Occasional Words from the Resistance…from the desk of R.E. Vanella.
The Personal Is the Political Is the Psychopathological: The Politics of Contemporary Psychopathological Double-Binds
Midterm Examination
Ms. THODE
November 7, Year of the Depends Adult Undergarment
KEEP YOUR ANSWERS BRIEF AND GENDER NEUTRAL
In David Foster Wallace’s novel Infinite Jest, students enrolled in the above-mentioned course were asked, as the midterm examination, to solve a Double-Bind. If on one hand you were a kleptomaniac, pathologically driven to steal everything you could, but on the other you were also a crippling agoraphobic, paralyzed by the fear of ever leaving your home, how could you satisfy these two totally opposing and overwhelming compulsions?
Over the previous two weeks I’ve been able to categorize my own opposingly pronged problem thus: I take my history very seriously. As I have argued in this space I am convinced that every clear thinking person needs to cease with the equivocation and rationalization and prepare for very serious fight ahead. This fight is going to face us off with some very powerful, very disgusting people. The offensive line of the electorate has opened a huge gap through which neo-fascism may burst into the open field. The tailback could trip and fall down. There may be a flag for holding. But the lane is wide open and the end zone is in sight. No matter how the drive was sustained to this point. We are here now.
I have had two physical altercations along these lines in the last 10 days. Feel free to judge or scold me if that’s what you feel you need to do. I am not embarrassed by my actions. I’m putting the deplorables on notice and in public that the so-called bleeding hearts will stand up. Just a cursory review of the career of our next Attorney General should be enough support my actions. His full given name being an unfortunate coincidence I suppose. Since witnessing an insidious, belligerent America First/Law and Order movement achieve the ultimate political success my first thought is something like, don’t the great artists steal?
As a counterweight to my desire to return contemptibility in equal measure, my more “rational” friends find these incidents understandable, but unproductive. The main task as they see it is one of messaging and persuasion. With a measured approach based on reason, they plead, we may convince those who are angry and confused and left behind by globalization that the prescriptions of left-leaning social policy can better address the struggles corporatism and capitalism has wrought.
The anxiety and misery experienced by many in this country (especially in the rural areas and the so-called ‘Rust Belt’), brought on by an ever-expanding economic inequality (see also, Piketty, Thomas), is very real. The troubling thing is that these folks seem to have determined that authoritarian crypto-fascism is the remedy for what ails them.[1] This seems as misplaced as treating a brain tumor with the guillotine. I recently heard political scientist and professor of international political economy at Brown University Mark Blyth relay this factoid; in 2015 bonuses paid to Wall Street financiers, not regular wages mind, bonuses, totaled $28 .4 billion. (This was seven short years from a bailout funded by you and me.) At the same time the aggregate compensation paid to every single person in the United States that earns a minimum wage was $14 billion. How a Donald J Trump administration ameliorates this situation I haven’t the foggiest notion.
Sunday’s News Journal catalogued some concerns of these voters on the Delmarva Peninsula in an article titled ‘Trump Voters Send Message.’ I ask that you read it and help me with my seemingly paradoxical bind. If you prefer a broader look read the cover story of yesterday’s New York Times Magazine, ‘This Land Is Your Land: Reflections From Trump’s America.’ How do we develop a lesson for an audience of students who appear to have a different agenda than governing and who intrinsically don’t trust the know-it-all teacher with all the bias of the media?
The answer to the puzzle posed in the novel is mail fraud. I think our predicament is quite a bit more tricky, and dangerous.
In the meantime I’ll be reading and writing (and attempting to cut out the actually fighting) and resisting.
Speak to you again soon.
________________________________
[1] This seems to be an even more relevant double-bind from the perspective of the “disenfranchised working class voter”™. I think I’ll need more time to reflect on it before commenting further.
I have to admit that I am still shell-shocked. I wonder what form my “fight” is going to take when I snap out of it. What organization should I join? Who is willing to be the point of the spear? I guess fascist don’t have to wrestle with this kind of thing. They know that the GOP is always spoiling for a fight.
