Loneliness, War, A Presidential Speech, A Zoom Call To Process It All
Zoom Call Friday Afternoon
Worried? Lonely? Fired up? Got ideas? Just want to hang out with cool people? Want to talk about the new war?
Join this Friday’s Zoom call with volunteers for some community, connection, and hopefully some scheming about next steps for this nonprofit. We’ll also talk about the state of the world, the war(s), and the US. What we do on the call will depend on who decides to join in. May well be super cool.
You are totally welcome to join and listen in only. Call is 3 pm Central time. Video participation not required!
Loneliness Changes the Way Our Brains Process the World
A recent article in The Conversation explores how loneliness appears to affect the way our brain processes the world. Very intriguing possibilities for what this could mean; including some of the mess up in our own country’s sociology such as conspiracy theories, open hostility, and the ongoing radicalization of thousands in various ways. The article referenced here underscores how very important it is to address loneliness to help us better understand and act within our shared reality.
The idea that loneliness can affect how our brains process the world is of particular interest to our work here because our basic approach includes a huge focus on connection and community. We need both in so many ways. It’s so rough up in this country that the US Surgeon General warned in May of the Devastating Impact of the Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation in the United States, including an 82-page report that totally supports our own emphasis on connection and community.
Connection and community are such basic things we can do to counter loneliness, but as a society we haven’t put a huge focus on these things or on how to do them well (confirmed by the Surgeon General’s report above). These things take skills, intention, courage, and practice — and they are ongoing. Connection and community are key to helping us re-weave our social fabric, to building power, and to increasing our resilience and strength. Connection and community can help us counter authoritarianism too; which is designed to help us feel alone, overwhelmed, and despondent.
Join us on Friday’s Zoom call to get going in ways we’re going to be working to emphasize and grow connection and community as part of our political work here. There’s so much opportunity. Join in on our early-and-still-growing volunteer community in our Facebook group.
War, Escalation, & A Presidential Address
Well, looks like the US is heavily involved now in a second major war in the world — the war in the Middle East. Tonight at 8 pm Eastern time, President Biden will give a short presidential address regarding the situation in the Middle East, to be carried by most TV networks.
I don’t know what he will say, but it seems like a very wise idea.
Given the chaos in the US House of Representatives right now as the Republicans have not elected a Speaker to the third most important position in the US, a presidential speech may be able to help set a bit of a tone and to do some unifying. It’s the kind of thing we needed after the insurrection, but didn’t get due to politics. It has often felt like we haven’t had a center of gravity since then. A growing external threat certainly might help the US pull itself together even a bit; a presidential speech can help provide focus and momentum for the same goal.
It’s doubtful that it will be enough to counter what is now a far-right extremist movement in the US Republican party that’s taken decades to build, and that’s backed by an enormous media establishment.
But — a presidential speech can help. It’s the right move. Not doing one would be weird; especially when our own president has been giving numerous meaningful speeches on the subject outside the US.
It’s time. Also it’s especially time as the US continues to ramp up its readiness and deterrence capacities in the region. The Foundation for Defense of Democracies has a nice summary of details, including the two aircraft carrier groups and now 2,000 troops placed “on alert for potential deployment to the Middle East. In addition, the Pentagon is moving the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) aboard the three-ship Bataan Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) closer to Israel” (also cited here). A navy command and control ship has also been mobilized.
My background is big disasters, homeland security, and risk analysis — it’s not defense. But I know this...
I've been on this planet for five decades. I've seen us come close to some tense world situations before. We’ve often had actual war; although it’s been contained to various regions. We've had a lot of horror and tragedy and trauma in the time I've been alive.
Yet I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like this. It feels real. It feels deep. It feels old.
It feels absolutely enormous and spectacular, and not in the good ways.
I think some mistakes will be made that will change the course of things; not unlike yesterday’s bombing of a hospital in Gaza (allegedly by Palestinian Islamic Jihad per the US and Israel but considered by many across the Middle East as per Hamas’ word to have been done by Israel).
I think some things are going to happen in this whole situation that we very much don't expect. I think some decisions will be made that will do the same. By the US; and certainly by other players. Six days ago — which seems like a long time ago already — Australian Liberal Party Defence & National Security Policy Chair Lincoln Parker noted how quickly World War I ramped up due to complicated and unexpected developments; stating similar possibilities for World War III given this current scenario. No one wants to say it, but yet the possibility is real.
We are in this.
Anyone who thinks the US is not is in some denial. I'll make that declaration. How's that?
A presidential speech this evening will hopefully give us some parameters at least for today about how involved exactly we are — so far.
Iran is also very much in this, despite the US and Israel not wanting to say it out loud. Which is probably wise. But it doesn't change the reality: Iran is in this.
China and Russia are making their alliances and preferences known. Superpowers aligning, or not. Russia has been making what might seem like strange moves in this new unfolding war, but when we see them as mechanisms to focus the US outside of Ukraine they make sense. The more the US is involved in the Middle East, the less likely Putin might think we are to continue supporting Ukraine.
All kinds of other countries are watching what’s unfolding in the Middle East. They're watching each move. Each power play. Each bit of propaganda. Each bit of truth. Each horror. They're watching the money. They're watching the weapons. They're watching the death. They're watching the threats. They're watching those threats play out.
The UN is involved and fired up. The International Criminal Court is involved and fired up; and has jurisdiction as Palestine is a member.
There are already humanitarian crises. There are already war crimes. And this is just getting started.
For our part, in addition to our very heavy funding of Israel and lighter funding of other players in the region — the US now has some very serious military capabilities in and mobilizing to the Middle East.
The US president has been in the Middle East. US cabinet members have been there. Speeches are being made. Money is being moved. Diplomacy is happening, at lightning speed.
I would like to be wrong, but I don't think I am...
I suspect this escalates.
I suspect it's going to change the world.
We would be wise to start getting ready.
We can. We have options.
We're going to need to be more resilient.
We can do that partly by doing the stuff we already talked about to combat loneliness and authoritarianism — working on connection and community and reweaving the social fabric where we live. That doesn't mean we need to heal the social fabric with everyone. But we can work on stitching and weaving some pieces together for sure that will help us find our way forward through all of this better, together. We absolutely can.
As things intensify, we’re going to need better, stronger, more resilient, local and regional groups for influence, for power, for action, and for finding our way through. We can do that by building on our existing political and other action work. There’s so much opportunity to take everything to new levels — for an unprecedented time.
Join us. We go forward together.