“Do not go gentle into that good night…”

(At least, don’t go alone…)

I first posted a version of this message in 2019, when I said it just didn’t feel like “morning in America.” I’ve edited it for 2025: shockingly, it didn’t take much revision.

I’ve been thinking hard about how people can cope during this time of overlapping crises, because even though I’m not that old, and my country’s not that old, I have Dylan Thomas’s poem constantly in mind:

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night. …

Then, I said the people didn’t know what truth is anymore, systems of justice were suspect, and economies were revealed to be crumbling; and progress we thought was real was an illusion. And I announced, with my usual slight, snarky, overstatement,

“I think they’re trying to cancel the Enlightenment…”

And I asked fondly, remember how the Enlightenment brought us science? Progress? Rational thought?

Then, we had an elected president who did not believe in science or know what it is, really. He just merrily defunded the work of countless medical scientists, climate scientists, nuclear scientists who all try to help us avoid plague, global scorched earth, and getting used to having three legged cows–and thought we’d be grateful! Gee– thanks! More tee times at the golf course, because more people will certainly die. What a guy, that President.

Turn out the lights in the clinic as you leave…

Pages: 1 2