Circling Psychic Wagons
Four weeks to go, get under cover.
We have precisely four weeks until what will be the most consequential election in U.S. history. I’ve been saying We’re Gonna Fight for years, and We ARE Fighting for the last ten days. Six days ago Clear The Mechanism was about what I’m doing to stay focused. Spurious George has some IRL stuff to do, so my Flying Monkey Morning Report is constrained, and rather than looking at the frantic attempts to get my attention, I am resolutely staying in my lane.
I’ve heard from several others since the start of the month and, as expected, this is universal. Working groups are facing an onslaught of distracting inputs, some are just organic “state of the world” things, but there are a lot of “watch the shiny” moves. There are a couple group wranglers I used to hear from monthly who are all up in my DMs, they’ve got weird problems that fit my skill set, or weird group problems and want to bounce ideas off me, or just … stressed by the volume of activity.
I have my own queue, which was most recently enumerated in October Observation Opportunities. My stuff is in “watch & wait” mode. Reporters have to please editors, there’s a LOT of breaking news, and things that are top of the stack for me are not on anyone else’s radar, unless I periodically nudge them.
This is going to get steadily worse for the next twenty eight days, and then we’ve got an eleven week lame duck period that’s going to be anything but quiet. So now is the time to accept things as they are, and get into a defensive posture.
Attention Conservation Notice:
Just me musing about self-care in times of trouble. If you don’t need an air hug this morning, just move on.
Care & Feeding:
So this is a stressful time, no escaping that. What are you doing to take care of yourself? Here’s my supplement regimen of the moment.
Time release 5-HTP 200mg (serotonin precursor) AM.
Doubling RDA for L-tyrosine (dopamine precursor) AM & PM.
Good ol’ magnesium glycinate (calming) AM & PM.
Ashwaganda (adaptogen) AM & PM.
Kava kava (calming) on occasion.
Alcohol, as a rule, isn’t a good idea. Now that marijuana is legal I know a lot of people who lean that way, it’s not for me. I have had delta-8 THC as an alternative to kava, always left me with a nasty hangover grade headache, so that’s a nope. There are other things out there with varying utility, I have no experience with them, so you’ll have to do your own research.
Did you get your COVID shot? Well, get it done BEFORE things get any more exciting.
Do you have a fitness monitor? Are you getting enough exercise? Unplugging is the #1 method of remediating stress from online conflict, and I don’t mean looking at 90 second YouTube wildlife videos and counting that as a walk in the park.
Group Dynamics:
The very first question I’m asking everyone is this:
“Why does this need to be done before the election?”
And if there isn’t an immediate, solid answer, it probably doesn’t need to be done.
Second question:
“What will completing this task accomplish?”
If the task has no material effect in the next month, probably don’t do it, unless it’s immediately useful in the lame duck period.
So I’m asking about Urgency and Importance. There are a number of things I have shot down HARD. They include:
Bullshit persona turns up, doing some attention seeking bullshit, seems to have made a mistake, let’s go chase it.
Fringe nuisance behavior/persona/movement policing, when there is little chance of neatly trimming that fringe in the best of times.
Deep document diving without being able to estimate when, or even IF there will be some sort of payoff.
Extinguishing Gaslight:
One of the things that isn’t obvious in that Group Dynamics section is dealing with gaslight. I’m Ignoring Irrelevant Idiocy, because I know that after 72 hours of hearing the same bullshit over and over, it’ll start to affect me, even if I know intellectually that it’s nonsense.
New people who have never experienced this before will either not recognize it, or not realize that the only solution is to cut it off. This is a situation where you have to be gentle, but firm. Ideally you have someone in your mutual circles who can do what Spurious George does for me - keeping an eye on things that are calculated to bother me, so all I see are a couple screen shots the next day. If you don’t have someone to do this … maybe it’s time YOU did it.
I have been doing it - long conversations with some of the Gang of Eight, and with that next ring of NCOs/specialists around them. There are some first timers in there, but they’re surrounded by “been there, done that”, so they get a lot of support I never see. “Neal says maybe just chill” is a new catchphrase, but it’s typically coupled with a cat that looks like this:
Little Things:
Having expelled the “online activist” world from my life over the last four years the financial pressures are greatly reduced. I am on the hunt for more commercial work myself, but overall things are much easier than 2020. Some little things I’ve seen in the last few weeks include …
My iPhone disappeared for 36 hours, and there was an immediate “how do we get you a new phone?” effort, thankfully unnecessary in the end.
Normally I jealously guard my little stash of cryptocurrency, because I’m forever asking people to send what they’ve got, but this week I wrangled some pizza for a sleepover.
Someone needed to go home for some family emergency, and that guy with all the miles just said “I got this”.
There’s an additional vehicle in my spot out front, a pile of stuff under the carport, and someone in transition is having an easy month instead of a shitshow.
A kind word, an “I’ll check that for you”, a gift card … these little things are the lubrication that keeps the world from grinding to a halt.
Conclusion:
When historians get to this period I think they’re going to mark the start of our second civil war as January 6th, 2021. The most notable symptom of the brewing trouble, as seen on this site, is Snivel War: Raiklin’s Short List, in which the self -appointed “Secretary of Retribution” is circulating an enemies list in an attempt to recruit death squads. The toxic rhetoric is spiraling up everywhere, there are organic, and synthetic online efforts to trigger violence.
What this will mean is not precisely clear yet. Who chooses to act, where, and when is a matter of intense interest to DHS, FBI, and state/local law enforcement. If troubles spikes hard and fast enough, perhaps the Insurrection Act will come into play. We don’t want to see those conditions, obviously, but if they come to pass we must have an immediate response.
While Harriz/Walz are strategically on the march, tactically we’re in force protection posture, unless there is some immediate, obvious gain to be had by adjusting course. This means limiting adrenaline usage, curtailing cortisol levels as best we can, and letting the campaigns do their thing. If there’s a clear opportunity to put some points on the board, then GO! But if it’s not clear, conserving energy and resources is key.
There’s an inflection point in four weeks, but that’s also the start of an eleven week slog. Don’t exhaust yourself and your crew a quarter of the way through the march.