by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
The last time I felt this politically powerless, I started writing a novel which has now turned into FOUR novels. I just wish there was some sort of organization I could join that was preparing for the Battle Royale of 2024 – 2025. But, as far as I know, there isn’t a freedom defending counter-part to the bonkers hatred of The Patriot Front.
So, I dunno.
I guess I’ll just have to throw myself into reading about the rise of Nazism and the beginning of the first Civil War. Something, anything that I feel will help me prepare for our coming very dark future.
Or, maybe, I’m being impatient.
It could be that at some point closer to 2024 some sort of center-Left group will pop up in the real world that will try to figure out how to save the Republic should the absolute worst happen and we really do either slip peacefully into autocracy or have a fucking civil war.
I’ve already written at great length about how I joke all the time that if The End comes, I’ll either be the first person to die on the first day or I’ll be the guy who brings civilization (America?) back from the brink. Let me tell you a little story about myself that proves — at least to me — why I think this is so.
Many moons ago, I was at a bar in Seoul. It was about midnight and I was in a really bad place in my life. The bar was just up the hill from the main bar in the Haebangchon neighborhood of Seoul called The Orange Tree. Suddenly, everyone on the other side of the bar from me, the ones near the windows jumped up and rushed out the door. Curious, I walked over to the door to see what was going on. Much to my surprise, just down the hill, the second story window of The Orange Tree had flames coming out of it. Without thinking about it, I rushed down the hill, yelling, “Someone call Korean 911.” I got to the bar’s door, and it was locked. The door was glass with a mesh of steal re-enforcement. I grabbed a fire extinguisher and started smashing through the glass. Of course, I cut myself on my wrist right next to my veins and I stopped. I could have saved the day, but didn’t. Still hate that I stopped.
But the point is, I’m an idiot and rush towards danger, not away from it. I like to think that I work well in a crisis — five years of having every day be a crisis in South Korea will do that to you — and if civil war comes, I know what I’m going to be doing — trying to help the Blue State war effort in any way I can.
That’s pretty dark, though. Hopefully — hopefully! — it won’t come to that. Maybe I’ll sell these four novels I’m working on and I’ll be able to escape the clutches of autocratic President Ron DeSantis.
