We're Cooked and I Am Trying to Find Some Peace of Mind

SUMMARY

Gooby, in a stream-of-consciousness monologue with his dog Doobie, laments America's swift societal devolution amid historical hypocrisies, current injustices, climate denial, and widespread complacency, while seeking personal peace and realistic hope.

STATEMENTS

America was taught as a nation upholding ideals like equality, established through the Civil War ending slavery, the civil rights movement, and women's suffrage, yet it was built on Native American genocide and African enslavement.
The U.S. capitalist system siphons wealth from the masses to the elite, creating jarring dissonances between proclaimed equality and pursuit of happiness for all citizens.
Recent actions, such as the National Park Service removing slavery education displays in Philadelphia and the U.S. exiting the World Health Organization, signal a retreat from global cooperation and historical accountability.
Government forces have been depicted using violence against citizens, including blinding protesters with munitions, separating families, and targeting based on skin color and language, sanctioned by the Supreme Court.
The legal system operates as a two-tiered structure, where the wealthy and privileged evade consequences while ordinary people face strict enforcement.
An asymmetry of violence exists, where power flows downward without repercussions, but any upward resistance provokes severe backlash from the system.
ICE commanders attending churches contradicts Christian teachings of loving neighbors, caring for the poor, and recognizing equality in all, as protesters disrupting such services face arrest and AI-altered images to manipulate narratives.
Complacency allows people to ignore issues until they personally affect them, serving as a tool for the powerful to maintain control.
Misinformation and propaganda, like fossil fuel industry doubt on climate change, prevent recognition of reality, making effective responses impossible.
Current civilization is unsustainable due to depleting fossil fuels, leading to declining quality of life, resource wars, fascism, and increased violence as energy scarcity intensifies.

IDEAS

Historical education in America glosses over foundational atrocities like Native genocide and slavery, fostering a naive belief in inherent equality that clashes with ongoing systemic biases.
Exiting international bodies like the WHO isolates the U.S., undermining global health efforts and highlighting a shift toward nationalism over collective human welfare.
AI manipulation of images by the White House to portray protesters as guilty reveals a new era of state-sponsored narrative control, eroding trust in visual evidence.
Churches harboring ICE leaders juxtapose sanctuary ideals with enforcement of family separations, exposing hypocrisy in institutions meant for compassion and equality.
Sports commentary's intense focus on trivial statistics distracts from real-world violence and terror, illustrating societal escapism amid national crises.
Personal denial of climate change, even among intelligent friends, stems from propaganda that sows doubt on human causation, despite clear data like ice cores and Mauna Loa CO2 readings.
Low snowpack in the Cascades at 50% and Olympics at 40% of normal signals impending droughts and wildfires, directly tied to global heating's warmer winters.
People resist acknowledging environmental realities because it demands lifestyle changes, preferring complacency to confronting personal complicity in harm.
Governmental psychological abuse through hate and misinformation exhausts society, turning supporters into vessels of constant negativity that harms their own well-being.
Hope lies not in saving civilization but in individual agency: showing up daily, choosing reactions, and fostering cooperation despite inevitable collapse.

INSIGHTS

Societal progress narratives mask enduring power imbalances, where equality ideals serve to justify exploitation rather than dismantle it.
State violence and narrative manipulation thrive on public complacency, turning empathy into apathy until personal stakes force awakening.
Climate denial perpetuates through engineered doubt, blinding societies to interconnected crises that demand immediate, collective behavioral shifts.
Institutions like churches and governments betray their moral foundations when prioritizing control over compassion, accelerating social fragmentation.
Personal peace emerges from realistic acceptance: focusing on controllable responses amid uncontrollable systemic failures fosters resilience over despair.
Unsustainable energy dependence dooms current civilizations to conflict, but human adaptability offers glimmers of post-collapse cooperation and renewal.

QUOTES

"It's even more jarring today, you know, seeing like placards about uh educating about slavery taken down by the National Park Service from displays in Philadelphia that happened yesterday."
"If you can't see reality for what it really is, well, you can't deal with reality."
"Hope to me is that I'll keep living until I don't. Hope to me is I can show up every moment. I can choose how I react to things."
"People don't want to see things that prevent them from being able to just keep doing what they're doing because if they see it and they understand it, then they'll be like, 'A crap. I can't keep doing what I'm doing. I'm hurting myself and my neighbors.'"
"We're not doomed right now because we're alive. Is a civilization doomed? Yeah, probably. But are humans, is humanity doomed? Well, probably the vast majority of us."

HABITS

Maintain presence by observing surroundings and engaging directly with the environment, like barking into the forest to release tension.
Avoid taking events personally, responding only as needed without internalizing external chaos.
Choose reactions consciously to external stressors, focusing on personal agency rather than futile control over larger systems.
Foster cooperation through small acts, such as sharing reality-based perspectives without forcing lessons on unwilling listeners.
Show up daily for life moments, embracing alive-ness in self, pets, and nature to sustain momentum amid uncertainty.

