To what end is the continuation of the United States of America as a whole country, and a functional (even if not perfect) democratic republic. To what end is to give us a chance to change into that something better that you spoke of. To what end is to not see ourselves engulfed in a bloody civil war that will surely be the worst the world has seen since the Russian civil war...and would probably even eclipse that. I'd rather avoid tens of millions dead for an outcome that history tells us is almost certain to be worse than where we're at right now. That's to what end.
And I already admitted, I don't know the path to avoiding that and getting to something better. That doesn't mean the path doesn't exist; that just means I don't know it. I personally can't give you an answer that will satisfy you. Luckily for you and everyone else, I am really not smart and I am not campaigning to be in any sort of position to put us on the path.
I spend time among the elders of the NAACP and Lenape elders. Their communities have survived centuries of abuse and destruction. Absolutely catastrophic destruction, 90%+ loss of life for the Lenape. And they're still around talking about it, still fighting back where they can, still rebuilding every day. Singing, dancing, drumming, telling their stories. It puts recent problems in perspective.
Yesterday a local Lenape chief gave a talk here and he was asked to speak about the future of his community. He spoke of reclaiming sovereignty for his people. And for his people to reclaim sovereignty he said they needed land for water, food and electricity. They had made plans of creating a community center with solar power, they tested the local creeks and found drinkable water among them, they have plans for a CSA to provide food for their community. It's all still a dream for them, but its in line with what I've been working toward myself.
I put solar panels and a battery on my house. I have rain barrels and filters that could be used in a pinch. I doubled my garden this year. We've taken to shopping in the local Indian and Latin American groceries and are working on signing up for a CSA. The oppressors want you to give up. But anything you do to build resilience works against them. Just surviving works against them. Build resilience, help others that share your values. Live. As a pagan writer said, approach late stage capitalism as a salvage operation. Save what you can of worth for tomorrow, but never expect to repair the world's problems today.
The tech community expects change to be fast. Sometimes it is. But social change is slow. Extremely slow. It takes decades. Ask the elders. In their lifetimes there were still Indian schools trying to stifle their culture and they were told not to act Indian, while today they go around and speak to full lecture halls about the stories of their people while galleries exhibit the traditional works of their artists.
