2023, the year of sex, drugs and violence

The end of 2023 is beginning to look like the end of the first act of a Greek tragedy, but with the world being laid low, and not just a romantic hero.

The humanitarian situation in Gaza has been devastating, as the war with Hamas and Israel remains heated. The war also continues in Ukraine, with Russia frustrated it hasn’t yet successfully absorbed Ukraine and with Vlad “The Impaler” Putin shuffling his political enemies off to Siberia. As both wars rage, attacks on US troops and commercial shipping in the Middle East underline a growing concern that war will widen, engulfing the US and its allies in an apocalyptic nightmare of destruction.

Meanwhile, more than 11,000 migrants are waiting in shelters in Mexico hoping to get into the US as the nation’s lawmakers continue to play political football with the issue. Xenophobic Republicans don’t want any more Democrats on the voting rolls (few migrants register with the party trying to kick them out), but no one wants to pay $10 for a tomato, so Americans need and demand cheap labor.

Wait. There’s more. 

Chinese President Xi Jinping called the “reunification” of Taiwan with China an inevitability and defense analysts say a war there could be brewing anywhere from two to three years from now – after China completes upgrades to its military and plays a few more war games to iron out the operational kinks before invading Taiwan.

The world is a bundle of jagged nerves, an amalgamation of competing tribes of cavemen who possess “technological terrors” that could end us all (apologies to Darth Vader). Or, with apologies to my father, it’s a nervous virgin in a whore house or a nervous whore in church. 

It’s a toddler with no self-control. It’s an aging, infirmed dementia patient in a nursing home, a standup comedian bombing on a stage in a roadhouse, a family reunion riddled with drama, a mass shooting on a playground and a divorced couple still in therapy.

In my international and national travels during the last two years, there has beenno place more symbolic of this ennui than in the middle of America. Take a ride down I-70 through the heart of Missouri. It’s a state where Missouri Republican lawmakers have filed a pair of bills (The Abolition of Abortion in Missouri Act) that would allow for women to be charged with murder for getting an abortion in the state. The proposed legislation would give fetuses the same rights as human beings, which would allow for criminal charges to be filed against anyone who gets an abortion, helps someone get an abortion or provides abortion care in the state, which implemented a near-total ban on the procedure after last year’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling.

Missouri’s also a state whose highway billboard signs tell a much stranger story than the puritanical hubris of its legislators suggest. Porn and sex-toy shops, gun shops, liquor shops, legal marijuana dispensaries and car malls advertise alongside church ads and military recruitment billboards along the state’s highways. The churches may advertise that you should take responsibility for your actions (Just say NO to abortions), but the money is in sex, drugs and violence. It seems that the captains of industry want to Hansel and Gretel you into either needing an abortion or using a gun – maybe both, but you’ll be driving a car impossible to pay for while drunk, stoned and playing with ben wa balls. Sadly, there appears to be no room for the likes of Hunter S. Thompson in today’s modern world – his Gonzo antics today are too passe when you see penis pumps and “strawberry kush” marketed on giant billboards in a state that wants to allow the death penalty for those who have abortions.  

That, my friends, is the end of 2023. A kidney stone of a year run by the almighty dollar. Money has taken over medicine, politics, entertainment, the media and everything else. It is why we are so non-plussed by the staggering number of hypocrisies and absurdities that make life seem so incongruous. It all makes sense if it makes money.

Of course, any conversation that includes discussions of hypocrisy, money and politics has to include former President Donald Trump, whose Christmas message is “Rot in Hell” for his opponents and those seeking to hold him responsible for 91 charged felonies in four different jurisdictions across the country. Peace on Earth? Goodwill to man? Bah. Humbug. Trump just wants to see you get Scrooged.

Trump is obviously in a festive holiday mood of festering fear, shattering innocent bottles of ketchup, and wants to spread the fear among the cheer of the season. And, as if on cue, don’t forget the money. His proclamations during Christmas were also filled with the ubiquitous begging that is the hallmark of his revenge tour back to the White House. He’ll take any amount you wish to send him, but don’t forget it’s really all about you – not him. He just wants to be a misanthropic, misogynistic Nazi-like dictator for one day to set the country straight. “I bet you’d especially like to meet me now,” one of his emails to potential contributors exclaims as he asks for money and a chance to visit him at Mar-a-Lago.

