I Give Up.
It's too late for the same old excuses, so I give up on giving up.
Martin Luther King spoke about the long arc of history bending toward justice. Implicit in that sentiment is the progressive world view that the world is — with its ups and down — always getting better.
This idea came from Europe in the 19th century at the height of colonialism. Before two centuries ago, there was no conception among humans that the world would improve for all people as a matter of course. Then the philosopher GWF Hegel and the German Idealists — followed by one Karl Marx and his proclamation of an inevitable worker's revolution—gave us historical consciousness and the idea that those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it.
In the 1830s Germans were espousing the idea that things would progress toward the general good just because we are rational beings. Progressivism is the notion that problems like poverty, illiteracy, racism can be solved, like a puzzle or a game. But as a mentor of mine, systems thinker Jane Lorand, once told me, "You can't solve the ocean." Some things are too complex to be treated like puzzles. Germany found that out by the mid 1930s.
The ocean is complex, life is complex, your neighborhood and family and friendships are complex. The things that matter most can't be solved, they have to be cared for, tended to, nourished.
Since the Clintons' neo-liberalization of the left, the finance-industry bias of Obama, the "Free Speech Zones" of the Patriot Act, failure of the same old playbook of the various marches for Women, Race, Science, Climate — speakers on stage yelling slogans — which have all come to nothing, and of course the ultimate victory of Vice President Trump and his $$ backers, progressivism has failed to provide a world better enough to survive its own activities.
I am tired of sitting around with liberal-mined friends shrugging our shoulders and pretending this is just the way the world works or strategizing for the next election cycle. History shows us that the world changes, again and again; only ideology tells us that it progresses.
I give up on waiting for policy to catch up to fundamental human needs.
I give up on political parties being our best choice for action.
I give up on the same old modes of "protest."
I give up on assuming "they" will fix "it" for us.
I give up on waiting around for the next crisis.
I give up on shaking my head or my fist.
I give up on the American dream.
I give up on being told what is right and wrong.
I give up doom scrolling through gate-keeping corporate platforms.
I give up on cancelling everything that is difficult to hear.
I give up on "they" and choose "us."
I give up on pessimism, I choose action.
I give up on helplessness, I choose mutual support.
I give up waiting for things to be better, I've already started.
I give up fear of death and disaster. I choose life.
Read on for some of the stories I will be covering in 2025, a year certain to be unlike any other.
But first … Spread the word
Refer a friend to The SUB_SCRIBE NEWSLETTER. All my readers discounts are eligible to win a free night at Axiom Hotel in SF, a location surrounded by art and activity. You deserve it, because, why not? Mutual support, you feel me?
A Different Kind of Line up for 2025
Be on the look out for a spiritual turn in these webpages. In the next few weeks I will be revealing an interview with Oren Lyons, a Haudenosaunee Faithkeeper of the Indigenous peoples of Turtle Island (also known as North America). Our conservation was as eye opening as it was bone chilling. It is a reminder that many among the people who have lived in this land most commonly called America are not holding their breath for the rest of us to figure out how to care for it, nor fooling themselves about the impacts of our presence. When the shit comes down, population centers like LA will burn, while land restored by tribes and clans that are relearning how to care for it will have the best chance at surviving the impact of climate catastrophe.
In the spring, when [naturally] warming weather draws me outside, I will be covering the Noise Pop Festival, because, you know, joy. I'll also be posting interviews with participants of the Bioneers Conference in Berkeley, and sharing a history of Sonoma County's own Sustainable Enterprise Conference, back up and running this year after getting knock down by COVID.
Expect posts of reportage on homeless camps as site of resistance, NYC anarchist artist collectives, and the flourishing kink scene on the tumultuous shores of the Mediterranean.
From the spiritual tradition of those Indians from the other side of the world ... (did you know that in many languages the distinction between the two "kinds of Indians" is very clear. Not in English though....Huh.) ... Yogi Ramanand Patel is a beautiful human whose wise words I hope will help us all in this year ahead.
So stayed tuned, GIVE UP on the bullshit, and get ready to fight for the good life.
Throwback: I was told I wrote the most clicked story on the website of the East Bay Express...
Michael Giotis