Editor’s note: This commentary is by Dan Jones, of Montpelier, who is managing director of Net Zero Vermont.
[F]or the past month I have been watching close friends and family descending into a pit of despair and depression over the Trump presidency. Not just the usual seasonal descent into darkness, but folks seem to be verging into clinical depression. Several doctor friends admit that there is a growing epidemic of depression. It has me thinking that we need to change our mindset.
Now let me be clear, I fully understand the source of the growing fear. It’s not Trump’s early choices for Cabinet positions, though the moral challenges of most of them are pretty frightening. But there is something much worse and this is what has so many people I care for quivering. Trump’s election has given permission to the worst vermin in our society to crawl out from under their rocks and start spewing racism, misogyny, homophobia and general hate with no fear of reprisal. Gay people and women are assaulted on the streets. Unfortunately this treatment isn’t new for my black friends. Seeing Sig Heil salutes, street attacks and the like has exposed the frailty of our national consensus of civility.
We have entered a full-blown system known as kleptocracy (look it up). The laws made to protect the investments of the rich will ensure a deepening of this awful situation.
Psychology teaches us that maintaining fear of a “system” that individuals are beyond their capacity to change, is the essence of social control. The ongoing stories reminding you of how awful things are getting in the Trump era guarantee you feel powerless and afraid. This is from the liberal corporate press. From the conservative side you have the same emotional messages being put out to the benighted audience of Fox and Breitbart. For that audience it is the big government that is taking your rights and privileges and giving it to welfare cheats and dirty Muslims.
If you want a change now, you must be the change.
The authoritarian right wanted to find its salvation in a supreme leader who would have the internal power to take on the system. They now have Trump. I personally believe this system will collapse of its own regard in a relatively short period, but that such a collapse will drag the rest of us with it unless we start to image a different way of adapting to this moment.
To counter this situation, we need a way of changing the local systems without counting on any help from the traditional sources of political power. The anti climate, anti well-being party of greed is in the saddle. Traditional forms of redress of grievance are now futile. If you want a change now, you must be the change.
The only way you can possibly help shift things in our favor is to go the next level of understanding. With our national government descending into barely contained chaos, the only place that we can find security and healthy connection is right here at home. Yes, Dorothy, just keep saying “There’s no place like home.”
Your community and neighborhood is the place where your actions and concerns can make a difference. We can see this understanding blooming in the number of our cities (Burlington, Winooski, Montpelier) that have declared themselves sanctuaries for refugees. These will soon need to become sanctuaries for women, gays, people with disabilities and then the helpless frightened. Once collected in the embrace of such amazing small cities, the refugees will then bring their imagination and personal strengths to help build and improve these places where they are safe and can thrive. One might imagine that those escaping a collapsing society will have a lot to share about what works and doesn’t work in meeting the growing darkness.
Here in central Vermont we actually can begin to imagine opening us to a future that can support all of us humanely, but perhaps not luxuriously. This local future will be a place where food and energy is found closer to home, where we can be attractive to talented young people who want to escape the dark descent of other regions. It is a place where, like in the aftermath of Irene, we can collectively imagine building a sustainable future for ourselves. This sounds like a smarter plan, rather than waiting for federal subsidies and government coordination of any development we desire. This collective effort would allow us to create a future in which we all want to live even as we endure watching in horror as other parts of our country and the world descend into a dystopian nightmare. To get there, we need to start using our personal power where it can make a difference. Right here at home.
Here in Montpelier we even have a wonderful vision emerging of what this future could look like. It can be seen in the final entries to the Sustainable Montpelier Design Competition. Top designers from around the world have offered their best proposals for what a sustainable future could be in our little state capital. The choice is now down to five finalists and you can view their proposals at www.netzerovt.org. There will be public voting on these designs in early January, and hopefully, this process will provide a model of how we can take control of our future here at home. So keep informed, and if you are from Montpelier, make your voice heard on what kind of a good future we can build here. You can exercise your power for good right here, even as the worst among us fight over the corrupt web of power in Washington.
