Evolving Man Project

“Those mob fools want you gone so they can get back to the way things were. But I know the truth. There’s no going back. You’ve changed things…forever.”  – The Joker, The Dark Knight

Normalcy 

I’ve always felt this scene from the Dark Knight was one of those by god; he has a profound point moments. The person with radical views or opinions always seems to be the villain in movies. Despite their dastardly deeds, they make some great points. (See Killmonger in Black Panther film). The statement above capture’s today’s cultural and political time we’re all living in. A global pandemic has brought the world economy to its knees, and social distancing is becoming the new normal.

Speaking of normal, the idea of normal is what has marred us in this real-life Black Mirror episode in the United States. The shitty reality tv host is now president after beating the most famous female politician in American history. Her campaign and supporters underestimated their enemy and a majority of white women voters. #thefiftythreepercent. There’s a whole slew of liberal voters who want to go back to the go old days. The ‘normal‘ days these liberals speak of is the Obama years. I figure they think America only got bad once Trump took office. I’ve seen it on social media and from in-person conversations with liberals. It’s always; we want to go back to when things were normal.

Well, from the quote that began this article, there is no going back. September 11, 2001, changed things in America forever. In the past twenty years, the United States; has been engaged in two drawn-out wars in the Middle East, multiple proxy wars across the globe, a Great Recession, the raising of Black Lives Matter Movement, the rise of the Alt-Right, countless mass shootings, the election of the first black president, an ongoing global pandemic, a possible depression, and the Kardashians.

We’re not gonna mention the human cost of those events. But the #Resistance crowd will tell you this if you let them. “We’d all be a brunch right now if Hillary was president.” The American Kleptocracy has been in full swing since Reagan. Racism and sexism didn’t begin with Trump, and it will probably be around after he’s long gone. I’ve only highlighted the recent history of this nation. We can go back to its inception and see what was normal to the privileged was chaos to not so privileged. For white settlers, it was called manifested destiny, but to the indigenous people’s it was called genocide. To the Founding Fathers, it was called capitalism, but to the Africans brought to this nation by force, it was called slavery. I think you get my point.

At this current moment, the nation is on the precipice of a significant calamity. While the current administration spews lies and thinks that propping up their Wall Street buddies through bailouts will save America and rid it of the Coronavirus. They’re wrong, but our nation is so morally bankrupt the millions of workers who had lost there jobs don’t have sick leave in this crisis or even before this started. Where other countries have put moratoriums on rent and utilities during this global emergency. Thus easing the burden for those dealing with the health and financial impacts of Coronavirus. The US is refusing to offer its citizens that type of dignity in a time of peril. The Democrats want to gain woke points for making diversity on corporate boards mandatory. The GOP wants bailouts without any strings attached. The Obama administration did the same thing in 2008, bailing out Wall Street while it left millions without homes and jobs during the Great Recession. This bailout once again will leave working-class and poor people out to fend from themselves while there is another transfer of wealth to the 1%  and corporations. But hey, you get a one-time payment of $1,200 so party! These types of policies led to Occupy Wall Street. The same thing might happen again, but tenfold due to Mother Nature’s fury thanks to Coronavirus. But the next Occupy Wall Street might not be so nice? Viva la Recolution!

So, there is no going back after everything that’s happened in the last two decades. We’ll never be back to normal, even if we elect the guy with a “black friend.’ Though, we should have voted for the old dude that wanted to give us all healthcare and free college. But, the United States was never normal, to begin with…”And, why so serious?”