Getting our ducks in order

Jumping into the swim for our lives

For a little intro to me, this is something that would have been up my alley during the last half of the 1970s:

For four years, in the early days of the new techniques and ideas about self-discovery that were under the umbrella of AHP, the Association for Humanistic Psychology, ELF Enterprises Unlimiting was my umbrella for doing some very imaginative things in Los Angeles. ELF’s motto was, “Put the elf back in self,” and my partner and I were known as the Elfinselfs.

“We’re making it all up, so it might as well be wonderful,” that I use in my signature, was from our ELF song, and we were working on creating ELFUNZOS, a place for good times, when Life had other plans for me.

Although one lifetime is such a small blip in eternity, still there’s been time for a lot of movement in mine. I’ve gone from the hopefulness of the post-‘60s era of est and self-discovery, to the despair we experience now that there may not be another generation that lives comfortably, which has been a trip from charming my world to trying to save it.

I like what’s on the political stage now, where we’re mocking our leading man that’s always seemed to me like the way to go with such a phony human being. If anyone with a large readership would announce a contest for takedowns of him, I’d put up prize money for the best ones. Actually, it might not get us anything better than what was passed along in Substack Notes by Tham Zhiwa, who wrote PLANETARY HOSPICE 2025, a very good grounding in the reality we face that I recently cross-posted to you.

Here's his contending takedown of Trump, where the prize would go to Jack White, as reported on by Tham:

Do NOT mess with Jack White! Got it?

BREAKING: The White House melts down and attacks music legend Jack White after he insults Donald Trump's "disgusting" and "vulgar" redecoration of the White House.

“Jack White is a washed-up, has-been loser posting drivel on social media because he clearly has ample time on his hands due to his stalled career,” claimed White House spokesman Steven Cheung.

“It’s apparent [White]’s been masquerading as a real artist, because he fails to appreciate, and quite frankly disrespects, the splendor and significance of the Oval Office inside of ‘The People’s House,'” Cheung added.

This is Jack’s response…

"Listen, I’m an artist and not a politician so I’m in no need to give my answer or opinion on anything if I’m not inspired or compelled, but how funny that it wasn’t me calling out trump’s blatant fascist manipulation of government, his gestapo ICE tactics, his racist remarks about Latinos, Native Americans, etc., his ridiculous 'wall' construction, his attacks on the disabled, his attempted coup and mob insurrection and destruction of the sacred halls of Congress, his disparaging sexist and pedophilic remarks about women, his obvious attempts at distraction about being a close personal friend of Jeffrey Epstein and his inclusion in the Epstein files, his ignorance of the dying children in Sudan, Gaza, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, his lack of empathy for military veterans and those struggling with poverty, his attempts to dismantle healthcare, his obvious wimpy and pathetic kowtowing to the dictators Putin and Kim Jong Un, his Nazi-like rallies, his attempts to sell merchandise and products like Goya beans through the office of the President, his fake 'gunshot to the ear' that he showed no medical records or photographs of, his constant, constant, constant lying to the American people, etc. etc. etc.

"No, it wasn’t me calling out any of that, it was the f*cking DECOR OF THE OVAL OFFICE remarks I made that got them to respond with insults," he continued. "How petty and pathetic and thin-skinned could this administration get? 'Masquerading as a real artist'? Thank you for giving me my tombstone engraving! Well here’s my opinion, trump is masquerading as a human being.

"He’s masquerading as a Christian, as a leader, as a person with actual empathy," he wrote. "He’s been masquerading as a businessman for decades, as nothing he’s involved in has prospered except by using other people’s money to find loophole after loophole and grift after grift.

"His staff of professional liar toadies, like Steven Cheung and Karoline Leavitt, have been covering up and masking his fascism as patriotism and fomenting hatred and division in this country on a daily basis," White went on. "And I have 'ample time on (my) hands'? That orange grifter has spent more taxpayer money cheating at golf than helping ANYONE in the country improve. Anything. There is no progress with him, only smoke and mirrors and tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy.

"So, Maga folk, enjoy your concrete paving over of the rose garden, your 200 million dollar ballroom in the White House, and your gaudy-ass gold spray painted trinkets from Home Depot, cause he ain’t spending any money on helping YOU unless you fit into his white supremacist country club rich idiot agenda.

"Wow, he hates who you hate....good for you, be proud of yourselves, how Christian of you all.

"The only way you can support this conman is because you are a victim of the 2-party system and you 'defend your guy no matter what he does,'" he wrote. "No intelligent person can defend this low life fascist. This bankrupter of casinos. This failed seller of trump steaks, trump vodka, trump water, etc.

"This man and his goon squad have failed upwards for decades and have fleeced the American people over and over," wrote White. "This professional golf cheat, this grifter who has hundreds of thousands of deaths from his inaction on the pandemic on his hands, this man that the majority of the country somehow were fooled into supporting and voting into office (through the flawed electoral college) and their love of reality television stars.

"Being insulted by the actual White House that this particular conman leads is a badge of honor to me, because anyone who trump supports and likes is a villain who gives nothing to their fellow man, only takes what can benefit themselves.

"And no I’m not a Democrat either, I’m a human being raised in Detroit, I’m an artist who’s owned his own businesses like his own upholstery shop and recording label since he was 21 years old, who has enough street sense to know when a 3-card monte dealer is a cheap grifter and a thief.

"I was raised to believe that we defeated fascism in World War II and that we would never allow it again in the world. I don't always state publicly my political opinions, and like anyone I don't always know all of the facts, but when it comes to this man and this administration I'm not going to be like one of the silent minority of 1930s Germany. This man is a danger to not just America but the entire world and that's not an exaggeration. He's dismantling democracy and endangering the planet on a daily basis, and we. all. know. it.” -JW III

People who see things I see, like Tham, are showing up on Substack, and it has me thinking. We need to redo the world. How can we do that? The good writers are screaming about how dangerous things are, but, even if everyone knew that, then what? Zoom is not a medium for a back and forth to figure new things out together. When new technologies come along, we squeeze how we were doing things into what’s new – old wine in new bottles sort of thing. So, we have the internet, but what we do is listen to lectures followed by Q&As, just being virtual now instead of in auditoriums. But what would a new way to collaborate on the internet be?

I’m toying with an idea. I wonder about savvy people commenting on each other’s posts as a way that suits the internet age. If people with expertise about overshoot and collapse and global warming were darting around, poking at reality with each other, ideas that emerge could go into Notes where others could plug in and comment on them. It would be a giant dialogue going on in different places, that Substack provides a way for so everything can weave together. Could that be a contemporary way for progress to be made? I am feeling like I might be onto something. Chime in if you have any thoughts. My trickster has been waiting in the wings for a return, and go Gavin, go to the Tham Zhiwas of the world, go to the Jack Whites, and may the world become a sunnier place where Suzanne Elfinself would make her return!

---

---

I urge you to have a look at comments I’ve made in Substack Notes to get immersed in the point of view I argue for.

---

Suzanne Taylor’s Now What? is looking to a revolution. You could say an evolution, to a next phase of consciousness where we act from our interconnection as one humanity. Please help get it seen.

• Like this post. Click the heart. Substack is counting!

• Comment by clicking the thought bubble.

• Share it by clicking on the arrow pointing up or to the right or on SHARE.

• Cross-post it for your subscribers to get it in email.

• Restack puts it in Notes, Substack’s social networking. This is great for Substack writers to do!!! Click the 2 arrows around in a circle.

For a onetime thing Substack writers can do: Recommend Now What? to your subscribers. From your Dashboard → on Creators Tools click Recommendations → click Add recommendation → search for Suzanne Taylor’s Now What?