Dreams > Nightmares
Keeping Calm + Standing Up + Taking Naps During Dark Times
From my reading and understanding of history, the American Dream has been under attack since it was first popularized during the Great Depression.
While the American Dream originally stood for democracy, liberty, and equality for all, it’s been perverted, shape-shifted, and twisted—by business, political, religious, and social “leaders”—to focus on making a buck and not giving a fuck about anyone—or anything—but yourself.
What started as a dream—an ideal of opportunity and prosperity—has become a nightmare for most of us. Climate change, corporate greed, cultural divisions, legal media manipulation, pay-to-play politics, systemic inequality, and willful ignorance have destroyed countless American lives. And left many of us disenfranchised and disillusioned. By design.
The idea that hard work alone can lead to success has been weaponized to blame anyone who struggles to “make it happen” for not working hard enough. By whom? Those with more dollars than common sense…of course.
It’s as if the ultra-rich think they earned those billions without lying, cheating, and stealing at the expense of anyone dumb or unlucky enough to do business with them.
But dark times are nothing new.
History is littered with authoritarians and wannabe dick-taters.
The power-hungry asshats, clowns, and conmen might pretend to be smart, but they don’t know basic history or science.
Taking a look at history, during the French and Russian revolutions, protesters and rebels used the guillotine to kill royals and rulers. During Stonewall, drag and trans royals used bricks, sticks, and stones to fend off the police and defend their basic inalienable human rights. History has a way of repeating itself. Just saying…
As for science, Newton’s Third Law does a good job of summing it up: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
For better or worse, this goes for every action, whether we agree with it or not.
For better and worse, the pendulum of history and time is forever in motion.
The question is not if the American Dream can be reclaimed but how we—the everyday people—can keep calm, stand up, and fight for a future that serves us all.
KEEPING CALM AMID CHAOS
One of the first steps to surviving dark times is refusing to let fear and anger consume me…I mean us. The chaos monsters and dick-taters thrive on chaos and confusion, keeping us divided and distracted.
Staying calm doesn’t mean being passive; it means staying grounded. Putting on our figurative and literal oxygen masks first can do wonders for our mental clarity. And while calm doesn’t fix the world’s problems, it keeps us strong enough to face the shitstorms head-on.
It’s so tempting to doomscroll through the latest headlines or engage in endless arguments online. But pausing and taking a step back to process what’s happening helps me, you, and everyone we know respond thoughtfully rather than just react impulsively.
The goal isn’t to ignore reality but to face it with a clear mind and steady heart.
STANDING UP + SPEAKING OUT
The American Dream wasn’t built on apathy, and it won’t be reclaimed through silence. Standing up doesn’t always mean protesting in the streets (though that’s a viable option). It can mean educating yourself and others, voting in every election, supporting grassroot efforts and local organizations, and holding those in power to account. Even those you agree with. Lobbyists be lobbying everyone, y’all.
The tools of oppression may be loud, but they’re not invincible.
Small acts of resistance matter: donating to a cause, having difficult conversations with loved ones, or amplifying voices that often go unheard. When enough of us refuse to play along with the narrative that “we can’t change anything,” the cracks in the system begin to show. And dick-taters rot in the swamp…preferably six feet under.
TAKING NAPS (NO, REALLY)
It might sound ridiculous to suggest napping as an act of defiance. But hear me out.
As a chronic, lifelong insomniac, I realize how precious and radical rest is, especially in a culture that worships productivity at the expense of wellness. By prioritizing rest, we reject the notion that our worth is tied to how much we produce or consume.
History shows us that burnout doesn’t lead to progress.
The civil rights leaders of the 1960s didn’t fight 24/7. They took time to dream and recharge, to build community and care for one another.
Rest isn’t a sign of weakness; it’s a strategy for longevity. If we’re going to rebuild a more just and equitable society, we’ll need our energy—and our dreams.
