Year of the Bastard

 

A Canadian North flight comes in for a landing at sunset at Iqaluit, Nunavut on New Year's Eve. Except the sun is obscured by clouds. Most of you have English lit degrees. Work out the symbolism.

"It's going to be a good year for bastards, Spider." - Kristin, from "Year of the Bastard" in Warren Ellis and Darick Robertson's Transmetropolitan

I have a terrible feeling that Transmetropolitan will always be relevant. As I was thinking of 2025, the phrase "Don't let the bastards grind you down" popped into my mind. Except that the bastards are here, they're very rich, and they've brought heavy machinery.

2025 is going to be the Year of the Bastard. Everyone is collectively holding their breath, waiting for Trump 2.0 to begin. Allow me to kill the suspense—it will be terrible. It's going to be terrible in predictable ways, in unpredictable ways, and truly breathtaking ways. And this time he's brought tech bros with him. It's also not going to be confined just to the United States. The year 2025 is going to be a bastard year worldwide in many different and terrible ways. We are, as a planet, not in great shape at the moment, and the forecast isn't looking all that good.

My friends are reading this and thinking either, "Well, you're a ray of sunshine," or "You would know a thing or two about being a cynical bastard." Both of which are true. There isn't a scenario on this planet that I can't look at and go, "Well, what's the worst that can happen?" and then come up with some truly breathtaking answers to that question.

At a time when the world needs transformative leadership more than ever, we've learned a valuable lesson about being careful about what we wish for.

My way of dealing with this so I don't curl up in a ball has always been to remind myself that just because something can happen, it doesn't mean it has to. If you know this terrible thing could happen, well, maybe you can take steps to prevent it and encourage a few others to do the same.

I've seen plenty of advice on how to handle 2025. Self-care, making sure you and your loved ones are all right, taking necessary steps for your mental health, and similar advice. Which is great. I approve of those things. But did I mention the bastards are here with power tools? They literally don't care about your mental health. Working hard to wreck your health is one of their side quests for 2025. There are terrible things on the horizon. You might have to do some short-term damage to avoid long-term harm.

Hope is nice and all. I like hope. I've been reading superhero comic books for 50 years. That's what superhero comic books are - hope that the good guys win and justice prevails. I wouldn't still be reading them after all this time if I didn't believe in hope. It is a grand thing. 

But a lot of us took a beating on that front in the last few months. I did.  I believe my first Facebook post on November 6 was, "Well, there goes my faith in humanity." But hoping things will get better in the Year of the Bastard will get you nothing but buried. Hope without putting in the work is meaningless. As I have plans to be around for a few more decades, I'd like for them to not suck. That means getting up off the mat, no matter how comfortable it might be. It's better than lying there and hoping everything passes me by. And I fear I've been guilty of doing that for too many years now.

2025 is going to have more wins for the bastards than the rest of us. Just the odds of the thing. But here's the thing about bastards. They come in sub-varieties - greedy, selfish, stupid and egotistical - to name a few. And a quick view of the landscape shows there's no shortage of those out there. We can work with that. 

They're going to win more than we want, but we can make them have fewer wins than they hoped for. And you'll find with enough work and effort, you can bring the heavy machinery to the bastards too.

It's a new year. Let's go.

Last Five

1. Happy for you - Lloyd Cole
2. Turn the page - Bob Seger
3. Substitute - The Who
4. The List - Metric
5. Don't give up - Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush