I have been trying to figure out how to avoid giving in to despair.
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Transcript:
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:27:03
Bennett Tomlin
Welcome back to my personal channel, where we remember that the rich and the powerful are to blame. I've been absent here lately because I've been struggling with despair about what chance we all have against the rich and the powerful, who aid and abet them. I have not been able to find the words to adequately address or grapple with conditions as they are, conditions as they are becoming.
00:00:27:05 - 00:00:59:03
Bennett Tomlin
I've previously tried to grapple with fraud and corruption, but I'm overwhelmed by the pure magnitude of the fraud and corruption we are seeing. What can I add to the news of the president accepting tens of millions of dollars from someone convicted of fraud in Russia, or in a different case, the news of the president accepting tens of millions of dollars from a crypto plagiarist who is almost definitely insolvent, and using the funds from an exchange he owns as if through his personal funds.
00:00:59:05 - 00:01:27:17
Bennett Tomlin
Even worse, there is no regulator who will pursue those cases. The white collar crime parts of SDNY and the FBI have been liquidated, and it seems futile to try to build political will around an impeachment centered around corruption. The fight is no longer on the plain where I am used to fighting. I can no longer fight by simply highlighting the crime with hypocrisy, because there is no mechanism to turn that into power or into change.
00:01:27:19 - 00:01:55:03
Bennett Tomlin
That's not to say there is no value in the work. It leaves a trail that in months or years or decades to come, will be valuable in rebuilding revenge, or in reimagining the future. But I personally find it hard to do that work when it simultaneously makes you a target for retribution and is unlikely to have any impact for years.
00:01:55:05 - 00:02:23:20
Bennett Tomlin
The corruption we are seeing goes so far beyond anything we have seen before. What could I possibly say? What can I add when the corruption is not even being denied by the participants in the corruption? Obviously it's still bad and I couldn't m saying that it's bad. But if you were incapable of seeing that this corruption is bad, then you were beyond my ability to reach.
00:02:23:22 - 00:02:50:07
Bennett Tomlin
Now. To be exceedingly clear, I am incredibly grateful that so many skillful reporters are covering these crimes. But what commentary do you need on obviously bad things? There is a rapist in the white House. Do you need someone to give you commentary that says rape is bad? If you do, rape is bad. But also, what the fuck was wrong with you until you got that commentary?
00:02:50:09 - 00:03:13:02
Bennett Tomlin
What combination of words can I possibly say to someone that has already decided that rape, corruption, fraud and dishonesty are acceptable? They have crossed moral gulfs I cannot imagine. And yet the problem with all the true things that I've said so far in this video is that they lead me to despair. And despair is a deeply unproductive emotion.
00:03:13:04 - 00:03:49:23
Bennett Tomlin
It almost Definitionally cannot be used to motivate, cannot bring about change, and portends a future of even greater despair. So I've been trying to find things that keep the despair at bay. The first one of those that has been useful is trying really hard to get my news from the news, instead of from social media. Every time I log on to a platform with short form video, which is apparently all the platforms, now, there is someone on there actively and loudly misinterpreting news policy or what the actions of politicians actually mean.
00:03:50:01 - 00:03:55:03
Bennett Tomlin
All in a desperate bid to get my attention and my emotion for that brief window.
00:03:55:19 - 00:04:20:08
Bennett Tomlin
The effort and thought required to take in one of those short form videos. Assess the claims. Assess the source. Figure out what it means in position one. Actively eliminates the value of getting it quickly in a short form video, and two, with such a high level of effort that I often did not pursue it and instead fell deeper into this sense of hopelessness and despair.
00:04:20:10 - 00:04:48:23
Bennett Tomlin
So instead, I've set up Calibre to pull down from the Associated Press, The New York Times, the Financial Times, The Economist, Mother Mother Jones, ProPublica, Bellingcat, wired, and a couple of others. When I want to know what's going on in the world, I read the news because each of these outlets has incredibly talented journalists who are working really hard every single day to figure out what is real and what is fake and what matters, and where it fits into the context of the things as a whole.
