Ashen and Luminous

There's so much to love in the modern world - technology, entertainment, art - but I'm ready to leave. I don't like the current state of things, and I fear it will get even worse.

The effects of climate change are ravaging the globe even as levels of greenhouse gases continue to rise. The oceans, choked with plastic, are dying and we're well into the 6th Extinction. Authoritarianism and outright fascism are on the rise all over the world, and we’re closer to nuclear holocaust than we’ve been at any time since the Cold War years of the 60s and 70s. Open hostilities in the Middle East have escalated into outright genocide and apartheid, threatening a real-life, no-shit Armageddon, and territorial aggression in Eastern Europe is met with solipsistic isolationism in the West.   

Domestically, half my fellow citizens, preoccupied by "culture wars" bullshit and outlandish conspiracy theories, are rejecting the very principles of democracy on which this country was founded. Stupidity and ignorance are no longer barriers to holding political office, and some politicians even seem to treat them as assets to be proudly displayed. Racism, antisemitism, homophobia, islamophobia, sexism, and any other form of hatred or intolerance you can imagine are present in virtually all aspects of our lives. At least one major political party has embraced White Christian Nationalism as its guiding principal and cruelty as its default position, and economic inequality is at an all-time high, with a small sub-percentage of the people controlling the vast majority of the planet's wealth. It’s as if we’re teetering between “Brave New World” and “Idiocracy.” 

I’d leave the U.S., but in all honesty there seems to be nowhere that’s not infected with these modern illnesses. Frying pan to the fire in many cases. 

The Universal Solar Calendar calls this day Ashen and Luminous. I think the name's actually a reference to the faint light that illuminates the dark part of the moon during the lunar phases, but it also fits where I'm afraid this world is heading.  

I'm not happy with this world and I think things will only get worse.