Love, Trump, and Google

Many of my friends are freaking out because of Trump. I am freaking out about the state of the world, too, but Trump is only a small part of my worry. Trump is one person, an obnoxious celebrity who likes to beat his chest and produce several viral insults a day. Not the kind of leader I would want but still, one man, one talking head.

His victory, however, had the stunning effect similar to turning the bright lights on in a room that we had only previously seen at night, with incense sticks burning and candles flickering beautifully.

Trump’s victory revealed not only the centuries-old sickness expressing itself through the most ignorant racism that is of course alive and well.

(How is the existence of racism in a Western culture surprising? The entire economic glory of our civilization is dependent on sacrificing ‘other’ people at the altar of OUR progress… that’s a cultural pattern, and a few hours of fake corporate diversity training and banning a few words can’t change that!)

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Trump’s victory also revealed the sudden all-American eagerness to replace common sense with peer pressure, humanity with slogans, and freedom with an imaginary sense of security. Okay, that one isn’t new, either, but the way it came out of the closet took me by surprise. The collective acceptance of sloganeering is the most alarming thing that became visible when the lights went on. Frustrated by the sudden ugly sight, educated people started raging for censorship and asking the Big Brother (represented appropriately by Facebook, Google, and other Silicon Valley companies) to hide ‘fake news’ (interpreted broadly). What?!!! The Soviet expat in me is rubbing my eyes in disbelief. You are asking whom to do what? Given Google’s wicked business agenda and their tight political connections, asking them to curate our information is like asking a wolf to please watch over our sheep.

I thought America prided itself on seeking freedom. But all of a sudden, we are all yelling into the horizon, scanning the space for dissenting opinion and feeling very, very intolerant about anybody who does not comply. We yell at each other for using ‘wrong’ words instead of looking for ways to love each other like our life depends on it (because it does).

Right now, there is a major atrocity happening at Standing Rock (one of the many atrocities and tricks that Natives have been subjected to in the recent years). And wow, Trump has nothing to do with it. It doesn’t mean he is any good, he would do the same thing–and he would also tweet about it proudly. But it does mean that our problem is much bigger than him. Maybe we can use this opportunity to find our love and remember our freedom? Maybe we can use this opportunity to get our heads out of the sand and own the fact that our culture is deeply racist and needs healing, and that our enthusiastic marching to the drum of “progress” is meaningless without taking care of all people? Maybe we can use this opportunity to see that our leaders are treating America’s original people (as well as other groups of people whose ancestral or individual culture has prevented them from enthusiastically embracing the ideals of the Machine and who could care less about the ‘progress party’–but especially the original people of America) without any respect whatsoever, and that it’s not acceptable?

Police brutality.
Environmental abuse.
Insanely cruel foreign policies.
Commercialization of everything, even the most sacred things.
Silicon Valley’s crusade against basic privacy and intellectual property (so that they can own all ‘content’ in the world and sell it back to us, of course).
Fucking with our minds.

All of the above is happening now, and will continue happening until we wake up to our own hearts.

If anything is going to kill us, it’s not Trump, it’s our addiction to giving celebrities more power than we give ourselves.

I have hope. A little bit of it. We were born with love, we might as well use it.