And a mirror for all of us to grapple with. Introspection is necessary.
What struck me immediately was a recognition that in some ways I've become the man with the laptop bag. Towards "them". Where tolerance, acceptance, and inclusivity have always lived in my heart there now exists a tiny corner. A corner that judges those that I assume are part of the cruel cult that's enabled this new reality. I don't want to acknowledge these people. My repulsion is tangible. There's a loss of trust that feels foreign within my consciousness. Shameful even. Not something I can embrace but feel stuck with nonetheless.
I've no idea how to reconcile these emotions in my heart. I don't think I'm the only one.
Perhaps, it's in acknowledging the motivation of cruelty that we learn to shun the perpetrators. Yet, embracing internal resentment or judgement isn't easy for the openhearted. There's a tangible disconnect between who we are and how we must now live. What we must continue to witness. Feel ourselves harden despite our otherwise conciliatory natures.
I am encouraged by the (global) community we share that protects, embraces, and uplifts our inherent humanity, even while summoning disgust and occasional hostility toward those that would harm all of existence. All of creation. But I fear this challenge is changing all of us. Subtly, but surely.
If we can't co-exist harmoniously with each other and the environment, then what? Co-exit? (Mars??? Pfft - If we don't take it (humility/reverence) there, we won't find it there either).
Like the hundredth monkey theory, I think we need to continue to transform our disgust into advocacy. Each for the other, without accusation. A kinder, louder voice for all freedoms and rights as keepers of each other and a sustainable planet. You're guiding us on this intellectual and spiritual journey , Johnny. You're a model as to how to transform our purpose, how to truly understand the mission. Monkeys everywhere are listening, learning, and coordinating the message. We will be enough. For ourselves, for each other, for the children.
Thank you for paving the road that leads to adopting a kinder and more sustainable pathway to peace.
Thank you for this deeply honest reflection. That moment you name,the one where you recognize the quiet hardening in yourself is the one we all feel, I think, if we’re paying attention. The man with the laptop bag becomes a kind of internal metaphor: not just someone else’s indifference, but our own. Our own withdrawal. Our own quiet judgment.
And yes, it feels shameful. Because those of us who have tried to live with open hearts now find ourselves brushing up against the limits of that openness. We’ve seen too much, perhaps. We’ve watched decency mocked and cruelty rewarded, and some part of us begins to build a small wall,not out of hatred, but out of exhaustion. Out of grief.
What you name so clearly is the tension,how do we hold both the disgust and the compassion? How do we reject what’s being done without becoming like those doing it? These are not rhetorical questions. They are spiritual ones. They are ethical ones. They are, quite literally, the work.
The truth is, the cruelty is changing us. But awareness of that change—naming it, resisting its pull, choosing again and again to rehumanize instead of dehumanize,that’s where the hope lives. That’s where the path diverges. That’s where something different becomes possible.
You’re right,if we don’t carry reverence there, we won’t find it there. Whether “there” is Mars or Monday morning. Whether it’s the next election or the next time we catch ourselves pulling away from someone we assume is lost to the cult.
So we do the work. We turn disgust into clarity, and clarity into action. Without accusation, as you say. With tenderness. With ferocity. With the knowledge that the fight for kindness is never sentimental. It’s survival.
And in that sense, yes,the monkeys are watching. And maybe, just maybe, enough of us are learning to choose the harder thing. Thank you for naming what so many of us feel. We’re all carrying pieces of it. We’re all trying to stay human. Together.
Extraordinary piece exceptionally written. — both of which are also America. We will take her extraordinary and exceptionalism back in all of its diversity and love.
This feels so true Tom. Reading from Aotearoa New Zealand but feeling the resonances here too. And the ubiquity of that need to dominate—the way it is micro-learned through the systems and institutions that we are governed by and immersed in—is what we need to attend to. Our complicity in its shaping and perpetuating—how our inner dominators seek to reproduce hierarchies in the tiniest of ways. That feels like part of the grappling for us. Not just blaming “those people out there”. I so appreciate the depth of this. And the naming of patriarchal whiteness and its patterning. I wonder about the ways we have historically tried to enforce more inclusive worldviews using the methods of the old exclusive one.
Thank you so much for this,it means a great deal to know these words resonate across oceans. What you name feels essential: that the need to dominate is not just enacted by "those people" but embedded in us, trained into our reflexes by the very systems we live inside. That reckoning with our own quiet reproductions of power is the work, I think. And yes, the tragedy of trying to build new worlds using the same extractive tools is one we keep repeating. I deeply appreciate your reflection and your witness. Stay with us,hopefully we’ll have more for you in the future.
