Diary 45

Saturday, May 2nd

Today really should have been May First, because the weather was fine and clear and it felt as if something had shifted, changed, and got into gear. We’re still under the same lockdown, but one’s attitude to it is different, somehow.

The protesters in Michigan are still making noises. But let’s be frank: there are very few of them and the media seem to be making a big fuss because, really, there’s not much else that is eye-catching and ‘newsworthy’. Let’s stop giving them all this attention.

Meanwhile I am still assailed by email pleas that we have to ‘fight’ against ‘tyranny’ and donate to this ‘action committee’ that will ‘defeat’ or ‘crush’ the adversary, or whatever. I’m not sure if this makes much sense. If one fights an opponent all that happens is more fighting, more misery.  The tides of history swirl around us, and struggling against such forces is like trying to push a river. What we may want to do is use our energies differently. 

What this means in real terms I cannot tell, as yet. I suspect it may begin in the area of labor relations.  When Americans stop allowing themselves to be disrespected and exploited for just a few grubby banknotes things will change. Today, as so many Americans cannot work at all, we are already witnessing some changes. People are refusing to work in conditions that are potentially fatal. Good. It is a job. You do it so you can have a life, not so that it destroys your life. Perhaps we are starting to revalue the worth, the beauty, of life. Perhaps we’re already saying that unbridled capitalism truly isn’t the way we want to live.