Four days after the election, protest of the results continued last night in a number of cities.  Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Denver, Minneapolis, Dallas, Oakland, were included in the CNN report.  The photos supported my assumption that the demonstrations were likely to include many in their twenties, young adults seeking adult entree into society.  I recalled my early twenties, several of those years spent living in Tokyo.  I remember mass protests by Japanese students against the American prosecution of the Vietnam War.  I have some photos of night scenes of thousands under the lights in Shinjuku square, facing phalanx of police and the water cannons.  In retrospect, I think they were on the right side of the matter.  Youth by definition are idealists, without sufficient experience to dull their faith in what is possible for human society.  Sensitive to obvious, wide spread suffering, individuals in the idealist phase of adulthood default to “something must be done.”

I think that those who voted for Trump by and large know by experience suffering, injustice.  Certainly it is bitterly unfair to lose one’s job as a result of offshoring the labor to someone else willing to work for beans and rice.  It hurts, perhaps somewhat less, to know that cybernetics stand to make one’s job obsolete.  Like the demise of the buggy whip.  One has to ask, to what extent can this continue, –an economy with ever shrinking need for human workers?  Even Walmart will run out of customers……  Aside from the basic need for income to procure food and shelter, there is the meaning and psychological well being that one derives from work.

Those who voted for Trump believed his assertion that he alone knew what to do about their unemployment, underemployment, the inaffordability of health care. etc.  Those who are presently taking to the streets are impacted by the very same conditions.  They just did not believe his assertion as economic Messiah to be credible.  It’s difficult to accept that a racist, misogynistic individual with the ear marks of a tyrant will occupy the White House for the next four years.

Those acquainted with me know that I draw food for thought and solace from pop music.  I’ve noticed that poets are often ahead of the rest of us to notice and describe the topography of human nature.  Baba O’Riley by The Who came to mind in the aftermath of this election.

I’ll include the clip here for your reflection.  The tune was written for the Who’s Lifehouse project, a rock opera that was never produced.  A note or two of background about the lyric.  Pete Townsend’s basic idea features a humanity controlled by a tyrannical government, increasing impact of climate crisis, and the citizenry having lost touch with nature, God, and themselves—a wasteland.  Their reality is a spoon-fed illusion, –life, relaxation, and entertainment dispensed artificially.

If you substitute a tyrannical economy for tyrannical government, and imagine spoon-fed illusion as being code for social media,—you can easily see the parallels between today and this 1971 song by Pete Townsend.

Here is another link showing a live performance in 2015 of the tune.  This clip was not my primary offering because the lyrics ought to carry the meaning, and not be overwhelmed by the visuals.  The song is just as relevant today as when written, and Roger Daltry and Pete Townsend, though old guys now, still know how to rock.    LIVE PERFORMANCE

Each must make up his/her own mind about the meaning of one’s own solitary life.  Hopefully you will come to your own well considered conclusion about the election and the condition of our society.