As a Pessimist, I Think the World Will Spin Forever

Do not be so naive as to embrace fatalism in the face of rising fascism.

Photo by on

Faces along the bar
Cling to their average day:
The lights must never go out,
The music must always play,
All the conventions conspire
To make this fort assume
The furniture of home;
Lest we should see where we are,
Lost in a haunted wood,
Children afraid of the night
Who have never been happy or good

I start with an understatement: the people of the United States are in a panic.

Despite my admitted lack of faith in United States electoral politics, I was more than a little nauseated as the result of the 2024 presidential election became clear Tuesday night. Is it shocking that Trump has won another term? Not particularly. But it is depressing to see how many people have taken a sharp nosedive into an almost comically cliche cult of personality that caters to white supremacists, misogynists, and every other bigot under the sun.

This depression appears to be a shared one. Over the past few days, doomsday prophets have flooded social media, denouncing humanity as irredeemable and warning of apocalyptic terrors. A sizeable portion of Internet users seem to have embarked on a spontaneous creative writing…