We're Witnessing the Desperation of Power Slipping Away

When the abuser recognizes that the people he abuses have pierced his illusion, he begins to grow desperate. I witnessed this as a child. It was scary then. It’s still scary now, but as a fully grown man, I have no patience left for this nonsense.My father was a world class saber rattler. I guess that’s easy to do when you’re staring into the face of a little boy. He raised his hand more than once and I took it because I hadn’t attended an online academy for how to poison your adult abuser.I guess in the rush of euphoria he got from abusing me, he neglected to recognize how I was gathering my power.The key is to survive and stockpile your strength. Try to hold back your irrational action until the time is right.Eventually, I became bored with the prospect of retreating from a fight. I’d done it so many times that the idea began to cause me physical pain. I’d walked that path so often that it made my feet bleed. I decided it was preferable to take a physical beating than endure the emotional trauma of backing down.“If you disrespect me again, I’m going to show you who is the better man.”That’s what I said to him. Those words landed as hard as blow. He began to sputter as if he’d just endured an unexpected bucket of water to the face.But at that point it didn’t matter what he said or did or how he reacted. It was over. I’d gone through the mental barricade. I’d already won.These moments happen so fast we don’t even recognize them. In fact, our whole society, which is a mechanism for narcissistic abuse, conditions us to disregard these moments. They are not elevated in modern books, or media, or film.But they happen, and I’ve had so many of them that I no longer succumb to the perpetual gaslighting deployed by the abusive, cowardly, weak to make me think they don’t exist.Thanks for your support: 30% off 💙 40% off 💙 50% off 💙 60% offOnce you accept you’d rather die than go back to how it was, the relationship is over forever.Then you end up in the new perpetual cycle, where the abuser starts groveling at your heels and whining, “Why can’t you focus on the good times. Why can’t it be like it was when we first met?”The reason is that those moments were a fantasy. They took place before you recognized the truth about a person. Once you’ve seen something, it can’t be unseen. Our whole society is at that point.A lot of people have been lamenting that this regime is doing generational damage. They’re saying it will take years and years to fix.That’s true.But people are overlooking the fact that we’ve already gotten to work. We’re already organizing. Many of us have already ripped the veil away and we’re no longer willing to accept the injustices imposed upon us by this cruel, authoritarian reality.The Supreme court has attempt to thrust the killing blow into the Voting Rights Act. They’re probably chortling to themselves as they jump on their private yachts on their way to billionaire owned secluded islands.But their confidence is misplaced. They’ve already lost. They just don’t know it yet.They’re trying to defer back to an insignificant past when they were secure in their illusion of power. They grew drunk on their ability to make children tremble with their authoritarian threats.“Obey or else.”“Obey or else.”“Obey or else.”We huddled and we grew, and we huddled and we grew, and today we’re saying, “We choose ‘or else.’”We’ve forced their hand. In this case they had to show us. The dreaded “or else” was the murder of our most sacred franchise. Now they’re lying and saying, “That’ll learn ‘em.”But they’re missing the obvious. The fear of the threat was their most powerful tool of control. It’s not a threat anymore. It’s not something we build up in our mind and make larger than it is. Now, we’ve seen the reality. There’s not a lot left that they can do to us.They’ve been exposed.They exposed themselves.Meanwhile, we’ve grown into our power. The end is coming. I’ve seen these cowardly authoritarians bluster and rage before. Their bark is worse than their bite. The fact is that they are weak. They are so desperately and pathetically weak that they deserve our ridicule not our fear.They’ve already taken from us. They’ve stolen our healthcare and our education and our homes. Now they’re trying to crush our hope because they sense it will make us more compliant and less defiant.But I’d rather die!These entitled little pampered pricks who have never known the struggle of finding enough money to pay the rent think that we’re going to break. But we’ve been broken again and again by their abuses. We’ve always come back stronger.Soon they’re going to know that they’re the ones who are going to break, not us.Their incompetence and their cruelty threatens not only the collapse of our society, but the destruction of humankind.Do they really think we’re so afraid of them that we’re going to huddle in terror and simply witness the burning world? Hell no we’re not. At some point, the bluster and lies of authoritarians starts to fade into nothingness. They can scream and yell until their throats bleed. But these are tiny, little, inconsequential men. When they’re put to the test, they fail. Rather than fight, they retreat because nothing scares them more than being exposed.Our power right now is PRESSURE!I’m bored with complying.Keep the pressure up. Indulge your anger. Speak the words you’ve been conditioned not to say. Hold our leaders at every level accountable, and when the opportunity to replace them comes, vote them out.These pathetic men need to remember that we all occupy the same world. Wealth is a construct. Power is a construct. They aren’t entitled to it, and it doesn’t provide them with magical abilities we can’t overcome.If they want to destroy everything, that’s their choice. But there will be consequences. These last desperate efforts of the con man who has been exposed reveal more about them than they do of us. With every additional act of cruelty, the truth they’re trying to hide only becomes more clear.We have awakened.The time of tyrants has ended. They just don’t know it yet. Rather than face the truth about themselves, the most likely outcome is that they’ll share Hitler’s end. These men would rather die than recognize the reality of their cruelty.The only tragedy is that they are never forced to repair the damage they’ve done. But these men are too weak for repentance or redemption.I'd Rather Be Writing is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to I'd Rather Be Writing at walterrhein.substack.com/subscribe