If you’ve been paying attention, you may have noticed that my blog output has been spotty since the election. Part of that was the expected emotional low I felt in the days immediately afterward, but I’m mostly past that. However, I have an admission to make. I’m stuck at a dilemma, and I don’t see a way to move past it.
Here’s the problem I’m having: I don’t know if I want to keep writing about politics. Truthfully, I don’t see what the point is.
I have no doubt that I could spend the next four years chronicling the kleptocracy, racism and massive incompetence of the coming Trump administration. But devoting my time to that feels, well… redundant. What more is there to say that hasn’t already been said? There are going to be no surprises. We knew exactly who he was before the election. The evidence was abundant, for anyone who cared about it, yet people voted for him anyway.
At this point, I’m tempted to say that we deserve what we’re going to get, and let that stand as my final statement. I’d rather channel my energy toward more useful avenues, somewhere it might actually inform people or make a difference. Yet at the same time, forcing myself to ignore these bigger issues and write about something else feels like it would be irrelevant, trivial by comparison.
I’m not saying I’m burned out. I’m planning my review of The Fountainhead, which I intend to begin writing in January. I have plenty of ideas for posts about atheist parenting. And I have one or two other ideas that have been simmering on the back burner for a while.
But I have to admit, I’m feeling unmotivated in a way I haven’t in a long time. It makes me question the value of writing at all, if the collective work of journalism failed to stop the worst candidate in American history. What use is there in trying to persuade people who don’t want to be informed?
Like I said, I don’t see a way past this dilemma. I’m open to suggestions.