a k a K e n S m i t h . c o m

Don’t count on the alienated

There being no reason that the people profoundly alienated and abandoned by the regime in place prior to Trump to become active citizens only for the purpose of restoring that regime as fully as possible, and

There being no way to imagine — create the working terms for — a notably better version of that prior regime, different enough for the profoundly alienated to find some hope in the admittedly so far only imagined difference, then

Finding a way to remove Trump and Cohort from office will probably leave untouched a notable portion of the alienation that supported and energized his ascent in the first place.

Don't waste the crisis, they say. Don't work hard to restore a faulty past alone, even if that faulty past seems better than the frightening present. Create the working terms for something better, not better than the frightening present but better than what preceded it. Work hard, yes, but not only in the solitude of one's study but through a widening conversation and affiliation with others.

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