybody knows that the dice are loaded
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed
Everybody knows the war is over
Everybody knows the good guys lost
Everybody knows the fight was fixed
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich
That’s how it goes
Everybody knows
Thank you, Leonard Cohen…but maybe there are exceptions?
Up until a year ago, I had a real job and big travel plans—a full life, in other words. Now I don’t. What to do with this state of being called retirement? I’ve decided to write a lot and, in my spare time, save the world.
How to go about the ‘saving the world’ thing? I’m in my 80s—too late to earn, fake, or steal the zillions needed to buy myself a government. Too late to find an honest, or even dishonest, way to be elected president. Perhaps too late to take any steps toward avoiding what happened in my birth year, exactly 85 years ago. In case you’ve forgotten or never had a history class, 1939 was the year Hitler marched into Poland and WWII was declared—the last world-wide catastrophe requiring our “blood, toil, tears, and sweat.”
I could ‘hope and pray.’ Just look at how effective that praying thing has been among the world’s many religious followers—whether Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists; black, brown, or white—each of whom insists on killing many of the others, which ‘others’ simply depends on where power and greed are strongest at the moment.
So. Is there some other action I could try?
I have spent part of every day since that hell-ordained presidential inauguration of January 20, 2025 thinking about this—and here are my thoughts.
First of all, I must believe that the actions of ordinary everyday citizens can change the world for the better. And if I believe that, then it’s also necessary to believe that one insignificant individual can affect what happens in my world, in my country. And, if that is true, then no matter what my fellow humans do, I am duty-bound to act. Easier said than done…right?
Everybody knows that the boat is leaking
Everybody knows that the captain lied
Everybody got this broken feeling
Like their father or their dog just died
…
Everybody knows
Anyway, here are my actions, some further along in their development than others.
- Support responsible journalism. Nothing else will matter if we cannot know the truth of things. Right now, in the midst of so much misinformation, there’s also the truth (and, yes you can find out the difference). But here’s the thing: even if you know who the truth-tellers are, they must be supported, both with attention and with money. Whether an organization, like the Guardian or an individual reporter on Substack or their own site, there must be income. Meaning, you must pay for good journalism, just like you pay for every other single in the effing world.
- Boycott the products and services of bad people. We know who they are, or if not, it’s fairly easy to find out at least some of them. They’re the people who cave to whatever power threatens to take away one of their all-powerful freedoms to make more money… no matter who it hurts.
- Protest the bad people’s actions. They’re also easy to identify these days: they hate people different then them or who disagree with them or who threaten any bit of their power or wealth. By standing up in public and saying ‘I disagree with you’ or ‘you are loathsome creeps’ or ‘you cannot take away my constitutional or human rights,’ and letting them know we’re not fooled nor are we going to let them get away with it, we not only protect ourselves, we protect the vulnerable who are, usually with cause, afraid of them.
I’m not forgetting about voting but the tech bros are controlling ever more of our media, and who knows what magic they can work with actual ballots and voting machines in the future. Never forget what illiberal, money-driven, surprisingly wimpish people they have turned out to be. Between Bezos, Zuckerberg, Muskrat, Pichai, and others, they literally have enough money to privately fund the US military (buy and own, in other words. Crazy idea, yes? Probably. Hopefully.). They also have the resources to force us to communicate solely through the devices they provide. Listen, I know this sounds like the worst kind of conspiracy crap—and honestly, I have never ever been a conspiracy theorist—before. Just in case, don’t count on voting being enough.
Everybody knows, everybody knows
That’s how it goes
Everybody knows
Everybody knows, everybody knows
That’s how it goes
Everybody knows
MAYBE MAYBE MAYBE NOT?
See You ALL at the next one…