Radicalized by Basic Common Decency

Be the change you want to see in the world

I’ve always tried to keep talk of politics away from my kids. When it comes up I try to offer a balanced view and multiple perspectives. Sometimes, my wife disagrees with my approach (and sometimes thinks I am being contrarian for the sake of it). I didn’t think it would be fair to the kids. They should have the opportunity to develop and adopt their own opinions about the world. They shouldn’t be inundated by Rush Limbaugh on the radio on road trips like when I was their age. Their world is a scary enough place without having to consider immigration reform, foreign policy, and women’s rights.

Those gloves are coming off. This is no longer about politics.

My generation better fix this problem, but if we do not it will unfortunately fall upon the shoulders of our children to take up the fight. They need to know what they’re fighting against (what we should all be fighting against at this exact moment) and why.

Political parties no longer exist. The Republican Party certainly doesn’t exist anymore - definitely not the one that I used to vote for anyway. What we witness is theater. Bad theater. Performative bullshit intended to look like work by the people, for the people.

This isn’t about politics. This is about corrupt institutions and the system that enables it versus everyone else. Everyone else. That’s you, too. You might think that because you have had some success via that system that you’re important to the system. You are not. You might currently be on the right side of power and therefore you think you are safe. You are not. You are in fact on the wrong side of civility, of humanity, of history - and history has proven time and again that they will come for you eventually or take you down with them when they fall.

What was the point of reading all of those World War II books if you cannot identify that it is happening again? Right now! My guess is they were all about the glory of battle, military strategery, white hats versus black hats, and less about the backstory of how it got to that point. Nobody appreciates a preface.

We allowed this to happen. A lot of us have benefited from the system. I have benefited from the system. Me and my 401K have certainly gone along for the ride. As we peel back the curtain those that have for decades benefitted the most are the quietest. The silence is deafening. For as long as their perch seems safe, they will not make a peep. You are not one of them. Do you think that because you voted for their team you’re safe? Do you think you’re on the right side of their database?

We have celebrated the accumulation of wealth for so long now. If you’re not well off, you’re not working hard enough, you’re not smart enough, you don’t have the right vibe to be in the room where it happens. It’s your fault. You are the reason for your failure. And do you know what? It doesn’t matter if you’re making $10K or $1M per year. The extra zeroes still aren’t enough. They still think they’re better than you, that they deserve more than you, that they can make better decisions for you, that you are a failure that is standing in your own way. “B” stands for “billion” and they also think it stands for “better.”

We’ve allowed wealth to be a surrogate for hard work. For intelligence. For influence. For success. For POWER. And we all have applauded these things! WE CANNOT ALLOW WEALTH AND POWER TO BECOME A SURROGATE FOR MORALITY. They do not excuse amorality, they do not excuse silence, they do not excuse inaction. Wealth and power do not excuse turning your back on humanity, turning your back on basic common decency. Wealth and power increase your responsibility to champion humanity and basic common decency.

For the last year I’ve been waiting for the wealthy and powerful to stand up. I’ve been waiting for the people that truly have something to lose to stand up and accept the risk and speak out. To defend the people that worked hard. The people THEY NEEDED in order to reach the heights that they’ve reached. They needed everyone from Carlos the consumer to Michelle the middle manager. Apparently, they think they did it all on their own.

And if you’re still sitting there and saying, “this isn’t a market problem, this is an institutional problem,” you’re lying to yourself that they are not the same thing. We’ve been ceding ground to private industry for decades. Government has been letting corporations (and those that run them) more and more control over areas for which they should be responsible. Why? Because government is ineffectual and inefficient. Abdicate responsibility and hand it over to someone else. Don’t fix the institution, get rid of the problem. Just a reminder, government’s sole responsibility is to protect the people, not give up accountability for the problem. Our procedural laziness has enabled and empowered a power grab that rivals any other in history.

That is why we cannot untether the two from each other. They are one in the same. And they are becoming even more so.

The person who has been put in control of the “free world,” who promised to eradicate the deep state, has only used it to accumulate wealth and abused it to concentrate power. A “businessperson” from a corrupt enabling system that we let have the keys to a corrupt institution. They knew exactly what they were going to do. They had a plan. They are executing it. We cannot allow them to continue to lie and mislead us about their end game.

The help is not coming from the top. Those voices will not rise. They are part of the problem. It’s too late. From this point forward you need to question any one of those people that flips from complicity to action. Their motives are not pure. They just want to be on the side that wins in order to secure a few more decades of favor. You are not them. You can join the resistance. We need your help.

If you’re in the camp that thinks this is all helpless, that it doesn’t matter who is at the top because the cycle will repeat itself, then I say this with love in my heart: Pull your head out of your ass and do something anyway. We need to take steps to stop that even if it feels helpless. These assholes are actually getting close to succeeding. This is our last chance.

This needs to end now. This is no longer about politics. This is about humanity. This is about basic common decency.

If this post puts my name on a list, in some database, then so be it. I will be proud to have my name among the ranks of those that resisted even in the smallest ways. It all counts. As one of the coaches at my gym likes to say as the clock ticks down to zero on the workout, “this is the last chance to get better” and we need to make the most of it.