Les Phillips Blog

It Started Over Coffee

I’ve just completed my 78th orbit around the Sun. I never thought I’d live this long. I continue my journey through this unexplored territory. A week ago I was sitting in my favorite cafe. I felt good, Sitting at my favorite table with good friends. We were celebrating a beautiful Spring day.

Unusually, we talked about current events. Typically we avoid the topic as a courtesy to my conservative friends. But that day the topic of politics came up. I heard one of them say, “I don’t worry about what’s going on. We don’t have any control over anything. Why get upset?” I hear this from many people. I just nodded and went along.

But, I kept mulling it over. During the last few weeks I’ve struggled to write something worthwhile. I’ve written daily and at length, but it was hollow. I kept focusing on my past. Sometimes it was interesting, sometimes insightful and heartfelt. But not on point. I drifted, trying to justify my effort.

What my friend had said, “We don’t have any control over anything. Why get upset?” gnawed at me. I understood his meaning. Why do anything? We are helpless. We should focus on ourselves. We need to get along and not rock the boat. And I’d chosen not to disagree. I felt hollow.

This triggered determination I hadn’t felt in the last weeks. After my friends left the cafe, I got another coffee. Then, I pulled out my tattered copy of Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search For Meaning. I like to read a few pages at a time and then spend time thinking about it. I see if it applies to what I’m experiencing. And, it did.

Prison America

We live in an America that is becoming a nation-wide prison camp. Trump is busy fencing in our bodies and minds. Fences keep people out but they also keep us in. Trump, Oligarchs, and MAGA lie to our faces, hide information. They deprive us the ability to understand our situation. They are stringing barbed wire fences around our minds. They are stealing our free will and ability to decide for ourselves. They are stealing our ability to act and build a meaningful future.

Sipping my coffee, I read Fankl’s observations. He noted the forces in a concentration camp destroy a person’s will to act on their own behalf. These forces eventually destroy a person’s will to live.

The prisoner loses his hold on his inner-self, which is the ability to imagine a meaningful future. We decide to flee into the past. It is a free decision brought about by depression, uncertainty and hopelessness. This is a primary tool of oppression. It is an attack on all of us, including MAGA supporters. A prisoner in a prison camp has no idea when or if they will ever be free again. This proceeds to fearing for their existence. This is amplified as the chaos continues.

Frankl calls this a Provisional Existence. A period when planning for today is not possible because of the intentional chaos. Without a stable Now, we seek comfort by turning to tour Past. We want to escape our painful now. Without our now, our future ceases to exist. We are powerless. We can only focus on ourselves. There is no future nor reason to continue.

This intensifies the spiral towards our enslavement. Without being aware of our painful now, we blind ourselves to the opportunities that exist. These are opportunities to create meaning from our trauma. We lose our chance to build a meaningful existence in the now. This opens paths for planning a meaningful Future.

Problems Today Are Built From Lost Futures

I think that many of our problems today are based on lost futures. Many Americans live in a provisional existence. We can’t plan our futures because our lives are chaotic, under physical and psychological threat. Racism, sexism, bigotry and the such crush our now and destroy hope for the future. There is just more of the same old, same old.

Now and the Future

What keeps us alive and moving ahead? We live in a continuous state of expectation. What’s next? We live in the Now but look towards the Future. This can be simple. What’s to eat? When do I take the kids for a walk? When do we go on vacation? There are complex futures. How can I buy a house, pay for my education, make certain my family has health care? How and when can I retire? Planning for the future pulls us forward through life.

Frankl pointed out that the surviving concentration camp prisoners had turned their trauma on its head. The horrors they experienced were deeply personal challenges. They realized that their pain was an “opportunity to grow spiritually beyond themselves.” It was a test of their inner strength, their spirit. The prisoners chose to accept the challenges of the Nazis to keep their humanity. Every act maintaining their self-respect was a victory. Every act of respect and empathy towards others were victories. Each victory built a meaningful now and resurrected a future to move towards.

To be clear, these are spiritual victories, where we transcend our old selves. They build our resilience and determination in the face of seemingly unending abuse. We chose to make the current real. This choice enables us to act as we think is right. We become agents of our destinies in a powerful, moral way.

What’s A Body To Do?

We don’t live in a prison camp yet. But its psychology is being used against us. We can act on the behalf of ourselves and others. We have a challenging now that requires our attention and engagement. And, we have a future worth planning for and living.

To stay emotionally alive it is necessary to stay aware of our now. We need to use our empathy to allow ourselves to show our humanity and touch others. This a test that takes us beyond ourselves. We need to retake our power by acting. This requires our extending our hands to others. Some things we can do:

• Joining a protest or movement,
  • Contacting our elected officials; local, state and federal by calling their office, writing letters
    and sending emails,
    • Attending public events like governmental board and committee meetings, hearings,
      • Write our local, state, and national newspapers and magazines. It’s a buzz when you get
        published,
        • Write comments on news articles,
          • Engaging in school meetings,
            • Voting in local caucuses, special elections and referendums,
              • Donating to organizations fighting for issues you are passionate about and reading their
                newsletters,
                • Talking to family and neighbors,

Our Future Is Still Alive

The more we engage with what is happening, the more we learn. We become more connected with each other. We develop more confidence. We take back our power to act. The positive power of life is bubbling all around us. We can celebrate it and grow beyond ourselves, becoming better versions of ourselves.

We are not powerless. Trump and the Oligarch’s future is not inevitable. Now is the time we can become our better selves.

Resist and Grow

About the Illustration

This is a US Army recruiting poster from 1916. It is the figure of the Spirit of Columbia. Not the country. It was another term for the US, like Uncle Sam. Unfortunately named for Columbus. But, it also represents Democracy and the American Dream. Progress has come slowly, freedom, in a diverse society, with meaningful equality and inclusion is a work in progress. That why I chose this poster. A reminder that we’ve been at this for a long time and will continue into the future. Democracy may be an old idea. But, it is alive and modern as now.

I am fascinated by old posters. They are glimpses of the emotional and artistic environment of the Past. I removed the text and inserted modern values. History informs us.