Because my high school message forum rejects political comments, a group of 17 disaffected members of the class of 64 began one of their own. To them I wrote…
Long before Marshall Applewhite led his Heaven’s Gate followers to become one with the Hale-Bopp comet, he founded a group called “H.I.M.” which stood for "Human Individual Metamorphosis," a cult with about fifty followers. News reports indicated that there were missing persons among the cult, and on a Sunday hike my wife and I stumbled upon them on a hillside in Sonoma County’s Sugarloaf Park. We were puzzled to find so many people gathered in a clearing, and when we returned to the parking lot we were suspicious after seeing bumper stickers that read, “Caution. Driver May Vanish Any Moment”. My wife, in an uncharacteristic move, opened the glove compartment of an unlocked VW and found documents relating to H.I.M. We wrote down all the license plates and called the police. Missing persons were no longer missing. The cult disbanded. Marshall, however, began Heaven’s Gate, and when Hale-Bopp arrived, he saw his chance, and like Jim Jones, managed to persuade/coerce/threaten his followers to join him in space. David Koresh, Jim Jones, Marshall Applewhite, Charles Manson, Shoko Asahara, Donald Trump, and their willing disciples and aides, such as Marjorie and Lauren (the “shameless self-promoters and carnival barkers”) Matt Gaetz, Bonnie Nettles…
Not an earth-shattering observation, but hucksters and snake oil salesmen have always been with us and we should not be surprised when at CPAC people cheered when Biden hadn’t met his vaccination goals. They booed the people who want to save their lives. And Lauren Boebert, who “rose” to stardom after receiving welfare, proudly exclaimed that she wanted to deny her constituents the same opportunity. So, where am I going with all this? First, trying to understand, convert, or discuss issues that these people embrace is not in the cards, including the WHHS Message Forum. I’m optimistic that there are more and more people sitting at home silently, going to work, carrying on with their lives, people who reject this insanity, who are offended by the lunacy. They’re not in the newspapers. They don’t go to rallies. They don’t cause a ruckus. That some went to WHHS is probably the part that amazes us; we equate political sanity with education, and perhaps Hank can explain better why that isn’t a good bet.
I had a discussion with someone on Facebook who wrote, “I don’t necessarily believe the election was stolen.” End of discussion. Facebook often revisits posts that members have made a year ago, two years ago, etc. All mine are either my art photographs or diatribes against the “former guy.” Even as the news continues to focus on the loud, the brash, and hopelessly stupid, I’m trying to maintain a level of calm that left me floundering in 2016. On a local kiosk someone had posted openings for a class designed to help the afflicted through the Trump presidency. I’m assuming that all of you have found that his continuing presence in your mind has not done you any favors. It’s like my tinnitus, something that’s with me twenty-four seven, hard to ignore. After learning that Trump won, my brother introduced me to a new word—anhedonia, the inability to feel pleasure. We weren’t just disappointed that Hillary lost; it affected us in deeper ways. Again, Hank.
On the other side of this, though, was the pleasure I found this morning reading this excerpt from a forthcoming book about Trump, describing election night at the White House. Would that I were a fly on the wall for that one night.
(I’m pretending I’m at an AA meeting today, just bouncing my own feelings off others who share.)