anyone see this yet? Coping with our loss

[mdmc]

Hey DU! THought ya'll might enjoy this. PEACE AND LOW STRESSNovember Manifesto Redux by a friend named Bill Braine (no kidding) ...





Surviving a Second Term



I’ve been joking lately that the five stages of a Bush victory are 1) denial 2) anger 3) bargaining 4) depression and 5) assassination. That is, of course, only a joke, but it underscores something I’ve noticed among my fellow patriots: we cannot stomach the idea of another four years.



Another stolen election would be a bad thing. However, that would be something we could fight. Oh, and what a fight it would be! They’d have to write whole new anthems to give voice to that battle. Most of us (7 in 10, by today’s count) expect it. Some percentage of us (unknown at press time) might even welcome it. A call to arms. A revelation of the New Depravity. Legitimization of our long-held anger. Yes, there will be a chance for glory if Bush’s Disenfranchisement Machine swings the vote illegally, and progressives are sick of the regressives claiming glory as their province. We want a chance for glory. So, bad as another illegal seizure of office would be, it would also be a unifying event.



But there’s one thing no progressive patriot wants: a legitimate Bush victory. Let’s say he comfortably wins Ohio, Florida, and Minnesota, and takes the popular vote and the electoral college. Not by a landslide, of course, but by margins that are pretty clearly outside the reasonable bounds of chicanery. What then? What if the system works but Bush wins? What if, against all logical argument, against all reasoned appeal, against the inducements of every compassionate, rational impulse, the voters choose Bush, and Dick Cheney humbly introduces him, Jeb by his side, at a riproaring victory gala in Washington sometime after 2:30 am on November 3?



Let’s take an emotional inventory: reading the above is making you nauseated. A black curtain is falling across your vision. Your stomach knots up, your hopes wither, and this intense burning core of anger – anger that flares when you see all-too-rare footage of Republican goons chanting “stop the count!” at Florida election headquarters, when you hear Bush triumphantly lie that “there is nothing complex about supporting our troops!” – this anger threatens to overwhelm your very sanity. You suddenly feel that there is nothing beyond that anger. It casts a gray pall beyond next Tuesday, and you can’t see your way to the other side.



So you need the strength to see your way over that wall and keep on keepin’ on. I’m here to tell you a couple of things.



1) The strength of your convictions will transform itself into the strength to endure. This won’t be done by conscious effort; it will happen because your brain wants to live and your breather wants to breathe. Time will make it so.



2) Your current dark emotions are fueled by a constant barrage of messages that are concocted and broadcast by corporations for their own purposes – one such purpose being to make you feel strongly so that you will continue to watch their broadcasts. The intensity of these recent weeks will subside. You will feel less compelled to watch.



3) You are equipped with a strong capacity for empathy, and a great sensitivity to the world around you, or you would not care as strongly as you do. This powerful reservoir of awareness will enable you to take joy in the world’s beauty and its sadness, which have always been and which always shall be, and these things will keep you happy.



5) You are right. Small difference it makes when peoples’ lives are at stake, but the fact is that when all else is done, and over, and history moves on, we will have been right. If the books are burned and the computers smashed and the movies shredded and the newspapers pulped, and our struggle is excised from the memories, and the memories are erased, we will have been right. By being right, we have already won. Just as part of our rage is rooted in the theft of the 2000 election, part of theirs is that they lost it. Neither of those facts will ever change. Similarly, just as another part of our rage is rooted in the fact that we are right and seem to be unheard, part of their rage is that they are wrong and they can’t make themselves right by force. You, however, are right.



Okay, but what the f**k am I supposed to do on Wednesday?



Media blackout. Regardless of whether Bush retains the office, we will turn away from the televised corporate media, and turn toward independent media and house media. This rejection will not be a coordinated effort, but a groundswell.



I had a happy summer in 2001, because for eight weeks I rejected the news. I will again break up with those unhappy liars if Bush is elected. I will cease listening to them if we’re lucky and smart enough to elect the better man, as well.



Don’t Blame John. If John Kerry can’t beat George Bush, it’s not John Kerry’s fault, and it’s not your fault. You can’t really blame anyone: you have to hand it to the evildoers. They will have run a better program. They launch memes that lance directly into the amygdala and activate the reptilian portion of the electoral mind, causing the forcible, spasmodic jerking of the wrong lever. They lie in a way that sounds like truth to 50% of the populace. They have systematically attacked the institutions that inoculate the electorate against the wrong choice, and they have done so despite reasoned argument. Reasoned argument is unfortunately dependent upon analytical skills; those skills have been eroded by years of attack from corporations, and you can’t blame John Kerry for that.



Perspective. It won’t be the end of the world. Not yet. Not by a long shot. Don’t listen to the voice inside you that claims your life will end as a direct result of that smirking monkeyretaining the white house. In your mind, it’s easy to travel down the path to martial law, rampant plague, religio-fascism, and nuclear war. In reality, it’s a long road with many branchings and is by no means certain. And it’s fraught for everyone on it. And we’re all born to an eventual grave. And the odds of George Bush’s presidency being directly responsible for our deaths is – well, it’s slim. And we’re all gonna die someday. In the meantime, the world is beautiful, and life is a process.



But Don’t Get Me Wrong: the Eyes-Open Possibilities. I’m not trying to minimize the dangers of Bush III, ranging from worse-case to worst-case. Martial law. Registration of muslims. Licenses required to protest. Increased electronic surveillance. Chip implants for all released prisoners. Three new Supreme Court justices. Overturning of Roe v. Wade. Anti flag-burning amendment. Anti gay marriage amendment. Women’s health clinics closed. Women’s health clinics bombed. Doctors jailed. Doctors shot. Doctors drafted into military service. More soldiers dead. More foreign civilians dead. Civil war in Iraq. Partisan hatred at home. Incompetence against terrorism. Unabated environmental destruction.



But it won’t all happen at once. We will still be here to fight it tooth and nail. There will be survivors. See perspective.



Canada. North America’s higher cortex. A nice place to visit, but for emotional appeal you can’t beat the midbrain that starts at point-o’-the woods, MN.



Leaving the United States in Republican hands without a fight would be like handing a bomb to a terrorist and moving next door, hoping he doesn’t use it. This country – I mean the physical country, its natural resources, people and infrastructure – is a giant tool that can be used either to make the world better or to make it vastly worse. Don’t let them keep it to use as they wish without fighting them over its use. Staying here will be like wrestling a burglar for control of his gun: unpleasant but necessary.



Remain, and partake in the goodness. Let your ridiculous patriotism free. Know that only half the country are rubes.



Acceptance. Okay, that’s asking too much. Keep your fist in the air, keep loving thy neighbor, keep speaking your mind. Remember that every action you take that helps someone less fortunate, hurts Bush’s program.

[mdmc]

1. a small

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