Tip-Off #224 – Not for the First Time

Trump didn’t leave.

Democrats stumble on themselves, and budget talks collapse into the threat of closure. Social security is likened to the Ponzi scheme. Crime and labor statistics are bothering me. Deportation treats doubt as guilt.

Meanwhile, Gaza Burns and Ukraine fight for survival. The Sudan civil war drove millions from their homes, and Phoenix bakes at 118 degrees for weeks. The only bipartisan policy remaining is failure and urgent.

Other fractures are carried out through daily life, causing paralysis of changes. Loneliness now affects half of the US adults, poses health risks comparable to smoking, and costs billions of dollars to reduce productivity.

Facebook once boasted that it was “moving fast and breaking shit.” It was more than a motto. Silicon Valley has now become a license handed over to the world.

This is no coincidence. Each is a breakpoint in the system under tension, and pressure accumulated over the years will eventually burst. Catastrophe is that climax power is added when the plot gets old. Get caught up in “The End Is Here” and still “I pass this too.”

Overcoming and motivating fear and inertia is within reach. It calls for resilient democracy and restoration of local, individual and public relations worth living life.

It starts with getting to know your neighbor. Not only are their names but they’re enough to exchange help and maintain the watch. It belongs to communities such as faith congregations, veteran groups, and LGBTQ+ networks. and cultivate one-on-one relationships that can endure through change and conflict.

It will expand into public spaces (parks, cafes, libraries and other “third locations”) where strangers will get to know each other. From running clubs to choir rehearsals to cleaning up neighborhoods, it’s an activity that brings joy and the splitting of the bridge. And serving others face-to-face, not as a performance, but as a shared piece that builds trust.

Catastrophe isn’t just about ruin. From Greek Catastrophe–Kata (down) Strefine (Turn) – It is the moment when something buried breaks into vision. Politics can begin again, but not as a self-awareness, lifestyle, or moral display.

Denial and semi-measuring strategies entrust catastrophe to familiar routines. Many people live as if nothing happened. Some go on a trivia night. Others thrive with the irony of having a good time. Honesty remains as a performance of its own. Events are divided into pre-crash and post-crash periods, but the distinction remains largely unchanged. Things aren’t as good as they used to be, and they’re by no means good. Perhaps the catastrophe has always been completely modern. Allergies to “only facts” now pass due to mental depth.

In a novel Abel and Cain By Austrian nobleman Gregor von Rezzarri, the Nazis will delight in the “icy blue” sky and “Sunday’s glow” on their marching to Vienna.

Politics is a chance to start a new life. When it comes to performances of virtue, you die. Catastrophes force choices. Action before the dust settles down. And then we stop calling for pluralist relativism. Build an institution that surpasses leaders. Create a space where ordinary people are agents, not audiences.

The first step is to stop assuming that the problem lies elsewhere. It’s easy to blame “them” – others, extremists, corrupt people. Godless liberals, moral enthusiasts – but the lines we draw at the centre of guilt often hamper our acting. No one is exempt from repairs.

Democracy is inherently contradictory. It survives by mutual respect in deep differences, not by agreement. Work is not tolerant, it changes antagonism Agonism– Disagreement accepting the legitimacy of the opposite side. Courtesy is not “good.” It tells the truth. I’m learning to live without solutions, not only honest and uncomfortable, but also to compromise.

History bends when enough people act and something bigger passes through them. The reconstruction was shortened by white supremacist violence and political withdrawal. The New Deal expanded some opportunity while locking others around. The beliefs of the people were all created equally, but not enforced in themselves. This was a weapon to rule out entry of demand. It will be re-used when used.

As VáclavHavel said, Hope is not a belief that things will go well, but the certainty that something is worth it no matter what.. The choice is visible: states and cities expanding early voting will adopt ranked electoral elections, with the coalition taking first-time voters to vote.

Changes do not come from top to bottom, and when it does, it does not exempt us. It is about choosing what we do with the power we have. We live in the east of Eden – neither innocent nor return – God only has freedom of responsibility, and does not need to keep things safe and organized.

The sacred and prof-like things converge in chaos. A drift of freedom ceivized by the promise of safety and the illusion of airtight thinking, we lose our way. In the chaos we live in, we may know not only the urgency of our loved ones, but also the patience of our loved ones.

Not the first time, a catastrophe can become a melting pot of hope.

Notes and reading

• Rome’s Destiny: Climate, Disease, and the End of Empire – Kyle Harper (2017). The catastrophe did not merely end Rome, but changed it and helped pioneer the medieval world. Harper is a former Provost University, Provost and is now a classic professor of Honorary Provost.

• Václav Havel, Summer meditation (1992), 92 Passim. Czech playwright, poet, dissident, and later president.

• Moral Courage College – Teaching the skills to turn heated problems into healthy conversation and teamwork. Founded by Irshad Manji.

• Abel and Cain (New York Review Books Classics, 2019) – Gregor von Rezzoli, Austrian nobleman, novelist, memoir, screenwriter and critic.

• Shika Dalmia, “Liberals need moral clarity rather than moral purity in their struggle against authoritarianism.” Minors (August 14, 2025).

• Jonathan V. Finally, “Was Trump the inevitable endpoint of conservatism? – Conservative, Liberal, and State considerations.” breakwater (August 14, 2025). cf. Karen Stenner, Authoritarian dynamics (2005).

• Alexis de Tockville, American democracy (Mansfield/Winthrop, 2000), Vol. I, Part 2, Chapter 7, “Ormity of the Majority and Its Effects.” Tockeyville warned that the greatest danger of democracy lies in the tyranny of the Majority. Populism today often misunderstands this threat as a true expression of people’s will. However, he also believed that the future of American democracy was keeping its promises if citizens built citizen associations and local institutions for stable freedom against majority power.

Tip #223 – Eternal Mathematics

Tip #222 – Don’t forget that it’s normal

Approx. 2 + 2 = 5