Can a Dystopian Be Happy?

I’m becoming dead-set against dystopian-ism in all its virulent forms and manifestations. I hope to make this very clear: that the dystopian will have no place in my world.

True: it’s fun to be dystopian once in a while. You can often see the writing on the wall, as I often do, that The Supreme Court, for instance, is a fine court and that the appointments to it are “the best and the brightest.” But where does this writing in the form of thinking at all about The Supreme Court get me? It only gets me looking at yet another wall, and I have been looking at far too many walls.

I see, while standing next to the wall but not behind the wall, that it’s not time to joke around anymore about walls or bridges or equal opportunity or much of anything. It used to be a good time to be funny, to at least make yourself laugh a little and maybe make your best friend laugh, but that time has passed.

It seems the dystopian has been leaked to the press, and agents representing our government are threatening to close down both the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Journalism, an egregious over-reach as demonstrated by otherwise democratically-elected representatives of federal and local jurisdictions. Dystopianism therefore is not dead, but I’m declaring it at least half-dead. The dystopian might enjoy a revival at some point among evangelicals, and that’s the sort of right evangelicals should enjoy and have equal access to should they chose to continue the practice of dystopianism.

I think I’m reaching ‘a tipping point’, having taken part in a kind of 4-step program, and that I’m treating myself to a better, happier lifestyle, gradually less dystopian, that will also begin to re-set the national mindset—small, prejudicial, racist, fearful—toward a more expansive, inclusive zeitgeist that embraces the entire animal kingdom.

Blueberries are very important, blueberries are a happy food, as is a dish Lea Ann makes that she calls ‘Real Food Casserole.’ Every time I have it I’m happy, and it’s very, very good to be happy. I’m trending more and more in this direction, exchanging the negative for the positive as often as I possible can.

Point Arena with Lighthouse. Port Arena, Ca. August 31, 2023. Photo by author.