In an ever-changing, incomprehensible world
the masses had reached the point where they would,
at the same time,
believe everything and nothing,
think that everything was possible and that nothing was true.

….Mass propaganda discovered that its audience
was ready at all times to believe the worst,
no matter how absurd,
and did not particularly object to being deceived
because it held every statement to be a lie anyhow.

The totalitarian mass leaders based their propaganda
on the correct psychological assumption that,
under such conditions,
one could make people believe the most fantastic statement one day,
and trust that if the next day
they were given irrefutable proof of their falsehood,
they would take refuge in cynicism;
instead of deserting the leaders who had lied to them,
they would protest that they had known all along
that the statement was a lie
and would admire the leaders
for their superior
tactical cleverness.

— excerpt, The Origins of Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt (1951, USA) placed by Le Monde as one of the 100 best books of any kind of the 20th century.

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I voted today.  I desired to take advantage of early voting not unlike a soldier eager for battle.  I know that mine is only one vote.  I felt better after casting it, particularly for the top of the ticket, Biden and Harris.  Casting my vote felt as if I had emptied the magazine of my weapon in direction of the enemy.

Before driving over to the Kane County Government Center I had a twenty minute phone conversation with a friend, who is a professional investment advisor.  The topic was retirement funds, the selling and buying of stocks.  As political policy impacts markets the election figured into our conversation.  I understood by the conclusion of our discussion that a Trump victory would “put money in my pocket” (my words) and that Biden will likely raise taxes if elected, if the Senate turns majority Democratic.  However I cannot stomach the prospect of four more years of silence about White privilege, continued ruin of the environment and accelerating global warming, wildfires out West, diffident response to the pandemic,.. I could add much more.  What would I be willing to receive in exchange, for  the destruction of this society and the planet — that my children and grand children will inherit?  The bare thought itself is obscene.

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The fellow citizens waiting for early voting, in line at the Kane County Government Center were masked, and spaced at social-distanced intervals.  As we moved slowly toward the entrance I had time to contemplate the rather ordinary appearing collection of Americans.  We all waited in silence.  Initially I felt uncomfortable with the absence of conversation.  Gradually I felt the solemnity of the occasion.  Each man and woman of diverse backgrounds bore a sacred responsibility to rectify a great mistake, to give a thumbs down to the crypto-fascist administration now in power.   Together we must begin to repair the damage to our institutions and heal the divisions that have grown between us.