FACTS

The U.S. Civil War established slavery's illegality, followed by the civil rights movement and women's suffrage advancing equality ideals.
National Park Service removed slavery education placards from Philadelphia displays recently, amid broader historical erasure efforts.
U.S. exited the World Health Organization, a global cooperative of physicians and scientists aimed at improving worldwide citizen health.
Cascade Mountains snowpack is at about 50% of normal for this time, while Olympic Mountains are at 40%, due to warmer temperatures from global heating.
Global population stands at 8.3 billion, unsustainable with declining fossil fuel energy, leading to projected resource conflicts.

REFERENCES

Teachings of Jesus: Emphasizing loving neighbors, caring for the poor, and recognizing equality in all people.
Ice core data and Mauna Loa CO2 measurements: Scientific evidence linking human activity to climate change over thousands of years.
PUBG video game: A multiplayer activity used for social connection amid discussions of real-world issues like weather anomalies.

HOW TO APPLY

Acknowledge historical dissonances by reflecting on America's dual narrative of ideals versus atrocities like Native genocide and slavery, using this awareness to question current policies without denial.
Confront complacency by observing how issues affect neighbors first, then preparing personally for potential spillover, such as monitoring local climate indicators like snowpack levels.
Counter misinformation by gently sharing evidence-based facts, like CO2 data from ice cores, but only when receptive, prioritizing relationships over debates to build gradual understanding.
Seek peace through presence: Spend time in nature, engaging senses fully, and release frustrations vocally or through movement, as with walking dogs in forests.
Cultivate hope via agency: Daily affirm controllable choices, like reactions to news, and small cooperative acts, such as community discussions on sustainability, to navigate inevitable changes.
Prepare for energy decline by reducing personal fossil fuel dependence, learning basic self-sufficiency skills, and fostering local networks to mitigate future conflicts.

ONE-SENTENCE TAKEAWAY

Embrace realistic hope through personal agency and presence amid America's devolving society and impending climate collapse.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Actively dismantle personal complacency by educating yourself on suppressed histories and current injustices to foster empathy and proactive change.
Engage in low-stakes reality-sharing with friends, using games or casual talks to plant seeds of awareness without confrontation.
Prioritize mental resilience by practicing presence in nature and choosing responses that align with compassion, countering societal hate.
Advocate for institutional accountability, like challenging AI-manipulated narratives or church hypocrisies, through peaceful protests or public discourse.
Build sustainable habits now, reducing energy consumption and strengthening community ties to weather civilization's decline more equitably.

MEMO

In a raw, unscripted monologue from his woodland walks with his dog Doobie, Gooby confronts the unraveling of the American dream he once learned in school. Born and raised in the United States, he recalls textbooks painting a nation forged in equality—from the Civil War's abolition of slavery to the civil rights era and women's suffrage. Yet this sanitized history ignores the blood-soaked foundations: the genocide of Native peoples and the enslavement of Africans that built the wealth of a few. "There's a lot of jarring dissonances in this country," Gooby says, his voice laced with disillusionment as he navigates a society where capitalist promises of happiness for all mask a system that funnels riches upward.

Recent events amplify this fracture. Placards educating about slavery vanished from Philadelphia's National Park Service displays, while the U.S. withdraws from the World Health Organization, abandoning global health collaboration. Gooby recounts government tactics that blind protesters with munitions, separate families using children as bait, and target immigrants by skin color—tactics upheld by a Supreme Court that enshrines a two-tiered justice: leniency for the elite, punishment for the rest. An asymmetry of violence reigns, he notes, where power crushes dissent but recoils at any pushback. Even churches, sanctuaries of Jesus's teachings on loving neighbors and aiding the poor, now shelter ICE commanders enforcing separations, a hypocrisy exposed when a protester's arrest photo is AI-altered by the White House to feign tears and guilt.

Amid this "Bizarro land," Gooby observes everyday escapism: barbershop TVs blaring sports debates over player stats, ignoring maimed citizens and terrorized streets. Complacency, he argues, is the powerful's greatest tool—people dismiss crises until they hit home, blind to neighbors' plights. This denial extends to climate change, where even gaming buddies parrot fossil fuel propaganda, questioning human causation despite ice core data and Mauna Loa readings. Gooby's recent mountain trip revealed alarmingly low snowpack—50% in the Cascades, 40% in the Olympics—heralding droughts, wildfires, and "ghost forests" of bleached, burnt trees. "People don't want to see things that make them realize they can't keep doing what they're doing," he laments, a resistance rooted in fear of upending comfortable lives.

The psychological toll is immense: governmental hate-mongering exhausts the soul, breeding illness in its carriers. Yet Gooby seeks peace not in illusion but realism. With Doobie barking into the forest—a metaphor for unfiltered release—he advocates presence, non-personalization, and chosen reactions. Hope, for him, isn't salvaging a doomed civilization fueled by peaking fossil fuels, which will spark wars and fascism among 8.3 billion souls. It's showing up alive, fostering cooperation, and accepting the ride downhill. As he signs off for Discord games, his tenuous optimism endures: "We're not doomed right now because we're alive." In this era of collapse, Gooby's voice cuts through the noise, urging a quiet defiance rooted in truth.