RECLAIMING THE DREAM
The American Dream doesn’t have to remain a nightmare. It can be a collective vision, one that values people over profit and community over competition. But it will take all of us—or at least enough of us—to redefine it, reclaim it, and rebuild it.
By keeping calm, standing up, and, yes, taking naps, we can create a version of the dream that includes everyone. Or at least more of everyone than it ever has.
Dark times will test us, but they will also remind us of what we’re capable of when we refuse to give in. The Dream is not dead; it’s waiting for us to wake up and fight for it.
Thanks for dreaming a new dream…
Clint 🌈✌️
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Tech Founder Pledges To Give Away Half His Wealth to Make American Dream More Possible (Japan Today)
Gender-Affirming Care Has a Long History in the Us – and Not Just for Transgender People (The Conversation)
David Lynch Saw The Nightmare Beneath The American Dream (Vanity Fair)
ON THIS DAY = JANUARY 21
BIRTHDAYS
1655 = Antonio Molinari = Italian painter
1885 = Duncan Grant = Scottish painter 🌈
1895 = Cristóbal Balenciaga = Spanish fashion designer 🌈
1905 = Christian Dior = French fashion designer 🌈
1922 = Telly Savalas = American actor
1924 = Benny Hill = English actor, singer, and screenwriter
1938 = Wolfman Jack = radio personality
1942 = Edwin Starr = American singer-songwriter
1942 = Mac Davis = American singer-songwriter and actor
1950 = Billy Ocean = Trinidadian-English singer-songwriter
1953 = Paul Allen = American businessman and philanthropist
1955 = Jeff Koons = American painter and sculptor
1956 = Geena Davis = American actor
1965 = Jam Master Jay = American DJ, rapper, and producer
1968 = Janis Sidovský = Czech producer 🌈
1970 = Ken Leung = American actor
1984 = Luke Grimes = American actor
1994 = Booboo Stewart = American actor and artist
EVENTS
1789 = The first American novel, The Power of Sympathy by William Hill Brown, is printed in Boston.
1793 = After being found guilty of treason by the French National Convention, Louis XVI of France is executed by guillotine.
1966 = Time publishes an unsigned article, “The Homosexual in America” which includes statements such as “Homosexuality is a pathetic little second-rate substitute for reality, a pitiable flight from life…” 🤬🖕
1978 = The Bee Gees' Saturday Night Fever soundtrack goes #1 for 24 weeks.
1981 = Production of the DeLorean sports car begins in Dunmurry, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom.
1997 – The US House of Representatives votes—395–28—to reprimand Newt Gingrich for ethics violations, making him the first Speaker of the House to be so disciplined.
2013 = POTUS Obama made the first mention of gay rights in a US inaugural address. The text of President Obama’s inauguration speech reads: “It is now our generation’s task to carry on what those pioneers began…. Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law –- (applause) — for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well.”
2017 = Over 400 cities across America and 160+ countries worldwide participate in a large-scale women's march, on Donald Trump's first full day as President of the United States.
HOLIDAYS + OBSERVANCES
PHOTO + QUOTES OF THE DAY
“Deep in every heart slumbers a dream….”
Christian Dior
“Haute couture is like an orchestra, for which only Balenciaga is the conductor. The rest of us are just musicians, following the directions he gives us.
Christian Dior
“All I required to be happy was friendship and people I could admire.”
Christian Dior
“A country, a style or an epoch are interesting only for the idea behind them.”
Christian Dior
It's counsel for the ages: no matter what calamity occurs, your values should be a guide for your action. If you don't like the people in power, well, there's always someone in power not to like. But your actions, small as they may seem to you, can engender a kind of compound interest and affect the wider world in ways you can't imagine. And to take a page from your statements heretofore, there's some good in everyone, you just have to look for it and speak to that. It's hard, very hard, not to be thrown from your seat, especially if you care a great deal, but your job, our job, is to respond from a centered place, not carrying on as if nothing has happened, but carrying on nonetheless. Courage!