Whenever you encounter a contract, the advice has often been, make sure you read the fine print. When an authoritarian such as Trump starts taking over, life does go on. We’ll wake up to go to work or school, we’ll have TV shows to watch and newspapers to read, the internet will still be available, we’ll go to the grocery store, friends will still come over, the sun will rise in the east and set in the west, in general, life will go on. However, did you read the fine print of what that life will look like for you?
Life will go on, and here’s the fine print:
- You will have a great job, as long as you are in the party and kowtow to the man in charge.
- You’ll spend more time with your parents as they will most likely live with you as there will be no more social security or Medicare.
- You will have a favorite show, and it will always have a propaganda theme to tell you how great your life is and how great it is to have Trumpism.
- You will have a favorite news channel to watch, but it will be all lies and “alternative” facts spewing how great your life is, even as you struggle to put food on your table.
- You will be able to vote in every election, with your one choice being Mr. Trump because anyone trying to run against him will most likely just disappear.
- You have great chats with your neighbors, mainly about the weather because you know if you say one wrong thing about Mr. Trump, they might turn you in to the police.
- You’ll kiss your spouse goodbye as you leave for work, as long as you are straight and married, the LGBT+ will have been persecuted and most likely gone in some fashion or another.
- If you are a woman, you will be hauled into court if you don’t give birth to “their” child, regardless of how you became pregnant because men rule and you follow obediently.
- If you lose your job, you will most likely be living on the street as there will no longer be a social safety net.
- Your gun(s) will be confiscated as the man in the Oval Office will not want you to have the means and the weapons to fight back against him in any shape or form.
- You will have equal justice as long are straight white and married.
Life will go on, but will it be one which celebrates freedom of thought, uniqueness, and individualism.
Life goes on in China, North Korea and Russia. We just ignore their life experiences, and wonder why they don’t do anything to change it and get rid of their leaders.
Yet we are allowing our contract, the Constitution, be shredded by the Republican Party at this very minute, while many around the world wonder why we aren’t changing anything and haven’t impeached and convicted the man in the Oval Office. The Republications are rewriting the fine print of the social contract we have, based on Constitutional freedoms and norms; if you haven’t yet, read the fine print.
Life goes on under an authoritarian.
However, is it be a life worth living?
Personal Reflections of a Middle-Aged Man 