IN CASE OF EMERGENCY BREAK GLASS

A vocal critic of Benito Mussolini, Antonio Gramsci, Italian philosopher and politician, was imprisoned for his political views in 1926; he remained in prison until shortly before his death in 1937.  From his cell, he wrote the Prison Letters in which he famously said, “I’m a pessimist because of intelligence, but an optimist because of will." 

In this time of upheaval, when the post-World War II world order is dying, a new world order is being born, and monsters roam the earth, it is from Gramsci's dual perspective that I write this post.  I will be brief.

The window to oppose America’s headlong rush into authoritarianism at home and neo-imperialism abroad by congressional or judicial means has closed.  

Law firms, universities, businesses, the press, media, foundations, and individuals alike who have been deemed "insufficiently aligned" with the Administration's agenda, have been intimidated into submission by frivolous lawsuits, expensive tax audits, capricious funding withdrawals, spurious license revocations, approvals of hostile buyouts, and illegal terminations of employment, either threatened or acted upon, by their government.  

When that window closed, it was mudded over to shut out the fresh air of debate and the sunlight of truth. Until that window is unbricked, America will continue to live in a windowless room of its own making, shuttered in darkness and sealed in silence. 

 

This is an emergency.  Our leaders and representatives have not come to our rescue.  It is now up to us.  

In the face of the pessimism engendered by the reality of this malevolent moment, I choose to hope, by an act of willed optimism, that my fellow Americans who cherish freedom and stability and a physically and emotionally safe environment within which to pursue their lives and raise their families, my fellow Americans who cherish an open and democratic society, where the majority rules but is constitutionally constrained to protect the minority, will use their collective intelligence and their collective will to see this moment for what it is and to say loudly and unequivocally that they have had enough.         

Keep it real!

Marilyn