01. Welcome to Reality Report
01. Welcome to Reality Report
Finding the High Ground in the Midst of a Shitstorm
I have a question for you, dear reader:
How is a sentient human being supposed to feel reasonably healthy and happy living in America today?
Our democracy is sick and the disease of authoritarianism is metastasizing before our eyes. The Earth’s ability to sustain life itself is existentially threatened by human greed. And then there is the small matter of a deadly global pandemic.
To borrow a line from my old friend Bill Griffith aka Zippy the Pinhead: Are We Having Fun Yet?
Hello. I’m Art Silverman. Welcome to my newsletter Reality Report. As far as reconciling political outrage and the quest for inner peace… how is that going for you? Frankly, I’m having some ups and downs.
If you pay close attention to the news, you may be feeling the same cocktail of emotions I am — anxious, depressed, angry, shut down and occasionally overwhelmed.
There has to be a better way, because living in this toxic emotional stew is not only unsustainable but counterproductive. But neither can we simply close our eyes and pretend we’re living in normal times. We need to be girding our metaphoric loins for the political struggles ahead, while still somehow managing to maintain a relatively calm center and an open heart within our individual lives.
Reality Report’s mission is to provide relief from some of your symptoms, and targets for others.
After 28 years toiling in the vineyards of media, politics and progressive activism in Washington DC — and following 20 similar years in San Francisco — I have come out of retirement and returned to journalism, my first and favorite calling. Here’s a sample of what I have planned for the weeks and months ahead:
Antebellum Redux
Let's be clear what's happening here: The South is rising again.
But this New Confederacy is as much conceptual as geographic. It’s a corporately-financed web of ideological, economic and fundamentalist interests, and they are methodically manipulating racism, xenophobia and misogyny across multiple media platforms. Their aim is quite literally to seize power in the United States by subverting our democratic processes and institutions.
These people have declared a 21st-century civil war … and we are the enemy. But let’s not be tricked into heading for the proverbial barricades. That’s not where the fight is right now.
No Squid Games With the Squad… And No Messing With the Moderates
There is no end to the issues we face as progressives.
But there is only one overriding strategic objective: We must keep the Senate in Democratic hands next year, and as unlikely as it seems right now, the House of Representatives as well. Every political initiative we undertake between now and then has to be judged against a single metric — is this, on balance, helpful to maintaining control of Congress?
Our left flank says the answer is to go pedal-to-the-metal on the issues that motivate Black and Latino base Democratic voters, particularly Black women.1 Yes! But we equally need millions more moderate White workers and suburban moms, especially in the handful of swing states where control of the Senate will be decided.2 Yes also!
How this conundrum plays out, only time will tell, but we must avoid trashing each other in the mean time, or needlessly stoking inner-party tensions, even in the face of provocation. And let’s see if we can avoid handing our adversaries another “Defund the Police” to club us with.
An Atheist’s Prayer
I’m pretty much a nonbeliever, but I do have a spiritual practice. I also adhere to the “whatever gets you thru the night” school of therapy.
In my own case, this involves antidepressants, marijuana, long daily walks, Iyengar yoga, sporadic meditation, dancing to loud music, healing trauma somatically,3 veganism,4 and certain other activities that must remain classified by their very nature. Of course, your mileage may vary.
To sum up: More eros, less thanatos. Also, since mid-pandemic I’ve been reciting my own version of grace each morning with my coffee and toasted bagel. It’s become my grounding ritual:
“I am grateful for another day of life in this beautiful world. I am grateful for continued good health; for friends and family; for the roof over my head and the food on my table. Finally, I am grateful for another opportunity to show love, to receive love, and [in the words of the poet Gary Snyder] to move the world a millionth of an inch toward justice."
Also: This | That | The Other
The View from Center-Left Field | My Fight Against Media Obesity | Stuck at an Intersectionality | Be Here Now vs. Just Do It | Haiku du Jour | A Call to Arms for Bummed-Out Boomers | Ontogeny Loves Phylogeny | And much much more…
That’s it until next time. I hope I’ve whetted your appetite. Simply enter your email above for a free, easy-to-cancel-if-you-don’t-love-it subscription, delivered directly to your inbox. Also please share me with your friends if so moved. I’m working hard to make this work. Thank you so much!
More like 95% vegan. I do keep canned Italian tuna in my pantry and parmigiana reggiano for pasta. Once in a great while I like to have a nice steak dinner out, and when the bottom falls out, emotionally speaking, I have been spotted in MickeyD’s with a Big Mac, large fries and a Coke. But I should also mention that since becoming a vegan, both my elevated blood pressure and dangerously high cholesterol have returned to normal levels. Even those pesky triglycerides (h/t Omega fatty acids).