00:04:49:04 - 00:05:13:18
Bennett Tomlin
And so getting my news from that source instead of Instagram has been helpful for avoiding the despair scroll. The doom scroll. The second thing I've been doing is trying to read more books, because books for me are timeless in a way that a lot of other media is not. People have suffered under authoritarianism throughout time. People have been exploited throughout time.
00:05:13:20 - 00:05:37:13
Bennett Tomlin
People in all of these times have imagined better futures and struggled against the existing structures that they are connecting with. These stories, whether through nonfiction or fiction. Helps me remember all of the history of humanity that has come before, and all the things that have happened, or the progress that has been made, and all the progress that is yet to be made.
00:05:37:15 - 00:06:05:06
Bennett Tomlin
Doing that has put me more in tune with the broader spectrum of like, the history of humanity rather than the timeliness in a derogatory sense of like TV and YouTube and all of that. And don't neglect fiction when you decide to read more either. The stories there still reflect utterly human things that are important to remind yourself about.
00:06:05:06 - 00:06:07:13
Bennett Tomlin
When you start to feel this despair.
00:06:08:15 - 00:06:23:22
Bennett Tomlin
The third and final thing I won't talk about is that I joined a group to try to organize in my community. My wife really encouraged me to do this because she wanted us to feel like we were doing something that mattered for actual people in the real world, in our community.
00:06:24:15 - 00:06:39:00
Bennett Tomlin
And even if you're doing something where it's really hard to measure the total impact of working with people who still believe, working with people who still care, and working with people who are still trying gives you a small sense of hope.
00:06:39:02 - 00:07:00:13
Bennett Tomlin
And that tiny light of hope helps keep the darkness of the despair pushed to the edges. For me, the group I joined is the Democratic Socialists of America, specifically my local chapter, the Quad Cities Democratic Socialists of America. This video is not about the DSA and I'm not here to tell you to join the DSA. And I'm not defending the DSA.
00:07:00:15 - 00:07:36:08
Bennett Tomlin
No organization is perfect, especially not a big tent organization and especially not a big tent organization that needs to keep Mensheviks, Marxist-Leninist, Maoists and market socialists on the same team and pulling in the same direction. Historically, a challenging thing to do. At a certain point, I had to quiet the incessant voice in my head that always wants to criticize and accept that participating in something that was just okay, or even just good was better than doing nothing but waiting for the perfect at the end.
00:07:36:08 - 00:08:05:21
Bennett Tomlin
Objectionable. Starting now was more important for me than trying to figure out the best way to do it. Now, for you and your community. Perhaps this looks like working with the Working Families Party. Perhaps it will look like volunteering at your local food bank. Perhaps it's canvasing for a political candidate you truly believe in. Perhaps it's organizing a union in your workplace, organizing a tenant union in your apartment building, or showing up for protests and other activities that are going on.
00:08:06:03 - 00:08:31:02
Bennett Tomlin
But find something in your community that you can do with other people that still believe in the future. None of these things is a complete solution to the despair. I feel as though the ends of my nerves are fully exposed to the world and rubbed raw. I feel a splintering in my mind that leaves me with a desire to scream at those who are unwilling to entertain or grapple with reality.
00:08:31:04 - 00:08:52:17
Bennett Tomlin
But each of these things has been important in allowing me to continue persevering. And I need to keep persevering because I hate losing and it is felt like I have lost. I lost the fight against fraud. Lost the fight against white collar crime. Lost the fight against fascism. And in terms of the recent battles, we have been routed and sent into ignoble retreat.
00:08:52:19 - 00:09:24:03
Bennett Tomlin
However, I still believe that that loss need not be permanent. That collectively we can build a society that is fair and just and has plenty for all. I still believe in the future because I still believe in all of you. The journey from here to that future will be dark and full of terrors. But we must persist. We must maintain hope and avoid giving in to the despair.
00:09:24:05 - 00:09:29:19
Bennett Tomlin
Because if we give in to the despair, then we truly lose.
Thank you
Proud of you, Bennett!!! I am also glad to see that you have landed in the QC, that is where I came from when I moved to Crystal Lake. I really liked what you had to say in this video and will try to watch some more. I hope your brother and sister are doing great!
Very proud of you,
-Mr Moon