The worry factor, that’s what it is, what I’ll call it. I realized during meditation this morning – I’m on the “Appreciation” pack – that it’s hard for me to sink into a feeling of appreciation at the moment because worry intrudes. I sit at my desk (in my Capisco chair by HAG, which is an amazing chair I appreciate an awful lot and is simply the most wonderful piece of furniture I’ve ever bought just for myself), and to my left is that horrible deck problem, worsening by the day as it deteriorates and rots further, while straight ahead in front are the increasingly menacing trash maples, some of which are getting huge and starting to overhang the lower deck, not to mention blocking my view. When I sat down this morning I couldn’t stop myself from thinking (worrying) about (among other things) why [my favorite contractor] hadn’t gotten back to me with a quote, and whether I’d somehow missed it, etc. etc. Worry. The balance on the house has tipped in favor of worry, and it’s quite all-consuming.
Then I thought about our (current) social climate and political landscape, and how everything there conspires to crank up the worry factor. Sometimes the only appropriate, but ultimately damaging, reaction is to become adamant, to harden one’s mind, fortify it in a “camp,” a tribe. For example, on my phone a swipe to reveal the “News” widget top stories includes this headline, from the New York Times, under “Trending”: “A Constitutional Puzzle: Can the President Be Indicted?” Now, seriously, why am I being asked – covertly if not overtly – to “puzzle” over this constitutional issue, which furthermore is one that floods into so many other areas of Americans’ lives so that it’s not an abstract “puzzle” at all? Sure, I understand that the issue could / should be raised (versus buried). But consider that it’s “trending,” and I have to ask, “Why?”
Why is it “trending”? Because we are collectively being goaded into worrying. I don’t see how this is healthy. On the “liberal” side, we’re reminded, after whatever horrendous ISIL attack has just occurred, that we shouldn’t be “Islamophobic” (i.e., don’t worry about what’s staring you in the face), but at the same time we’re subjected to a steady drumbeat of things to worry about – but only as long as they’re basically media-manufactured threats and frankly gruesome delights. The media won’t stop asking us to worry (especially now he’s coming back) about Bannon’s apocalyptic teleology, the kind of “blow it all up” attitude that contributed to Trump’s election (recall the “Giant Meteor 2016” poster – i.e., just blow the whole thing – Earth – up already, the classic grandmother view/wisdom [“better an end with horror than a horror without end”]), and they (the media) are also stoking the fire of worry – and glee, frankly – about “The Destruction of the 45th President” (a Z.Z. von Schnerk production, à la The Avengers). (That is, it’s melodrama. I am not comparing Trump to the delightful Emma Peel, of course, in pointing out the ridiculous melodrama of it all.)
The media, the establishment, etc., are now as keen on blowing shit up as the frustrated, downtrodden voters were who voted twice for Obama, didn’t get hopeful, and then opted for Trump. Yet they (the media) never look in the mirror and say, “Oh man, we’re bastards.” No, they actually think they’re still Woodward and Bernstein. They keep the outrage- and worry-economy going because feelings are the only things that matter in this landscape. Angry people click on shit – and so do worrywarts.
Then we talk about “addiction” – it is such bullshit. As for Mark Zuckerberg at Harvard’s commencement, telling people nationalism is bad: dude, just fuck off. You need a global (globalist) playing field for Facebook emotionalism, but it does nothing, really nothing, for people’s real lives. Nothing.