American Horror Story

Beltane                                                Moon of the Summer Solstice

Here’s another strange phenomenon with the American nightmare. Each time a mass shooting happens, no matter the apparent motivation, no matter the carnage, pro-gun forces use it to emphasize how we need more guns. And, in another very peculiar and sad phenomenon, organizations like the NRA convince gun owners or would be gun owners that the ensuing backlash will, this time, restrict weapons purchases. The result? More people buy guns.

This is a world of inverted value, a world in which George Orwell would have felt at home, a world of a never ending Feast of Fools. Common sense notions like people use guns to kill other people become a rallying cry for increasing gun ownership.

The American dream. Yes, a true and continuing nightmare from which we seem unable to awake. Gunpowder falls over us like an evil pixie dust. People die beneath its enchantment. What other than a curse could explain the twisted logic we find in our newspapers, our online news sources?

Into this toxic environment clomps the drum major of fear’s dark parade: Donald Trump. Could he be the Lord of Misrule who finally captures real power? If we wish to sleep peacefully in our own beds, he had better be stopped. Otherwise angry dreams will more and more intrude on waking life, making this great country a Day of the Dead version of itself.