Trump supporters (rust bult citizens) don’t want hand outs, they just want government to keep things simple and easy for them. The world is moving too fast and smart people (liberals) are using thier fancy technology to make them feel stupid and backwards.
Technology is hard, it’s outpacing them, it’s much easier to try and blunt progress with a guy that says he’s going to stop all this progress and revert to the days when you could stand in an assembly line making sure the glue on the sneakers was dry for 8 hours then go home have your Champagne of Beers while your wife heats up your manly sized Swanson Salisbury Steak dinner.
Everybody hates being made they are stupid and backwards, especially the stupid and backwards.
That pretty much nails it.
@jason: If you’re still looking for a way to fight back, I’m going to New York next week to join the protests at Trump Tower. Let me know if you want to ride along.
I realize joining a street protest is a pretty small move, but I feel like the larger the crowds, the faster the other side will learn that they don’t outnumber us.
It’s not a small move. It’s a commitment. It’s walking the talk.
I’d love to go to NYC next week, but that’s not in the cards right now.
I hope some of the planned marches/protests are posted here. I’ve already gotten a spot on a bus to march the day after the inaugural. It’s focus will be women’s rights/reproductive rights. The revolution will not be posted to Instagram.
Hey, I’ve signed up for that women’s rights/reproductive rights march, too!
Actually, Instagram and FB have been great tools to organize these events.
If we’re going to do something locally, may I humbly suggest targeting Carper’s office?
@pandora: I guess I do have to plan for the possibility of arrest. Apparently the NYCPD has been issued a quota of people to be arrested each night.
I wanted to go this week but holiday prep took precedence.
^^^ I wanted to protest, but I had more important things to do….Like put up my christmas tree and look at Black Friday sales to find the best price on a new laptop and iPhone.
In a nutshell, the problem with pretty much all of us
Or… it could be that my father is dying. But yeah, priorities. “It’s all of us.” Do you ever think before you swing that broad brush?
First, Donviti said “pretty much all of us”. Second, he was referring to prioritizing consumerism and technology and the holidays. Everyone needs to stop taking this personally. We are in a very serious and dangerous situation. This is not the time to get your feelings hurt. It’s going to get much worse so I really urge everyone to harden your resolve.
We’re very likely going to see Confederate flags on the National Mall for the inauguration of the President of the United States. Let’s try to focus.
@DV: The invitations were mailed before the election. The protests will still be going on next week, and the longer they go on the better the likelihood of violence. You going? Rhetorical question. Those of us with jobs must keep them as long as possible, before you’re replaced with Trump loyalists. I’m retired, so I have the time for such shenanigans.
@pandora: My condolences. So many boomers are going through this. For so many reasons, 2016 sucks.
Of course he isn’t. He just “keeps it real.”
And it’s really hard to not take it personally from someone who is, and always has been, all talk.
He was making a broader point. Let’s try to focus. It isn’t personal now. We need to stay together & fight for each other. If you took this as a personal insult, I understand. I just urge you to ignore it. it’s not relevant now.
RE Vanella is right. All of us are tender right now. The Alt-right Heil Hitler video going around on FB right now is the little bit of water over the dam, we are going to be flooded soon so let’s all realize we are all on the same side.
No. He wasn’t making a broader point. I get the actual broader point, but Donviti – ask him what he’s actually done for liberal/progressive causes/candidates – is only as strong as his keyboard and FB page. Sorry. Things are hard for me right now, but I refuse to indulge his typical BS.
You have a personal issue with the guy. Let it go. I think I’ll plagiarize myself: It’s understandable, but unhelpful. I think I speak for most everyone, Pandora, in passing along best wishes to your family. Like anonymous said, this has been a horrendous year, the worst. But this is not the nadir. It will get worse. Please, for your personal health and for the struggle ahead for all of us, put this in proper perspective.
Oh, please. Validating Donviti’s BS has nothing to do with putting things in the “proper perspective”. Are you really lecturing me on what is wrong with my perspective? He’s, as usual, applying standards to other people he never applies to himself. This isn’t about the broader point. This is about a man child who points fingers at everyone but himself.
