Dystopian Reality

  Even before Covid, I shared many times that I felt like the world has turned into one of the dystopian sci-fi novels I used to enjoy reading. I haven’t been able to indulge in that genre for a number of years because reality hits too closely in these times.

As I watched the news this morning, my stomach clenching, my heart breaking, and my mind spinning, another moment popped into my head. In the final Twilight novel/movie, Alice takes the hand of Ari (super creepy vampire leader) to show him the truth, to show him what the future will be if he continues on his path of narcissistic destruction. In the movie, Alice is horrified as she realizes and says something along the lines of, ‘It doesn’t matter what I show you. You’ve already made up your mind.’ What follows in the movie is an all out shit show, much like what I stayed up late last night watching unfold on the news at our Capitol. 

It doesn’t seem to matter what the truth is, and I don’t need to outline all the facts about the lack of evidence, etc. here. You all know. The end was already in our future because one small minded man, blindly followed by his army of combatants, cannot accept that he lost the election. His followers brought forth the images from Divergent, where the troops are all implanted with the means to make them follow the direction of the person in power. Sound familiar? At least in the novel the troops come around in the end, have remorse for their actions, despite being victimized themselves.

In the movie mentioned earlier, the vampire leader doesn’t decide to call off the carnage until he sees his own death by fire. For obvious reasons, I was reminded of the many political leaders who stuck tight to their fuhrer, who had planned on it still when they entered chambers yesterday, ready to fight the confirmation of electoral votes. It wasn’t until the monster they’d fed and defended for years literally came knocking on their doors, threatening their personal safety, that they changed their stance. Finally, “I’m out! Enough is enough!” It shouldn’t have needed to come to this before they chose the right path. Somehow, it only made me sadder.

I had to go back to the beginning of this reign of terror, trying to find a sliver of a reason why and how any decent person might support this man. Common answers have been abortion, police, and even one person whom I must always hold dear as he saved the life of one of my favorite people in the entire world who says, “Yeah, he’s an asshole, but he’s my asshole.”

I can only wonder at how everyone who has given the okay, whether by active or passive acceptance of what has been wrought these last four years, is feeling this morning. I wish the attempted coup was enough to jolt the troops from their blind inducement to follow, yet even now there are people posting how it wasn’t really the supporters but other groups trying to undermine their stellar goals. 

Boggling, but I am trying to stay positive, stay the course, and continue hoping for a kinder, better world.