Welp... it's bad

It's not alright out there, but we can make it better

Welcome to Fundamentally Unserious Nation (also known as FUN!). This is an opportunity to let out some thoughts on the state of our world and how I think we got here. I’ve heard journalists and authors I respect say that we need to bear witness to what’s happening, and my efforts to do so will be kept here. This will be admittedly American-centered in scope, because you have to write what you know. That said, with the amount of influence the U.S. wields around the world, and the fact that there are two major wars in the news threatening global conflict (plus many others not in the news), there’s no shortage of material.

Let me start by saying that this is not a direct response to the recent presidential election, despite the fact that I’m writing this as the president-elect is making a series of increasingly troubling and ridiculous potential cabinet appointments. It seems that as a country the U.S. has decided to accelerate the “find out” portion of FAFO (more on that in a moment). But the idea of Fundamentally Unserious Nation has been in my head for at least a couple of years by name; even longer as a concept.

I live in a country that should not be taken seriously. Many here refuse to acknowledge the blood and cruelty needed to build America to what it is. Or the continued suffering our political and economic machines need in order to continue our current way of life. A staggering amount of Americans continue to believe that climate change is either not real or not worth worrying about. More still continue to believe that capitalism is a vital component of human progress moving forward. That infinite growth on a finite planet is not only possible, but a worthy goal! None of these reflect positions you would expect from a mature nation with any introspection.

As I mentioned before, America has opted to accelerate the latter phase of the “fuck around and find out” process. Make no mistake, election of Harris as president was not going to stop what’s coming. I will not “both sides” this to death. I have no doubt that some amount of suffering would have been avoided with Harris in the White House instead of trump. However, there would not been enough action on climate change. There would not have been any progress towards guiding our economy towards the degrowth model that is desperately needed in order to avoid long continued long term damage to our ecosystems. This train has been coming off the rails for a long time; basically my entire life, at least. There were times where it seemed like we might try to slow the train down, or even stop it. But I fear those days are behind us. The engineer has decided that it’s full speed ahead, even while some of us frantically pull the emergency brake.

So here we are, with the first issue of a periodic newsletter adding the chorus of voices raised in concern or alarm for what comes next. Let’s not kid ourselves: we’re about to enter a rough patch as a country and as a global civilization. Things are not going to be getting any easier for many of us, and markedly harder for some of us. My goal is to supply useful information about what’s happening, as well as how you might make your immediate situation better. You can expect topics to include survival and individual resilience, science and technology, security, and maybe an occasional dip into more lighthearted fare like fantasy and sci-fi media, and Dungeons & Dragons. (I think you’ll find there’s a lot more overlap in the venn diagram of those topics than you might realize.) I look forward to sharing my perspective and hearing feedback from you. I hope we can grow a community together and provide each other the support we’ll all need to survive in a Fundamentally Unserious Nation.