Not Even Light Escapes
What will preserve us
from this unlimited frenzy,
this desire to abolish the horizon
as perpetual line of flight,
as virtual line of flight which must remain virtual,
But which we are crossing today
-towards that ‘event horizon’
beyond which nothing happens,
nothing has meaning any longer
and whence not even light
escapes.
The Illusion of the End by Jean Baudrillard, trans. by Chris Turner, chapt. How Can You Jump Over Your Shadow…?, page 103
Only five days since Inauguration Day which seem like a hundred years…
Time is fabricated by the body, a more general term for our minds. It’s the mind that feels. It feels as if we Americans have hurtled across a frontier, that being on the other side everything implodes into a ‘sameness,’ suffused by aura of a Trump-ego which illuminates every nook and cranny of space, of time. Nothing is allowed to escape. To be “othered,” such as a family escaping violence, maybe starvation to live here (to be hunted for deportation), or to be California’s governor Newsom required to role-play a facsimile-of-respect in order to host a manifestly ignorant, petulant, President. I must add, “othered” as a trans-person working not very far from me at this Starbucks.
“not even light escapes.”
Politico described the President’s visit to wildfire ravaged California:
LOS ANGELES — President Donald Trump began his day of disaster tours with raging threats that sent California officials into a tailspin. He ended it with a hug and a promise to help the Golden State rebuild.
Trump’s tarmac embrace with sometime nemesis Gavin Newsom set the tone for a sober, bipartisan briefing with local, state and federal officials where the president refrained from his sharp-edged digs and instead pledged to help lead in the recovery effort — including waiving federal permitting requirements. There was a brief, but testy exchange with Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass over letting residents back into their homes, but Trump repeatedly held back when conservative officials tried to egg him on over liberal policies they detest largely around the environment.
“There can be no Golden Age without the Golden State. It’s a great state. It’s a fantastic place,” Trump said at the late afternoon briefing in Los Angeles..
2 thoughts on “Not Even Light Escapes”
First off – Wonderful photo of you and Laura!!
Second – We cannot trust our eyes or ears with regard to ANYTHING related to this newest iteration of InsanityTown. The crippling inanity of a psychopathic tribe have been loosed upon our nation and they have neither filter nor compassion nor anything remotely akin to intelligence. The question asked over and over again is: Can we survive the next four years? My answer is that I really am not sure it’s possible.
Trump’s remarks in California were meant to mollify a segment of the middle ground in the Golden State, giving them some sense that perhaps he is “not so bad”. This was a ruse, clear and simple. As soon as he was on his mega-plane there is no doubt in my mind that he was crafting ways to punish California for not supporting him. He and his cadre of monsters have been given carte blanche to wreak havoc wherever they feel is necessary.
We who see this maniac for what he is, have three choices.
1. Offer passive resistance hoping we can find a way of deflecting the criminal’s plans for this term in office and doing what good we can on a local level.
2. Leave the country. Throw in the towel and call this the end of the great experiment in democracy that began 250 years ago.
3. Take up the cause of overt resistance. Place ourselves into harms way to make a statement that cannot be ignored. Protect the innocent as best we can and fight for what we know, without any doubt, to be a better, fairer, and more inclusive world.
I choose the third option.
Tobin, this is a clear statement of our prospects, and of our courses of action. I propose that we work on all three options, preparing ourselves to pivot on very short notice…