10 nov 2024

This has been a tough week.

I did my best to be realistic through this current election cycle, anticipating what seemed like the most obvious scenario: A narrow Harris win, some sort of tossup in Congress, resulting in more of the gridlock we've been used to for so long. Instead, we got a Trump landslide.

This challenged the assumptions I had about American society. I've never been an optimistic person, especially since 2016 - American society in general has become more selfish and atomized overall, and not just according to political affiliation. There are a variety of reasons why this may be, though I believe algorithm driven social media has played an outsized role. Maybe I'll write about this in a later entry, or maybe not. I may have been here from the beginning of the Internet and Social Media, watching it all play out, but Robert Evans has done the deep dive on this subject.

Mark Twain's quote "History Doesn't Repeat Itself, but It Often Rhymes" is going to be quite helpful to process what's going on in society. It's becoming clear that we have fully entered a period of populism. Americans are tired of the status quo and want change, for better or worse. This is a cyclical phenomenon. It has happened before and it will happen again. Coming to this realization is giving me solace. I can maintain control over my and my family's destiny since I have an idea what to anticipate.

With the right beacon, we can navigate chaos.

Some media to consume:
Unpacking The Election’s Impact On Markets | Cem Karsan
Some More News - The Painful Reality of a Second Trump Term
If Ghost wrote 'THRILLER' | Steve Welsh