Can you imagine what the Republicans would do if Trump weren’t on the ballot next year? Well, apparently neither can most members of that party who continue to support the flaccid fool even as it becomes increasingly apparent that he may be conducting his campaign either broke, from behind bars or both next summer. Trump is the establishment in today’s Republican Party.

So, 2023 doesn’t end with a bang, but a whimper – even for President Joe Biden. An increasing number of Democrats have expressed concern about his re-election bid – not only because of his age (which is absurd when you compare him to Trump), but also because of the political baggage of his son Hunter, a GOP-led impeachment inquiry and (most importantly)the Biden administration’s frustrating inability to communicate its successes to the American people.

Most polls give Biden the nod on the key issue of abortion – and it is an issue which by itself should decimate Republicans. What kind of medieval mind wants to prosecute women for murder simply because they have an abortion? Here the Republicans are doing all the communicating that needs to be done. They’re repressed, angry and out of step – and a majority of Americans know it. But it’s not the only issue, and for some sitting on the fence, it’s not the decisive issue. One could argue that anyone sitting on the fence in a potential race between Biden and Trump is probably nailed to the fence due to their own timidity, stupidity or culpability, but that’s a different issue. They remain clueless and dangerous.  

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Still, there is an issue that will drive them to the polls to vote: the economy. Many Americans, according to a December CNN Poll, do not believe Biden has a clue on the economy. That’s even after Biden and his team have for months argued the president’s economic plan has produced results. The unemployment rate dropped below 4 percent and the economy is growing faster than anticipated – making the doomsayers who predicted a recession sound like raving lunatics. But gas prices are up, though recently they’re heading down. Still,  it’s harder to buy a home now than at any time in the last 40 years, and even with people back to work, the distance between the rich and poor continues to grow.

If you are a purveyor of pungent prognostication on the various social media venues available since Elon Musk shattered Twitter into scintillating shards of silliness, you’re apt to be of the opinion that the glass is half empty and the world is headed to hell.

It can’t help that the former president is predicting gloom, doom and destruction and has replaced hope with hate, peace on Earth with scorched Earth and intelligence with willful ignorance.

Still, I don’t think the real world is anywhere near as hopeless as the world of the Internet.

Just prior to leaving Washington D.C., for a Christmas trip to the West Coast and the Midwest, I began my annual personal ritual of greeting everyone with “Merry Christmas.” Despite the so-called war on Christmas, I’ve never met anyone who has ever accosted me for saying this. I celebrate Christmas and I wish everyone peace on Earth and goodwill, no matter what they worship. Since I don’t know what or who you worship, when I greet you, you’re going to get a “Merry Christmas” from me. The worst anyone has ever replied to my greeting has been, “And Happy Holidays to you too.” I’ve had several people wish me a Happy Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and Eid al-Fitr. Once a Zoroastrian wished me a happy Yalda and a Hindu wished me a Baba Din. When I get around to the other 4,000 religions on the planet, I’ll report what they’ve said. The atheists and agnostics to whom I’ve wished a Merry Christmas have all responded cheerfully, some saying “Thank You,” and others saying “I wish you peace and goodwill all year long.”

This year I greeted people in Los Angeles, Washington D.C. and Mid-Missouri with “Merry Christmas!” No one got angry. Everyone smiled and wished me the same. My Jewish cousin even gave me a dreidel – though it wasn’t made of clay. Just kidding. Since I know him, I wished him a Merry Christmas and a Happy Hanukkah.

The personal responses I’ve received over the years are quite different from the self-important and angry posts you can receive on social media. It seems people, when we see each other face-to-face, are a little more respectful and understanding. The reasons for this are many, but humans are social animals and while we come from a variety of backgrounds, we have universal desires and needs. 

That being said, one greeting remains universal; Happy New Year.

That’s the greeting I offer now to everyone on the planet. Because all of this good will and talk of peace will evaporate – indeed Trump never embraced it.

The New Year brings challenges internationally, nationally and politically to a world mired in strife and struggle. Let us all wish each other a moment’s respite from this self-imposed storm – and see if we can’t get it to last longer than it takes to offer a greeting of peace.

Because, folks, 2024 is shaping up to be a challenge.