I had written an essay back on April 2 which seemed apropos then but as yet unpublished, I’ve replaced it with what I think has perspective on our current moment. There is no one vantage point from which humanity can digest and assimilate the vagaries and constant movements that engulf it, that it creates. That cannot be, however, an excuse for how we indulge our fancies, ignore truths, and delude ourselves at the hands of incipient, or not, tyrants, sycophants, and opportunists. We live in a circus: evolutionary, theatrical, spiritual — fill in the blanks.

Show me any other species that is as preabsorbed by what it imagines or is taught to be true as opposed to what is actually true. Enter our current times and morass. Illusion and reality, so much the preoccupation of writers and philosophers. We are either fascinated by our contradictions or horrified. Turned into humor or pathos. We feel caught up in the shifting conflicts, the challenges surrounding us or that we fabricate. The wise person knows how to maintain perspective and retain control of emotion, disruption, theft of person, mistaken prerogatives.

We have to understand what we’re looking at. Does the shoe fit, does the product really help us or serve any real purpose? Yes, things that entertain have limited attraction or profound echoes. A large percentage of the world’s population does not have the access to advantages and wealth we take of granted. It’s hard for a person like Elon Musk to put himself in their shoes. It doesn’t make any money. Same for Donald Trump and his ilk. But it becomes a game. Musk bounces about as though some God from Olympus. Even Zeus was less capricious, bound by myth itself.

But we revere ambition and knowledge. It’s a commodity with a price. Republicans just passed a budget bill that fats the rich and cuts Medicaid. Our power structure rewards ignorance and blindness whenever it can. Our job is to stop it, and with an imperfect system that can put the minority in a bind, not to mention the population. People have trouble understanding their best interests. Orators of old knew how to use language to sway the populace with no matter what means. Trump perfected that art. It’s in fact all he knows. The human part was stamped out by dad Fred, plus television.

Our only resort now is not the press but demonstrative visibility. Trump backed down somewhat on the tariffs but not really. He keeps his foot on the accelerator. To slam it shut will require increased participation. The farmers on TV last night were visibly affected by their loss of markets. Yet they may very well vote Republican again. It takes a lot to get those entrenched out of their foxholes. Pundits are still lamenting the Democratic House and Senate members as uncentered. The population certainly isn’t. Cory Booker stands out along with Adam Schiff for their leadership.

But the overall character of the debate still rests on Trumps erratic stances while he, at the same time, now pretends it’s all a ploy. His estimates of possible backlash and damage appear wildly out of control. We no longer look with our minds; we look with our conditioning. Media has molded a population that is indulgent and fawning, uncritical and impressionable. The news media looks at the Democrats as now the elitists. The peripheral effects worldwide look like a painter’s canvas imitating Jackson Pollock. The wildly actual substitutes for abstract.

God is way off somewhere. We’re on our own when it comes to managing our own growth. There’s man down there ignoring his real gifts while allowing the very worst of his band to run rampant, trampling any principle or true ideal, any real holy principle. But that said, we’re all back here on the ground scratching our eyes and wondering what we can or should do.

Light a candle. Join into any group devoted to preserving our highest principles as a people and a world. United, we can illuminate the darkness, and it cannot flourish. Look to the power of our thought, to our history. Already the clamor is rising loudly across the country for making a stand. Do we need a grand march on Washington? YES! Do we need to continue pummeling our Republican congressmen and women? YES! Do we need to build this movement to the point that in numbers and in peace our resolve is unmistakable.

Democracy must be preserved at all cost. 1789 set in stone the foundation for a society that would honor its people high and low. Look what it’s taken to get this far: wars, struggles, strikes, and determination. Our time is Now. Let’s seize it!

Alan Harris lives with wife Jane and cat Kiko in Shelburne Falls, while publishing his satiric novel, singing and hiking. Welcome spring.