With every day that passes, January 20, 2025 approaches. Inauguration day for the Trump administration draws near. Words written in 1881 describe the situation for many of us.  Not for all Americans of course. Many stand with the captain, who by their ballot, is to command the helm of the ship of state.

He has given his word concerning dangerous mistakes that he intends to make.

We are confronted with
a very bitter and painful dilemma,

for the solution of which
not every one’s bravery and character are equal:
when, as passengers on board a steamer,
we discover
that the captain and the helmsman
are making dangerous mistakes,
and that we are their superiors
in nautical science

—and then we ask ourselves:

“What would happen
if
we organized a
mutiny against them,
and made them both prisoners?

Is it not
our duty to do so
in view of our superiority?
and would not they
in their turn be justified
in putting us in irons
for encouraging
disobedience?”

This is a simile
for higher and worse situations;
and the final question to be decided is,

What guarantees
our superiority and our faith
in ourselves in such a case?
Success?

but in order to do that
we must do the very thing
in which all the danger lies
—not only dangerous for ourselves,
but also for the ship.

The Dawn of Day, by Friedrich Nietzsche, trans. by J. M Kennedy, aphorism 436