I've developed a simple test for determining if an idea is woke.  You simply ask the question "does this add to the joy of life or detract from it?"  The wokerati have the immutable characteristic of sucking the pleasure out of everything they touch.

Want to celebrate the best movies of the year?  Too bad.  You get angry woke talk.  Why listen to lectures on the evils of our country in an "acceptance" speech?  The woke have perfected turning any celebration into a grim, macabre cult ritual.  And that embarrassing junk that passes for men's fashion these days?  Really?  It's as bad as most of the P.C. drivel that passes for movies.

Want to watch a sport?  No, thanks!  Who needs fists raised, knees down, players taunting our patriotism?  We came to escape all that!  Not to be turned off by woke posturing.  Our corporations have turned into yes men for the woke.  Want a soda?  Need to catch a flight?  Better check your politics before you buy.

They've sucked the life, the joy, the goodness out of the things we once relied upon for a break from the daily grind.  All this has happened right when our life was already irrationally grim for a year plus.  I used to imagine how awful existence was in a totalitarian country.  Hah!

The French and others in Europe have figured it out.  Joy — contagious joy, spontaneous joy, singing and dancing, and playing music with joy — is their antidote to this crap.  We need to find our antidotes and exercise those now atrophied muscles before we forget how.

If only we could walk safely down the street, without worrying about lurking dangers, and homeless beggars on every corner.  We've ignored the needs of our own people for too long.  We're all aware of how many new mouths there are to feed and house, with all the masses teeming over our border.  Why invite them when we don't even help our own?

I'd like to shop in a store that has stocked actual merchandise (other than groceries, which seem to be OK).  Too bad a bunch of angry, violent marchers and looters got there first.  The only choice left is to order from Amazon or go without.  Is that the intention?

For that matter, we know we can't call the cops in most places and get a response.  The ones who are left don't want to work for fear that they will make one "wrong" move and go to prison for life.

I'm hoping, now that King Fauci has declared outdoor masks "unnecessary" in a 180° turn-around, that people will notice.  They haven't yet, near me.  I want to go to the farmers' market and breathe freely, unmasked.  Remember the good old days, when you smiled at a toddler holding a fat red strawberry and (gasp!) eating it in public, no mask in sight?

Restaurateurs worry whether they'll be shut down yet again tomorrow, at the whim of a maniacal woke dictocrat abridging everyone's right to free assembly.  Even fast food can't find workers, both because of irrational fear of COVID and because the government's unemployment largesse is so generous.  Such an easy, illusionary dependence.

Remember when your kids could go to school full time, smile at their friends, play on the playground during recess and understand what they were saying to each other?  When they didn't all walk and bike around like masked zombies for no reason whatsoever?  Hopefully, the new Fauci decree will change that, at least.  I predict it will take time for the kids to forget the trauma of masks, to trust the world again without one, but it will happen.

I wonder, however, whether all the immigrants with COVID being dispersed among us, enough to each town and city to infect more people, will cause a convenient third wave, letting Democrats justify another shutdown.  Grim government control and a joyless life — no, thanks!

Here in California, the fire season looms, too.  Our government has done little to mitigate that danger.  We can't live joyous lives under totalitarian regimes.  Yet the government doesn't care what happens to the people if it stays in power.

We really need to find our way back to living free lives.  There are many obstacles.  I remember when politics was civilized, when both sides could negotiate, when laws made sense and were applied uniformly.  I also remember when we could have a conversation with our neighbors without acrimony, and when we could all get together and have a 4th of July block party after our town parade.

I remember when we, who are not racists, but merely white (or any other color, any religion), were judged by the content of our character, not by the color of our skin.  Above all, I remember that there were many, many enjoyable aspects to life in these United States.

Can we have the joy back?

Image: Joy by Ben White on Unsplash.

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