"settled rules"

In my neck of the woods, words like "compassion" and "democracy" are popular. But the further the country descends into Donald Trump's miasma of self-aggrandizement, the harder it is to see how anyone can use the word "democracy" without a blush. Democracy requires a willingness to sacrifice and as it currently seems to stand, sacrifice is a dwindling commodity, left, right and center.

Yesterday, a friend passed along a lengthy Atlantic article that circled once more the drain down which American "democracy" is dripping. I can't say I was either willing or able to absorb the article's analytical efforts but the following stood out for me:

Willingness to adhere to settled rules, even when in the short term doing so ensures your opponent’s triumph and your own defeat, is the hardest of all democratic habits to acquire—and increasing numbers of Americans never did.

"Settled rules" seems increasingly far from a description of current events. Politically, morally, socially ... where are the settled touchstones? Somehow things have become uncoupled or unmoored and all that is left is the personalized anger and loneliness of those who feel suckered by the self-serving likes of a Donald Trump AND the preening pomposities of those willing to speak the word "democracy."

I may have this all wrong, but I feel it in my bones. Blood -- literal blood -- tinges a future in which "settled rules" are re-established. Because the alternative is too gruesome.

The Dalai Lama once said, "Everyone wants to be happy." But perhaps this can or should be modified a bit: "Everyone would prefer not to be sad." Being angry and lonely and far from anything resembling "settled rules" ... living under a pall of mediocrity rife with racism and misogyny and a price tag on every capacity for decency and companionship and sacrifice... talk about repopulating the political swamp!

A confusing time. I suppose that itself is a democratic description, but it certainly isn't pleasant.