Sunday Morning Rant: Rage, rage against the dying of the light
by Kristina Makansi
In the poem, Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night, Dylan Thomas writes about the dying light of old age. This morning, I read it as the dying light of democracy.
And I am channeling my rage against the dying of the light into my fiction.
History rhymes but for some reason, humans too often forget the basic structure of the story. While what we’re going through today is horrifying, throughout history, powerful men have abused women, children, and less powerful men. That’s why we talk about conquest in terms of raping and pillaging.
Because men actually raped and pillaged. And they’re still doing it today. On battlefields, in city streets or behind the walls of concentration camps, in corporate boardrooms, and in the home.
And before I’m chastised, I know it’s “not all men.” Just as there are good men in the world standing up for justice, there are also evil women in the world enabling and participating in the raping and pillaging.
But maybe why what’s going on today seems particularly egregious is because it’s happening to us. It’s not in a history book. We’re living it. And too many humans have the ability to disregard human suffering unless it directly touches their own lives.
History has been dominated by totalitarian hegemony. From the kings of old to the tyrants of today, men of all colors, religions, and wealth have lorded it over weaker, poorer people and have made it de rigueur to attack and dominate those not already under their sphere of influence.
Now it’s happening to us. The murderer is calling from inside the house. We’re living through the dismantling of human rights and the deconstruction of American democracy. We watch in horror as it plays out on social media. (I would say TV as well, but legacy media has failed us. They are—and maybe have always been?—enabling the conquerers.)
Trump and his posse of sycophantic white men and women are odious, but, to me, it’s the everyday Americans who support the raping and pillaging of our own country who are most egregiously awful.
Americans have always been smug hypocrites. Too many of us believe wholeheartedly in our superiority, our manifest destiny, and our ability to ride in with our big guns and our savior complex to seize or save the day. These Americans like to recall WW2, but conveniently neglect the stalemate in Korea, the failure in Vietnam, the “mess in Mesopotamia” (thank you, John Stewart), the abject disaster of Afghanistan, and the cesspools we made of too many political systems in Central and South America.
Not to mention the genocide of Indigenous peoples here at home and the cruelty of the Middle Passage and chattel slavery.
These conquering hegemonic people believe they have the god-given right to take and control everything around them, including other people’s bodies, the fruits of their labor, Earth’s natural resources, and now outer space.
As we read through the Epstein files released so far, it is crystal clear that these people believe themselves above the law of common man. They believe themselves to be superior in every way and that therefore they are in their rights to do whatever they damn well please. It is a grotesquerie. A time of men and the women who enable them freely raping children and pillaging wealth from everyone else with absolute disregard for the consequences for the rest of humanity, for the Earth itself, and for the future of our species.
Still, ranting and raving and rage isn’t enough. That’s why I’m writing my new speculative, dystopian romance series, THE PANTHEON LEAGUE. Within these pages, I’m working out my fear, my anger—and my hope.
Here’s the newly revised back cover copy for the first book in the series, NEMESIS IN LOVE:
AN IMMORTAL GODDESS
A MAN WHO IS MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE
A NATION IN NEED OF HEROESOnce again, the leaders of men are doing their best to be at their worst. These are times when Nemesis, the Goddess of Vengeance and Retribution, must join her allies in the Pantheon League to mete out justice.
But no matter how powerful they are, the gods need humans on their side. Humans must lead the way.
Humans like Cy Bigelow and his friends. But Cy has a target on his back. The self-declared Chancellor of New America, wants to destroy him, steal his land, and exploit the mineral resources for himself. Cy hasn’t spent years dragging the family company back from the brink of bankruptcy to give it all up without a fight.
With everything Cy loves on the line, he, Nemesis, and the rest of the Pantheon League must work together to protect the ones they love. And to save a nation in desperate need of heroes.
Also, please sign up for our newsletter for more information on THE PANTHEON LEAGUE as well as WREQUIEM AT THE RED ROCKS by Jason Makansi. We’ve also got another non-fiction book coming soon from Jason as well. In the vein of his award-winning PAINTING BY NUMBERS, he’s working on a book on knowledge—what we know, what we think we know, how we know it, and why it all matters.
As always, stay tuned for more! And keep standing up for human dignity and democracy.