I too, am from NZ reading this feeling the resonance between the New Zealand’s current governing Collation and the Republicans - manifest in their need to punish, to dominate and to feel powerful at all cost. Elizabeth Cook, has written a book ( based on her PHD) - Unsettled Bliss, whiteness in Aotearoa. It’s worth reading. Also Alison Jones, another great writer. You may already have read these.
Thank you,yes, the parallels are stark. That instinct to punish, to dominate, to frame cruelty as strength, it echoes loudly across borders. I haven’t read Unsettled Bliss, but I will now. Grateful for the recommendation and for your voice from Aotearoa. These connections matter.
So many examples throughout history that bears this out.. The hard part is to recognize a level of resentment to others exists in all of us. But necessary to understand that feeling of resentment in others.
Well, of course! Dangerous writers are exactly what we need now. I will remain in your cheering section. I'll smuggle note paper and little pens into your jail cell. I'll stand back as people pick up on your Common Sense for 2025.
We still have much to do to gain the attention and trust of ‘middle America.’ I think there’s at least one ‘line of attack’ that can help:
Donald Trump just really, really hates America.
America values honesty, fair play, integrity. As a pathological liar and con man, Trump has never been able to command the ‘respect,’ power, and regal status he craves. He now feels these to be within his reach.
Trump is not out to make America great again. He’s out to make America grovel at his feet.
Americans need to know this. America needs to understand that this is the entirety of Trump’s motivation and his self-dealing end game so that America can stop him.
I wonder if, once the aggrieved begin to feel vindicated, believe they have regained their “loss” of status and relax their hate response enough, America can again move - if only incrementally - toward a more equitable society in both policy and spirit.
As always, exceptionally written.
And a mirror for all of us to grapple with. Introspection is necessary.
What struck me immediately was a recognition that in some ways I've become the man with the laptop bag. Towards "them". Where tolerance, acceptance, and inclusivity have always lived in my heart there now exists a tiny corner. A corner that judges those that I assume are part of the cruel cult that's enabled this new reality. I don't want to acknowledge these people. My repulsion is tangible. There's a loss of trust that feels foreign within my consciousness. Shameful even. Not something I can embrace but feel stuck with nonetheless.
I've no idea how to reconcile these emotions in my heart. I don't think I'm the only one.
Perhaps, it's in acknowledging the motivation of cruelty that we learn to shun the perpetrators. Yet, embracing internal resentment or judgement isn't easy for the openhearted. There's a tangible disconnect between who we are and how we must now live. What we must continue to witness. Feel ourselves harden despite our otherwise conciliatory natures.
I am encouraged by the (global) community we share that protects, embraces, and uplifts our inherent humanity, even while summoning disgust and occasional hostility toward those that would harm all of existence. All of creation. But I fear this challenge is changing all of us. Subtly, but surely.
If we can't co-exist harmoniously with each other and the environment, then what? Co-exit? (Mars??? Pfft - If we don't take it (humility/reverence) there, we won't find it there either).
Like the hundredth monkey theory, I think we need to continue to transform our disgust into advocacy. Each for the other, without accusation. A kinder, louder voice for all freedoms and rights as keepers of each other and a sustainable planet. You're guiding us on this intellectual and spiritual journey , Johnny. You're a model as to how to transform our purpose, how to truly understand the mission. Monkeys everywhere are listening, learning, and coordinating the message. We will be enough. For ourselves, for each other, for the children.
Thank you for paving the road that leads to adopting a kinder and more sustainable pathway to peace.
Thank you for this deeply honest reflection. That moment you name,the one where you recognize the quiet hardening in yourself is the one we all feel, I think, if we’re paying attention. The man with the laptop bag becomes a kind of internal metaphor: not just someone else’s indifference, but our own. Our own withdrawal. Our own quiet judgment.
And yes, it feels shameful. Because those of us who have tried to live with open hearts now find ourselves brushing up against the limits of that openness. We’ve seen too much, perhaps. We’ve watched decency mocked and cruelty rewarded, and some part of us begins to build a small wall,not out of hatred, but out of exhaustion. Out of grief.
What you name so clearly is the tension,how do we hold both the disgust and the compassion? How do we reject what’s being done without becoming like those doing it? These are not rhetorical questions. They are spiritual ones. They are ethical ones. They are, quite literally, the work.
The truth is, the cruelty is changing us. But awareness of that change—naming it, resisting its pull, choosing again and again to rehumanize instead of dehumanize,that’s where the hope lives. That’s where the path diverges. That’s where something different becomes possible.
