I’ve been feeling the need for something to chant or recite, some protective spell, or abracadabra-like thing that will quiet the noise in my head, and lower my anxiety.
I’ve been searching for a way to understand all the violence and the hate in the world. Especially lately.
On Tuesday, September 16th, I found my mantra.
It is the title of Ezra Klein’s piece:
We Are Going To Have To Live Here With Each Other.
(Drag the playhead to the beginning of this video, before the Ben Shapiro interview)
I’ve been reciting that title under my breath, especially when I hear or see something horrible in the news.
Which is always.
Which is why the news has to go.
In addition to this great title, in the piece, he says,
“We are going to have to be friends and foes at the same time.”
That one’s going to take a more skillful, ninja mind trick to pull off, because it’s asking us to live in that tense, tight atmosphere where magnets repel each other; that weird, oxymoronic space defined by a contradiction of terms.
Friend/Foe.
This situation reminded me of the novel, Life of Pi.
It’s the story of a young Indian boy who finds himself stranded for 227 days on a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker.
The whole book describes how the boy, Pi Patel, and the tiger, Richard Parker, figure out how to live on that boat without killing each other.
That’s precisely the situation Klein puts us in. He says, “We are going to have to live HERE…”
He didn’t simply say, “We’re going to have to live with each other.” He said we’re going to have to live HERE with each other: on this life raft, in this house, in this neighborhood, in this country, on this planet.
This hit me hard because I’ve been seriously planning my escape from Trump-ville. I dream of the day when I no longer have to encounter Confederate flags on pickup trucks and Trump lawn signs everywhere. I need to live with people who share my values, and these people don’t.
But what Klein is saying is that there’s no escape. I can move, sure. I can even go so far as to get dual citizenship and move to Portugal, if things get too bad, but as long as I live on planet Earth, there will always be people I’ll vehemently disagree with, and I’ll have to live with them wherever I go, like it or not.
Essentially, we are stuck with these ignoramuses, and we’re going to have to live here (on earth) with them.
Klein also didn’t say we need to LEARN to live with each other. Maybe that was implied, but he didn’t suggest taking time, or a course, to learn how to do this.
There’s no time for a course. This isn’t something you learn, anyway. This is something you recognize, immediately, instantaneously, in a flash. And then it simply becomes a truth about reality.
We are stranded here on planet Earth with a tiger, and we have to find a way of living without killing the tiger or being killed.
Cal Newport who spends a lot of time studying and writing about the evils of distraction, sent an email to his list the day after Kirk was killed. It was short, and wise. Here’s Newport in his own words:
“All these platforms (Twitter, TikTok, Bluesky, etc.) are toxic and dehumanizing. They are responsible for the unravelling of civil society.
They make you believe that your frantic tapping and swiping make you a key part of a political revolution. They make you believe that when you’re online, you’re someone important, doing important things during an important time.
This is an illusion. In reality, you’re toiling anonymously in an attention factory while billionaire overseers mock your efforts and celebrate their growing net worth.“
His solution?
- Quit using these social platforms.
- Find other ways to keep up with the news.
- Be a responsible grown-up who does useful things, someone who serves real people in the real world.
And to this advice I say, YES!
I will keep reminding myself that: We Are Going To Have To Live Here With Each Other.
Then, I will wean myself from social media and confine myself to doing useful things IRL.
It feels comforting to have a plan at least.
Inspiration Location 
“toiling anonymously in an attention factory while billionaire overseers mock your efforts and celebrate their growing net worth.”
Well put. The old adage is true: If the service is free, then you are the product.
That’s why I’ve never used TikTok, Facebook, Google whatever, et al. I keep in touch with friends via email and texts (which I pay for). I post to my own website (which I pay for). And of course I read your posts, Kath. I pay my ISP for the privilege. That’s enough.
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Yours is the definition of the only sane response to all of this. I congratulate you and bow down to your ability to resist the siren songs of destruction and doom. I hope to learn how to do this. I simply must. Thanks for your response. ~ Kath
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