Deep Breath, Keep Going
I once listened to the Hardcore History Podcast’s series about World War One. The detailed history was fascinating, but the thing that is sitting with me today is remembering how the change in war technology meant that the best tactic for governments to achieve their political aims was to turn people into cannon fodder in battle after battle, often not to gain ground, but to see who ran out of people first. It was a brutal, grinding war of attrition. The people who paid the highest price were the young ones who were thrown into the path of those machine guns. The technology of war has changed a lot in the past hundred years. That change is not just the weapons and equipment, but also in the existence of cameras and internet. This means the battlegrounds are different, but governments are definitely wrangling for power. I can see it happening. I can see these large scale choices being made, and I can see how the incoming US administration has indicated the need for some sacrifice to achieve their goals. I hear that word “sacrifice” and I recognize that they’re planning to turn many US citizens into economic cannon fodder during the impending tariff war. I look at the list of “day one” plans and the vast majority of them are going to make my life harder or increase the burden on my already strained finances.
My life will be cannon fodder in the upcoming political wrangling. I am like the peasants in the climactic battle of the show Galavant who have built a nice little home for themselves in the spot that turns out to be exactly where three armies come together to do battle. They’re doomed to lose everything and they can’t stop it, they can only hunker down and hope to survive. Given that this is how the world at large feels to me, my instinct to entrench makes a lot of sense. I want to create safety for myself and others. If possible I want to do it without losing any ground.
I wish I had better answers than this, or less anxiety over what is coming. Anxiety aside, my job for the next weeks and months is the same as it has been for the past weeks and months: Do the work in front of me. Keep my eyes open for ways I can help and support others. Make more books.