If one had to chose a day that exemplifies our times, today would be a good candidate. Uplifting hope entwined with searing despair, spinning like a dervish. The schoolchildren's climate strike led by a 16-year-old girl with Asperger's, whose newspaper profile brought tears to my eyes. At the other pole, mosque attacks in New Zealand which killed nearly 50 people. New Zealand, of Lord-of-the-Rings, countless-sheep and billionaires'-doomsday-bunkers fame. The country considered too small, geographically blessed and remote for anything bad to happen. The long line of Islamophobic attacks, stoked by so-called liberal politicians, now stretches to "paradise". Of course, in India, Muslims have little to fear from rightwing lonewolf terror attacks because they live in a right-wing state that terrorizes them brazenly.
How does one maintain a semblance of equanimity in these frothy times? Progressive forces are at the strongest they have been in years. People of colour, minorities, survivors of unspeakable crimes, people with mental health issues seem to be throwing off their cahins and speaking out with extraordinary courage and conviction. And a number of these people are women. On the other hand, fascist forces have never been stronger. Our times seeming to be calling the best and the worst, the angels and the devils, to come out and be counted. There seems to be no middle ground in the battle against fascism, misogyny, rapacious capitalism and climate change. I wonder how the status-quoist liberals feel? They, who have fanned the flames of both fascism and socialism. Do they live in a world they increasingly don't recognize? But, does anyone recognize this world? Back in the day, the socialists, fascists and liberal status-quoists were all secure in their own ideas about how the world worked and what they wanted to change (or not) in it. Can any of these groups say that anymore?
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