The pressure of circumstances forces choices.  Those “choices” are less free than I formerly believed.  Free will!?  I doubt it.  I am aware of the juxtaposition of the impress of past events and encounters within my psyche. Does not the mind reflexively select to act upon the factors offering the best chances of survival?  I think so.  There is no “I” strictly speaking that freely chooses anything.  Choices; my inner DJ playing a mashup from old tracks laid down, decades ago…..  Survival is the theme of the party.

Every morning I must “choose” what to write and how to write about it.  Not an easy task, and on the other hand, nothing more than “just life.”  Something that I just, must do.

This morning I read that California is burning.  Hundreds of wildfires have burned more than 300,000 acres across the state.  Vast acreage reduced to smoking ash is tragedy enough.  It becomes much worse if your home happened to be one of the dozens destroyed.  Wildfires are added to the pandemic that presses upon the state.

 Nausea at this report.  The President is cozying up to the QAnon conspiracists who believe that he is waging a secret war against a “deep state.”  Trump said, with the usual note of ambiguity, “I’ve heard these are people that love our country.”  “So I don’t know anything about it other than they do supposedly like me.”  As is always the case with this man, he makes his ignorance virtuous.  “Agnotology,*” — culturally induced ignorance as it is called.  The President’s ignorance is consciously created.

Last night Kamala Harris of California accepted the Democratic Party’s nomination for vice president.  She is a trailblazing Black woman, whose mother is an immigrant from India.

*Robert Proctor and Iaian Boal coined the term.  An intentional ignorance, distinguished from natural ignorance, — benefits those already in power.

Circumstances, the severity of conditions force “choices,” a new and untested juxtaposition of influences.   What is to come for California?  Will the current occupant of the White House accede to the results of a fair election?  The future is open, unformed, and in process — the outcome of innumerable small actions that will be made today.

This tune is apropos of the news of today.  It is an apocalyptic anthem, an appeal for empathy.

You’ve got to watch this video.  Time stands still, a singular event develops reciprocally between the performer and thousands present.  History is none other than a dance…..

Under Pressure

By David Bowie and Queen

Pressure: pushing down on me,
Pressing down on you, no man ask for.
Under pressure that burns a building down,
Splits a family in two,
Puts people on streets.

That’s OK.

That’s the terror of knowing
What this world is about.
Watching some good friends screaming,
“Let me out!”

Tomorrow gets me higher.
Pressure on people, people on streets.

OK.

Chippin’ around, kick my brains ’round the floor.
These are the days: it never rains but it pours.

People on streets.
People on streets.

It’s the terror of knowing
What this world is about.
Watching some good friends screaming,
“Let me out!”

Tomorrow gets me higher, higher, high!
Pressure on people, people on streets.

Turned away from it all like a blind man.
Sat on a fence, but it don’t work.
Keep coming up with love, but it’s so slashed and torn.

Why, why, why!?

Love, love, love, love, love.

Insanity laughs under pressure.
We’re breaking.

Can’t we give ourselves one more chance?
Why can’t we give love that one more chance?
Why can’t we give love, give love, give love, give love, give love, give love, give love, give love, give love?

‘Cause love’s such an old-fashioned word,
And love dares you to care for the people on the edge of the night,
And love dares you to change our way of caring about ourselves.
This is our last dance.
This is our last dance.
This is ourselves.

Under pressure.
Under pressure.