Tribal Scrum
I’m tempted to begin with “I hope all of you are passing time during the Trump/Hannity Plague (of misinformation) agreeably,” but I know that many of you are not and that my hope isn’t going to help. I’m sorry about that. If you’re trapped at home alone or with people you wish you could escape, I feel for you. If you’re worried that you’re not going to recover financially, I feel for you. If you’re not sure how you’re going to feed yourself or your family if you’re out of work much longer, I really fucking feel for you. We’re in new territory for our culture and time, and where it’s leading is anyone’s guess.
The fact that literally no one knows where this is going is important to remember, I think. The people in power are going to try to return everything to exactly where it was before because that was working pretty well for them. The rest of us—99% of us—don’t have to agree to that. Yes, we’ll be compelled to pay-up and they’ll threaten to ruin our credit or whatever, but they can’t throw all 22 million (and counting!) of us into the streets because we couldn’t pay our rent or mortgage. If I were against the wall, I’d be using money only for necessities and let the banks and landlords and creditors wait till hell freezes over if necessary.
And how many of you realize that if you get really sick from this, you won’t be able to afford the hospital stay because you’ve either no longer got insurance or you couldn’t afford it in the first place? That would include me if I still lived in the U.S. I have a meager health insurance policy but if I had to spend more than a few days in a U.S. hospital, it would bankrupt me. What if this pandemic leads to the U.S. finally joining the rest of the civilized world and making health care a right, not a privilege reserved for the wealthy? We can demand that and now’s the time.
Everyone’s different and everyone has to figure out how to best get through this thing. As for me, I’m taking it a day at a time and living in the moment as much as I’m able. I’m not thinking about how long it will last or what will happen next; that would just be casting characters in mental dramas that would keep me awake at night. Instead, I remind myself that life is never in the past or future, it’s always and only right now. Right now, I’ve got a roof, enough food for a week, and I don’t have to be quiet so the Nazi’s won’t find out I’m in here. I can even walk around outside and enjoy the (newly) clean air. It could be a lot worse.
And I realize that for many people it is a lot worse. They’ve got kids, no job, no savings, and their life is on hold. But their stomachs aren’t on hold. They have to eat. Sorry, Republicans, but when fishing ain’t allowed, you have to give people a fish. And you have to give them one every day until fishing is allowed.
While I hope the current world crisis helps people to slow down and realize that as a society, we can do better, I’m not expecting it. Sadly, there always seem to be enough people in the world willing to fight and lie and oppress in the name of money and power to ruin it for the rest of us. They’ll stir your tribalism by telling you that “the others” are coming for your guns or your religion or your traditions or your money, but it’s really about keeping them in power and historically, fear-of-the-other has been a tried-and-true method of keeping people under your thumb. Though it was a natural part of our evolution, tribalism only benefitted us when the next tribe was a three-day hike away. These days, it’s just fear, selfish greed, and childishness.
But back to the moment; let’s use this one to see how Wayno’s house-arrest was manifesting itself last week…
As I knew it would, this cartoon garnered some angry letters. I got around a dozen messages from people saying it offended them. I politely asked all of them to tell me what about it offended them and only one replied, saying she was offended that we were making light of the crucifixion. I always find it interesting how many know they are offended but aren’t sure why.
Also noteworthy is that most Christians were not offended. In fact, Wayno got a note from a pastor in Ohio who used this cartoon in the church’s weekly newsletter. For more on that, see Wayno’s weekly blog post.
I’m not a believer in these kinds of gods but back when I was, I strongly believed that humor was a gift from God. And I still believe that wherever humor came from, it is one of our species’ most valuable traits. I can’t imagine living without humor and honestly think that if Jesus of Nazareth was anything like modern people think he was, he’d have made this joke himself to his apostles on the Monday after his resurrection. I know I would!
Speaking of people who just won’t die…
For audits, they put you up on the rack.
Congrats to Wayno for doing such a fun job on the early-animation style here. My favorite is the way my Bizarro Alien and Eyeball look! So 1930s!
Another favorite of ours is The Fall of the House of Honey by Edgar Allan Pooh.
If you really want to OWN a karaoke night, choose Kumbaya over and over. Always a crowd pleaser.
That wraps up this week’s post from Planet Earth, Jazz Pickles. If you’re enjoying these and want to be alerted via email that I’ve posted, please toss your email into our sterilized subscription form at the bottom of this page. Also, please consider tossing us a buck or two for our efforts by visiting the links below. Every little morsel helps to feed one of the highly-trained monkeys that draw our cartoons.
Until next time, be grateful, be smart, be nice, and resist ignorance and bullies.
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