Who is in Charge?

"Who's in charge?" Often you are reminded, "No one." There are the folks in positions of authority,  those who call the shots for countries, governments, companies, churches, boy scout troops, school councils, they have some sway, some power, but the picture is bigger than all of them combined. And all of them need support, followers, voters, workers, acolytes, etc. 

Who's in charge? Everyone, and no one. What happens on the human realm is the collective energy of all of us. There's the good, the bad, the ugly all mixed up in a ball of confusion.

We face a big existential threat? We're probably toast. None of us can really think as a species, we can't work in a coordinated fashion to the betterment of all. We aren't built that way. So yes, "global warming," or "climate change," or maybe better, "the poisoning of all of our ecosystems" will continue on, we can't/won't stop it. We will deal with the consequences as they roll out - rising temps, overflowing oceans, epic drought, flooding, starvation, mass migrations, dying species, displaced people, dying oceans, but no doubt we will burn the oil, extract the coal, we will burn this little planet up, who is gonna stop us?

And sometimes countries, nations, people do really stupid things, and we all pay the price. Sometimes the crazy, madman, megalomaniacal strongman takes over the reins of power and wreaks major havoc. And many, many of the little people cheer them on, and give them encouragement and enhance their power. Last century there was an amazing collection of uglies: Stalin, Pol Pot, Hitler, Milosevic, Kim Il-Sung.

It can happen here. We've been pretty lucky. We've had some weak and ineffective Presidents. We've had some really dumb, destructive, ignorantly malevolent ones too - George W. Bush immediately comes to mind. Probably the craziest, sickest, dude we ever had as President was Richard Nixon - vindictive, petty, crooked, a liar, paranoid, spying on the DNC, conspiring against enemies from every corner, at war with Pop Culture & the students of America, bombing the shit out of North Vietnam, basically out of spite, proving he was a "madman," - but some of those qualities didn't emerge until his Watergate meltdown. It wasn't until we heard the tapes that we realized that H.S. Thompson's darkest imaginings were actually right on and true. When he ran for President he told America he had a "secret plan" to end the war, and he would be the voice of the "silent majority."

So now we come to Trump. An overtly sick, twisted, man. Right out of the box. His sick and twisted nature was a feature, not flaw. And 60 million or so folks actively supported him. Mind-numbing. He tells us he will build a wall, round up and deport people, crack down on dissidents, curb civil liberties, curb a free press, roll back voting rights, take health care away from poor people, cut taxes for the rich, encourage citizens to arm themselves, tear up treaties with other countries, get tough with China, cozy up to Russia, put white people back in front of the line.

It's an ugly agenda, led by a sick, corrupt, incompetent and ugly man. Will the USA just go along? Maybe our Democracy is falling apart? Our Democracy fails when the people don't believe in it, don't invest time it in, don't participate, don't care anymore. We have all grown so cynical, sarcastic, we believe all kinds of falsehoods, lies, conspiracy theories. Our Democracy fails when a person like Trump can win the Presidency. It's a total failure of the system. No doubt. Will there be any checks and balances? Who will stand up? Who is in charge? Maybe no one. Right?!