A very clever DJ on the radio this morning played Pete Yorn’s version of Splendid Isolation (originally a Warren Zevon song). It seems apropos, after this week’s election results.
David Remnick’s An American Tragedy, from The New Yorker, is a well-written (but fairly depressing) assessment of the situation. Tim Urban’s It’s Going to Be Okay is a bit more hopeful.
Joshua Benton, at Nieman Lab, has written a good overview of the media forces at play in this year’s election. I’ve been reassessing my own consumption of media, though I think I’m probably going to keep reading and watching the same things, for the foreseeable future: The NY Times, The New Yorker, The Guardian, and PBS NewsHour for “real” news, and The Daily Show, Colbert, and Samantha Bee for “funny” news. I’m thinking about cutting back a bit though, especially in the short term, just to keep from going crazy.
Given GOP control, the institutional check on Trump in the next four years will come from the media–if we can rise to the occasion. https://t.co/mlXdMWN9yv
— Nicholas Kristof (@NickKristof) November 9, 2016
I’m thinking a little bit about religion too, but I’m not at all sure what to do on that front. I think that the Catholic Church is going in the right direction, so that’s a ray of hope.
I stand with Jesus who stands with all those who work for justice and peace.
— James Martin, SJ (@JamesMartinSJ) November 9, 2016
And a little escapism isn’t a bad thing. (I’m re-watching some of the Harry Potter films this week, for instance. And reading some comics. And listening to some Doctor Who audio dramas.)
Read some escapist literature today. "The only people who inveigh against escape are jailers." -Tolkien
— Cory Doctorow (@doctorow) November 10, 2016
And some cosmic perspective might help too:
Sometimes you need a Cosmic Perspective… pic.twitter.com/XQO6I1tLjr
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) November 10, 2016
(I don’t usually try to embed multiple tweets in a blog post, so this may look weird. But hopefully it works ok.)
I’m also thinking about doing something that I haven’t done in a long time: create a mind map. I’ve had a lot of thoughts going through my head about positive things I can do over the next four years, both to stay sane and upbeat, and to help others. But I really need to organize those thoughts. This NY Times Op-Ed piece by the Dalai Lama has given me some additional stuff to think about, but I’m really not sure where to go with it.
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