Joy and Pain

After watching Tim Walz's first speech as VP candidate, I am politically energized.

I expressed this in a recent Tweet.

Unexpectedly, I received some pushback to this minor expression of "joy". The feedback - which I don't disagree with - is that Harris/Walz are still imperialists joined at the hip to the wealthy elite, and are part of the system driving us to extinction.

I get it. Despite my moment of positivity, shit is still hitting the fan. How can I be positive when the world is crumbling and our political choices come down to bad and worse?

I believe we can live in a world where joy coexists with pain. Indeed, it has always been that way and must remain so.

Can a student celebrate receiving an A, despite an overall C+ GPA?

Can a basketball player celebrate a personal best, although the game was lost?

I think so.

In fact, I think small "wins" within bigger losses must be appreciated. Even if the wins don't meet the ideal, positive reinforcement and shaping can eventually lead to the desired results.

Will Harris/Walz save civilization? I doubt it. They are cogs in a self-destructive system. Yet, they are better cogs than the alternative.

We may be approaching the end, but it would be great if we could avoid concentration camps and a reenactment of The Handmaid's Tale as civilization dissolves.

Walz's speech was surprisingly refreshing. It's a relief to hear a positive political speech. I'm sick of the hate slung from the other side of the fence. And frankly, their published plan deserves no place in history. It not only devolves society into a puritanical fiction, it expressly shreds any environmental protections.

The biosphere is already under attack. But that doesn't mean we should put a bullet in its head.

This is bigger than political rivalries and slowing our demise.

We have a moral obligation to younger generations to try to fix things.

I've done the math, as have you. We're fucked. I know. So what now?

Why not use that knowledge to pillage and plunder the earth for everything you can get? Because we know that's wrong.

We know the clock is ticking, yet understand that doesn't give us license to live as if it were. We try to minimize consumption, reduce travel, grow food, spread the word. None of that will tip the scales. However, at the risk of sounding like hopium, all profound change started at the fringes.

I've witnessed it during my lifetime. Equalities once unthinkable 30 years ago are now normalized. I'm not betting on it, but change can happen. We must try as if it will. That is our debt to younger generations.

Every Major League baseball player was once a child with his first swing and a hit. It's unlikely that ball went far but it was a win nonetheless. The eruption of joy from that hit motivated the child to swing again. And improve.

So a Harris/Walz ticket may not be a home run. But it is a base hit that doesn't take society backwards by a century. Less pain is something to get energized about.

The best we can do is to fight for incremental progress, regardless of how impossible our situation. Apathy is not an answer. We must fight for every inch of progress, no matter how unlikely or meaningless.

And when we do gain an inch, it's OK to be happy.