There’s a German word I find applicable in these times in which so many people are suffering by neglect, invasion, bullets, bombs, bigotry, oppression, and persecution. It’s a word for those of us who feel the suffering of the world and have grown weary in the constant struggle that all people might enjoy dignity, respect, and self-determination. That word is Weltschmerz. It describes the sadness and weariness in a world that is full of pain.
The world seems dark. Political extremists have infected mainstream politics with ugliness, mainstream candidates and their minions refuse to accept voters’ choices, a televised insurrection that attempted to destroy constitutional processes is gaslit with pretenses of imaginary election fraud, and one presidential candidate speaks openly about jailing his political opponents and releasing convicted criminals. Women’s wombs have become the property of some state governments as politicians insert themselves between a woman and her doctor, dictating medical procedures that have already resulted in death – all under the “pro-life” banner that doesn’t give a damn about living children, especially if they are not white. An entire political party can craft its identity around paranoid hatred and persecution of any minority they can try to blame for their troubles. A large swath of politicians can justify the killing of tens of thousands of Palestinian children and possibly more than 100,000 innocent civilians and call it “self-defense” with a straight face, turning a blind eye to televised genocide and ethnic cleansing.
Political debates can be won on lies slickly told rather than substance and truth. Oil, chemical, and tobacco companies can lie for decades about their toxic products, their victims left to suffer and die while they line the coffers of greedy and unscrupulous “politicians.” One lobbyist has more political influence than any legitimate constituency.
Any notion of truth is sacrificed for profit, dogmatism, exploitation, manipulation, and self-interest. Millions of dollars can be spent on bombs and bullets used to kill innocent people. Public servants who tell the truth – like meteorologists or election officials – receive death threats from right-wing extremists.
Proliferation of the internet could have meant a shared search for the truth and reality but now the most demented of ideas, rumors, innuendos take on a life of their own, fueled by the faux grievances, obsessions, self-interests, fears, and emotional imbalances of pathetic people who are happy to spread the diseases of their minds.
A radical anti-democratic religious movement has made public its sinister plans to take over government and our social institutions to make America a theocracy. Conspiracy theorists concoct hidden conspiracies in their alternate realities while such plans as this (and Project 2025) are openly trying to take over our lives, control media, and establish an American religion. Similarly, large swaths of Christianity have been hijacked for personal gain and political power with identity politics used to push for oppression and self-interest rather than liberation. Most of modern religion in our American world has been freed from any connection to the spirituality that gave it birth. (My last book was about this, called Shadows in the Light of God).
For all its chest beating, pomp and circumstance, America is behind other developed nations in so many ways that have meaning to everyday people. Healthcare is a privilege in America, and it is being made increasingly difficult to vote by people who are afraid of losing elections (again).
Clouds of the Dark Ages are being spewed out of places of religious and political corruption to make it easier to exploit people and land where everything becomes a resource and commodity for someone else’s profit. America has developed so many fault lines. Some seem new but that’s because they are only now becoming visible. Some are being manufactured to serve exploitation. Some justify passivity in the face of evil, claiming that it’s their god’s hand in everything or it’s the “End Times.”
My usual lightheartedness has been burdened by all these shadows. It’s hard to bear the heartbreak. It makes it hard to sing, to write, to create art. Fortunately, I’m surrounded by love to and from the people around me. I have hope for the next generations as well as sorrow for the world we are leaving them, and anger at the challenges they face because of self-serving politicians, corporations, and robber barons.
All of this darkness is what makes a scene from Lord of the Rings so poignant. When Frodo seems to be giving up, Samwise eloquently reminds him that there’s still beauty in the world and that it’s worth fighting for. That scene itself is some of the beauty of this world. Knowing something about large astrological cycles helps. But perhaps beauty is the best remedy for Weltschmerz – recognizing it, finding it, and creating it.