You’re right,if we don’t carry reverence there, we won’t find it there. Whether “there” is Mars or Monday morning. Whether it’s the next election or the next time we catch ourselves pulling away from someone we assume is lost to the cult.
So we do the work. We turn disgust into clarity, and clarity into action. Without accusation, as you say. With tenderness. With ferocity. With the knowledge that the fight for kindness is never sentimental. It’s survival.
And in that sense, yes,the monkeys are watching. And maybe, just maybe, enough of us are learning to choose the harder thing. Thank you for naming what so many of us feel. We’re all carrying pieces of it. We’re all trying to stay human. Together.
Extraordinary piece exceptionally written. — both of which are also America. We will take her extraordinary and exceptionalism back in all of its diversity and love.
This feels so true Tom. Reading from Aotearoa New Zealand but feeling the resonances here too. And the ubiquity of that need to dominate—the way it is micro-learned through the systems and institutions that we are governed by and immersed in—is what we need to attend to. Our complicity in its shaping and perpetuating—how our inner dominators seek to reproduce hierarchies in the tiniest of ways. That feels like part of the grappling for us. Not just blaming “those people out there”. I so appreciate the depth of this. And the naming of patriarchal whiteness and its patterning. I wonder about the ways we have historically tried to enforce more inclusive worldviews using the methods of the old exclusive one.
Thank you so much for this,it means a great deal to know these words resonate across oceans. What you name feels essential: that the need to dominate is not just enacted by "those people" but embedded in us, trained into our reflexes by the very systems we live inside. That reckoning with our own quiet reproductions of power is the work, I think. And yes, the tragedy of trying to build new worlds using the same extractive tools is one we keep repeating. I deeply appreciate your reflection and your witness. Stay with us,hopefully we’ll have more for you in the future.
I too, am from NZ reading this feeling the resonance between the New Zealand’s current governing Collation and the Republicans - manifest in their need to punish, to dominate and to feel powerful at all cost. Elizabeth Cook, has written a book ( based on her PHD) - Unsettled Bliss, whiteness in Aotearoa. It’s worth reading. Also Alison Jones, another great writer. You may already have read these.
Thank you,yes, the parallels are stark. That instinct to punish, to dominate, to frame cruelty as strength, it echoes loudly across borders. I haven’t read Unsettled Bliss, but I will now. Grateful for the recommendation and for your voice from Aotearoa. These connections matter.
Thank you for putting a form around the shapeless monster. I know what we are fighting now.
So many examples throughout history that bears this out.. The hard part is to recognize a level of resentment to others exists in all of us. But necessary to understand that feeling of resentment in others.
My heart is broken. Perfectly articulated and true.
Thank you!!!
Great essay. Maybe an even better précis to send to a publisher. (I’d be glad to write the back cover blurb)
Margaret if the time comes I actually get a publisher,I will become dangerous.
Well, of course! Dangerous writers are exactly what we need now. I will remain in your cheering section. I'll smuggle note paper and little pens into your jail cell. I'll stand back as people pick up on your Common Sense for 2025.
I’ll need a couple of cigars too while you’re smuggling.😀
Waytofire, Tom.
Time and again, I return to these lyrics:
There's safety in numbers
When you learn to divide;
How can we be "in"
If there is no "outside"?
-- Peter Gabriel, "Not One of Us"
Second that-extraordinary piece
Thank you!!
Standing O 🍸
Thank you!!
Thanks for this, that is really a great piece.
We still have much to do to gain the attention and trust of ‘middle America.’ I think there’s at least one ‘line of attack’ that can help:
Donald Trump just really, really hates America.
America values honesty, fair play, integrity. As a pathological liar and con man, Trump has never been able to command the ‘respect,’ power, and regal status he craves. He now feels these to be within his reach.
Trump is not out to make America great again. He’s out to make America grovel at his feet.
Americans need to know this. America needs to understand that this is the entirety of Trump’s motivation and his self-dealing end game so that America can stop him.
https://open.substack.com/pub/jonthinks/p/donald-trump-hates-america?r=mrvx1&utm_medium=ios
I wonder if, once the aggrieved begin to feel vindicated, believe they have regained their “loss” of status and relax their hate response enough, America can again move - if only incrementally - toward a more equitable society in both policy and spirit.
Read my piece tomorrow, The Flattening part 3. Things may not turn out as you think.
I can’t help pointing toward hope, annoying optimist that I am. Looking forward to reading your next installment.