In a recent comment I used the metaphor that we Americans were headed for a Rip unless we woke up, and it got me wondering if this was accurate. My exact line was “…the election is a vast nasty leading to a larger and far more dangerous rip tide.” Rips are naturally occurring, and while often deadly, they are avoidable, and deal-able, if panic doesn’t prevail. Most fatalities happen because people freak out and try to swim against the current, directly into shore, and drown from exhaustion or fright. Even strong swimmers can’t contend with the force of outgoing surge.
It’s worth keeping in mind, Rips don’t have vertical pull, they won’t suck you under. Mostly they channel water back out, built up from incoming waves. Some Rips, according to recent science, a great many, are large surface level conveyer whirlpools, streams that will eventually return you to shore if you go with the flow. You can’t always be sure that will happen though, so riding it out may not be practical, even if viable. In any case the current will only carry someone out a few hundred yards beyond where the waves break as a result of shallower seabed, or sand bars.
Many ocean safety courses, including the Red Cross, recommend floating on one’s back if it’s not possible to swim parallel to the shoreline to break free of the Rip. Conserving energy, calling for help, those are considered best practices for surviving a Rip. They usually are not wide, and often as the water heads back out from the shore, the depth where the Rips starts is not deep. Touching the floor can give enough traction to break its pull. The misread of the situation, not the force itself, that’s what’s deadly.
So the question I ask about immanent dangers the human race faces, (and impacted by this election… ) Are these perils Rips? Are our hazards naturally occurring correctives that re-establish equilibrium and flow in the larger system? Everything from environmental destruction, fascist regimes and extreme militarism, are these homeostatic mechanisms, survivable through composure, a bit of attentiveness, and minor course correction- as long as we keep our heads above the water? Or are we blundering into something now far more grim and irrevocable?
Bear in mind, with the right mindset, this source of dread and disaster is a useful instrument. Surfers ride Rips to effortlessly get beyond the breakers to the lineup. That’s where the fun begins.
water water everywhere
Some of the perils might be rips; others not.
Environmental destruction isn’t naturally occurring, so natural rules don’t necessarily apply in full. I don’t think relaxing and floating on one’s back through this will result in a return to shore with this one. More likely we’ll need to look for others in the water and do some synchronized swimming to get to shore again.
Fascist regimes. I’d like us to be done with them, myself, but they still appeal to some people. I think these can be survived, but we’re worse off for them and lose ground toward a greater good. Bush-Cheney years were grueling, depressing, shocking, and painful, but here we are. We somehow made it through. Haven’t corrected much from that era, and have doubled down on some aspects since, but we didn’t drown at sea. (I do think the experience was a bit like swimming against a rip tide for 8 years, then someone tosses an inner tube with some holes. It looks like a life preserver, but we still can’t use it to get to shore again.) Dry land, please!
Extreme militarism – is tied into the fascism and corporate control of our political system. This has done nothing but grow in my lifetime. This seems more like a completely artificial waterpark, designed and built by us to be better than nature. It looks like fun, but is filled with urine, costs a fortune to maintain, and isn’t really better than having fun at the beach.
We seem to be both working toward solutions and toward destruction at the same time. Perhaps this tension is necessary, though I don’t really see any good from the destruction side of things. Perhaps this shoreline has rip tides in one place, but smooth swimming in others? It can’t all be a rip tide, right? Or can it?
sink or swim
A surprising number of people never learned to swim. They don’t even know how to tread water, which is nothing but doing nothing, actively, upright in the water. Lifesaving 101.
I wonder how that population stacks up against those with no knowledge of history?
Deep
The doctor prescribes a full listen, start to finish, of Parliament’s Motor Booty Affair. Maybe a few times through.
…
Swimming lessons were fun. I remember that at one “final day” ceremony one year we got to go to a nice pool and the mayor came to watch. He tossed half dollars into the deep end and we got to swim for them. Very rewarding!
Of course, I majored in history, too, so I’m in both sets of the Venn diagram.