Spiraling and angry
About those moths
A brief synopsis of the world on 9 December 2024: everyone is angry and sure their anger is justified. That is a recipe for disaster rather than change. Actions, as you know, have consequences.
I am furious to realize our beloved cedar chest is not keeping the bloody moths from chewing up Woolley products. I keep reaching for the back of my lilac sweater with a hole, that I discovered an hour and a half ago, the size of a quarter (and we all recall that I almost asphyxiated our upstairs neighbor when I bought every mothball in Anne Arundel County several years ago so my investment was definitely in this cedar chest).
As you saw me note yesterday, getting rid of al-Assad felt great (we heard an anti-Assad rally late yesterday from about a thousand marchers at our undisclosed location away from Spa Creek). My husband asked if people were carrying Syrian flags, who were they supporting? I answered probably the anti-Assad side but admitted I was guessing. With that much fidelity in understanding their reactions, the future is dangerous for everyone who encountered those folks.
The Korean opposition sought to oust a president who had sought to oust them six days ago. The president’s party thwarted his impeachment day before yesterday so I read now that the Justice Ministry has proclaimed that the president cannot travel abroad while he is investigated for fabricating reasons for the insurrection. Fabulous: tit for tat. How does that work for the president of a country, especially one as central to East Asia today as Yoon Suk Yeol? Is there actually a functioning government presently, and does no one think the DPRK is watching?
Millions of Americans want migrants removed because they shouldn’t be here. I am unclear what standard is under discussion for allowing people to stay versus go. My family came here, most likely illegally, in the 1770s on both my parents’s sides: am I at risk? The point is that we don’t like that they are here so we want them gone. The costs of that choice will affect each and everyone one of us. If we do it, we just need grasp that now rather than after they are wrenched out of here.
The shooting of a CEO, even if the head of a health care mega company, attracted shocking praise in many quarters online last week. I get it: people are ANGRY, feeling abandoned, hopeless, and shafted by the system. All of that may be true but it was hardly this individual’s fault alone. Let’s be realistic here. I obviously do not pretend to understand the politics of people I read online, cursory or in detail (I try reading both sides as best I can), but the anger and cheering of this cold-blooded murder appeared across the political spectrum. Anger doesn’t fix the health care mess that got us here. Reading British, Canadian or U.S. health consumers, no system seems working so maybe we all just need less health? Oops. That probably isn’t the right answer but what is?
I could continue the list but you understand the fury is both foreign and domestic. Aside from wanting change, what is the consensus for what should replace these undesired conditions? Are there consistent, negotiated or even arbitrated answers to that last question or spontaneous, aggressive reactions alone? That question matters for how we get to a place where we are less taken with the upheaval.
Do we really want perpetual change or are we looking for a substitute for what we don’t like? That question takes us down different paths, policy options for implementation rather than perpetual kvetching, in practice.
Part of the reason China continues tolerating the CCP is the fear of precisely the demand for change sweeping so much of the world. That is neither an endorsement of China’s actions nor a slap at our hope for improvement but China has experienced its share of angry reactions without substitutions to fix the problems.
It would behoove us to think in more concrete terms for what we want though I am not sure my suggestion is a welcome amid the contemporary chaos. But, it’s worth remembering as we consider that unintended consequences will surely result from the changes we demand. Which of those are we most willing to accept?
Or has voicing anger become the endgame? I am not longer sure but think we better figure that out.
And I better figure out about the moths before all is lost in woollens in our household…
I welcome your thoughts, rebuttals, challenges, and comments. I appreciate your time on this December Monday. I especially appreciate those who are subscribers though all readers are welcome so we can expand dialogue.
Be well and be safe. FIN
Victoria Kim and Choe Sang-hun, “South Korea Bars President from Traveling Abroad” NewYorkTimes.com, 9 December 2024, retrieved at https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/09/world/asia/south-korea-yoon-travel-ban.html