I have marched in Philly. So has anonymous. Tell me what Donviti has done… other than spew his usual nonsense.
The perspective is that it was an internet blog comment from a person writing under a pseudonym. Almost by definition I think it’s one of the most irrelevant I can think of. But if you prefer to get wound up and die on that hill, that’s your call.
I’m switching off the internet for the holiday, starting…. now. I have a great deal of reading to do and a turkey to prep. Godspeed.
Yeah, I’m off to the orchard for to buy apples for the pie. Don’t let him get under your skin. Or on it. Or near it.
I know one woman who has not left her house since the election. Others tell me they are nervous and uncomfortable around people, not knowing which ones might have voted for Trump. I myself have noticed I only let down my guard around African-Americans and gays, because I assume they don’t support Trump.
As some old hippie who didn’t win the Nobel Prize once said, paranoia strikes deep, and it starts when you’re always afraid.
Yeah, because no one here knows who Donviti is. And your timing for bailing is… convenient. But thanks for explaining what I’ve done wrong – something you gave Donviti a complete pass on. Why is that?
sorry about your father, pandora.
Thanks, ex-anon.
I wasn’t talking to you Pandora, I was referring to the comment above mine.
Get over yourself
Done wrong? You did nothing wrong. I only know DV through his online persona, and I usually disagree with him. Except for the occasional burst of creativity, It’s usually just trolling. I just meant you’re in a space where, even if Hillary had won, things with your father alone would have you on edge. Add in the Twilight Zone episode we’re living in, and these are hard days for sensitive people. Just know you are not alone, and are in fact in the majority — by almost 2 million votes and rising.
“Like put up my christmas tree and look at Black Friday sales to find the best price on a new laptop and iPhone.”
Just now appreciated the irony here. My laptop is so old it has a built-in CD drive, and I like it that way. I wouldn’t go to a store on Black Friday if you paid me; until this year I almost always worked either Thanksgiving, the day after or both. Pin your non-participation medal on someone else.
And yes I was making a broader point, but because your panties are in such a knot any time I make a comment you refuse to move on from happenings years ago.
The broader point can be summed up by a commentor that says he doesn’t have time to protest, he has other plans.
That’s the point, that’s the fucking problem. None of us have “time” to protest. We do it when it’s convenient.
As for what I’ve done about it, you aren’t really asking what I’ve done, you’re taking the opportunity to tell everyone what you’ve done because being self righteous feels so lovely. So bravo, you’re my hero, opine away how you are more devout fighter for the cause.
I wish I was like you, standing behind a pseudonym passing judgement on people that don’t agree with me.
Oh wait…
Not “other” plans, previous plans. There’s a protest every night, DV. You can participate any time you can free yourself of other obligations. I’ve been out already, I will be out more. Or is it only “real” protest if I drop every other thing in my life, because if you can’t give it the commitment of an apostle you’re a fraud?
Individually we’re ants, but if we mass together on the sidewalk people notice. And then, to extend the analogy, we get stepped on, or have water poured on us. And then the whole world sees America in chaos. If you feel hypocritical for not marching, so be it. Don’t project it onto everyone else.
I get it man, I get it. Christ almighty.
Don’t allow my projections to make a broader point about the masses when it comes to protesting. Sorry if I took your specific comment and generalized to the point that others apparently on their third cocktail of the morning read way more into it then is there.
Enjoy your laptop, and if you find yourself needing one I know a guy
Yeah, you don’t get it – and you never did. Keep it real, bro!
I know self righteousness when I see it, stay classy
Sure you do.
The very fact not one of you have any idea about why you lost the presidency, not to mention 2/3 of the states during Obama’s tenure shows me how completely brain dead and narcissistic you are. In other words, its not us, it’s YOU. Keep up the “I’m farther to the left than you are” lunacy and keep shrinking as a political force. Please keep it up. Thank you.
Elated is right. Let’s keep arguing among ourselves, Hilbots and Bernie Bros.
Signed,
The Housewife
We lost, Elated, because fewer Democrats than usual voted. You could look it up.