Now We Know
We will soon be rid of Trump. But not Trumpism.
Well, now we know.
I don’t just mean the results of this election.
Now we also know a little bit more about the state of our culture. And it’s not great.
Turnout was supposed to be the solution, but in actuality it revealed that 70M people approve of the past 4 years… and somehow, inexplicably… wanted more of it.
Let’s not dwell on why that might be, others can unpack this better than I can. But needless to say — this realization is incredibly disappointing.
It means that we have a lot of work to do. We got rid of Trump. But not Trumpism.
I still believe, maybe naively… that there is some percentage of Trump voters who are REACHABLE (and yes, some percentage who are Lost Forever).
Let’s not waste any effort at all on the Lost. But in this episode and coming segments of my podcast, I want to examine this through a media and messaging lens — since that’s my playground. I want to look at two things:
- How can we find a way to talk to one another with empathy?
- How can we use media to speak with clarity about our ideals?
There are critical conversations happening right now around racial justice and much-needed social change, the escalating climate emergency, and oh yeah… a pandemic that continues to rage unabated because of failed national “leadership” coupled with our culture of selfishness.
My first goal is to not get in the way of those conversations. My voice is not necessary right now. I should be doing more listening than talking. I’m trying to do that. At the same time, what good is having a platform without using it to assist and amplify the voices we should be listening to right now?
I’ve been learning a lot lately — and it’s taken a lot of unlearning as well. Our culture carries water for a lot of cancerous concepts. Many of them are hiding in plain sight, unnoticed simply because 1) they’ve always been there, and 2) privilege is a blind spot.
I’m not here to debate this, I’m here to help. Here’s the thing: The culture is ours. We get to create it. Yes, there are well-moneyed foes and powerful forces against us. But in our best moments, we stand together and sing in tune. Our voices form a chorus of change.
I don’t have to be the leader of that change, and you don’t either (though if you are, I’m here to cheer you on). But we do need to participate. It starts with small actions that become habit. Small actions multiply.
I invite you to follow along:
- My podcast, refocused somewhat over the past few months to steer into these challenges.
- My Patreon community, where I share exclusive episodes and a new experiment with workshopping and unfinished works.
What I hope is that these will become a series of small actions. I don’t purport to have any of the answers. But we have little chance if we don’t have the hard conversations that lead to asking the right questions.
More to come — I hope you will join me in this exploration.
Sincerely,
Michael
Cover image: I took this photo at a NH primary event, on 2/8/20 (seems like a lifetime ago). Joe was not the strongest speaker that night, by a long shot. Wanna guess who was? Two candidates in particular were incredible in a live setting like this.
