It's been a bit since I wrote a new post for this blog. Yet as I have discovered from recent comments to my blog, people are still visiting, reading, and making comments. I want to take this opportunity to thank those who are still visiting this site and to explain my hiatus.
I remain deeply interested in the subject of economic precarity, not only in the United States, but throughout the developed world. Therefore I'm still planning sooner or later to talk about those elements of precarity which I have not yet discussed, particularly regarding the coping mechanisms of the precariat. However, it must be acknowledged that in order to say anything intelligent, I need time - time to think, time to do research, and time to synthesize my thoughts and research into a coherent post. Writing some of the posts I want to write will be a rather heavy lift. (I compare my attitude toward these posts to the attitude someone might have toward carting a huge pile of sand one wheelbarrow at a time after having worked at manual labor all day! I know that sand needs to be moved, but please, not just yet...)
Another thing is that now seems to be a good time to take a bit of a mental health break. The world at present is in a chaotic state due to the actions of rich and powerful people with narcissistic tendencies. (I am thinking particularly of Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.) By their deeds they scream for attention, which seems to be a major motivation behind their choice to do such deeds. Yet paying attention to these people and their deeds can be quite draining to the rest of us. I am choosing right now to take a bit of a step back so that I can focus on the things in my life which are under my control and which I believe I have been called to do. Focusing on that work helps me reclaim my agency. Thus one of the things I have been doing is to read some big-picture books that provide the framework for identifying long-term social trends. Also, I've started learning Mandarin Chinese. I have my reasons, one of which is to gain the ability to understand China myself rather than hearing about China solely from increasingly right-wing American mass media. Plus, it's just fun! - although I must go slowly. (I've gotten to the point where I can tell you that 我有两只猫...)
I do remain interested in following the long-term outworking of certain social trends in both American and global society. I am still very much convinced of the truth of such statements as, "Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap." I firmly believe this applies to those who violate the Biblical mandate for social justice. Thus it is interesting to see how the white American evangelical/Protestant church has begun to reap some unexpectedly bitter consequences.
Take climate change, for instance. The white American evangelical/Protestant church has for decades engaged in magical/wishful/denialist thinking in its refusal to acknowledge the reality that the Earth's climate is changing due to human economic activity. So it's rather biting to see how the ongoing climate crisis has begun to affect conservative, patriotic, Rethuglican churches, both in the Bible Belt and elsewhere in the U.S. This year at least one church was hit by a tornado while services were in progress, and an increasing number of conservative right-wing churches are finding that property insurers will no longer write policies for them. Indeed, a large number of churches are finding that their existing property insurance policies are being canceled. It's not that property insurers are asking these churches about their politics. It's just that so many of these churches are in areas that have now become susceptible to catastrophic weather events and/or wildfires. Thus they have become a bad insurance risk. Then there's the effect of the massive evangelical abuse scandals on availability of liability insurance coverage for churches and their staff. It's telling to think that churches must now think of such things. Maybe God isn't really on their side after all.
Anyway, please stay tuned to this blog if you're a regular reader. I should start posting again in late November or in December, unless something occurs to me that does not require much bandwidth in order to write about, in which case I'll post sooner. Thanks, all!