We’ve reached a halfway point between the shock of November 5 and the horror we know is coming January 20. We’ve acknowledged (I wouldn’t say accepted) the fact a new regime will take over, and nothing will stop it. 

But in what appears to be the waning days of TikTok, I’ve seen a number of creators declare there’s some 4-D chess going on behind the scenes that will expose wrongdoing and save democracy! Well, if there were shenanigans during the election, I want to see the proof, and I need more than astrological charts, tarot readings, and four a.m. psychic visions. If there’s an eleventh-hour Hail Mary to save democracy, I hope it succeeds, but I know it won’t. Do you really think the urgency and courage our leaders have lacked over the past four years would suddenly materialize in the next few days?

And seriously, don’t those creators sound like the other team when their guy lost four years ago? No wonder they’re called Blue-anon.

We don’t have the luxury of magical thinking. We need to be clear-eyed and honest about what we’ll be facing in the coming years because the damage has already been done. 

We had 77 million Americans look at January 6, 34 felony convictions, four other court cases, stolen classified documents, and a judgement of rape and say, “That’s my guy!”

We’ve allowed billionaires and trillion-dollar corporations to have an inordinate amount of control over our society. And these aren’t the robber barons of the turn of the 20th century who had some sense of noblesse oblige to mollify the public. We’re dealing with tech bros who feel no obligation to society. They don’t even have an obligation to the companies they run. They sell off subsidiaries at a whim, underpay and lay off their most productive workers because their massive profits aren’t massive enough, cheat their business partners, lie to their investors, and screw over their shareholders. They dream of a future where all labor can be done by AI-driven robots while we, the “surplus population,” just die off. We surrendered our democracy and future to the most narcissistic, callous, unproductive, and downright stupid 1% of the 1% of society. 

We’ve lost faith in all of our institutions: media, courts, political parties, business, religion, and, for some people, their own families.

So where is the hope that will enable us to get through what we know is coming? There is none, and that’s a good thing.

When you let go of the hope that someone is coming to save us, you realize we have to save ourselves. We form communities and build mutual support. When you let go of the hope for escape, you fight like hell to preserve our values and keep our country from collapsing completely into a dystopia. And when you let go of the hope of your own survival, you become fearless and do what you believe is right.

For example, I started looking for a publishing home for Christina’s Portrait again. I’m not self-publishing it because I want the story to go through the gauntlet of submission, rejection, and refinement so I can make it the best it can be. I believe in this story enough to go through the risks and hardships to bring into the page. And I know this is the energy all of us as authors need to bring to the dangerous world ahead. Our words are necessary to preserve the values we know must endure. Even in the dark times ahead, we must provide a vision of a just and humane world.

Vision is something we as artists offer that billionaires are incapable of doing. You can’t buy it. You can’t generate it through AI. Vision requires empathy, compassion, humanity, and courage. This courage leads to action, and action builds true hope.

I look at the remaining days to January 20 as a time for preparation. We don’t have time for false hope and wishful thinking. We need to be ready for whatever is to come.