Summer has arrived in the Far North, drying out the land, emptying the rainwater tank, spreading the scent of mānuka, sea and salt. We hear reports of a celebrity wedding in a neighbouring bay: glamorous TV news reporter Helen Castles has married sports broadcaster Andrew Saville. Castles has a solid fan base around here. I once rode in a crowded minivan to a local unveiling and the whole journey was taken up with an admiring group discussion of her journalistic exploits.
We experiment with a news blackout, for mental health. No more articles on climate change, no updates on Gaza and Ukraine, not even a weather bulletin. After a few days of withdrawal, I sneak a look at the weather forecast. This weakens me. Soon, I’m checking on Gaza and not long after that I’m in full binge. News podcasts, newspaper apps, the full blowout catastrophe. Still, the break gives a taste, a little window on what it would be like.
Imagine disengaging from it all, not caring, going about life’s daily tasks without hearing about the climate emergency and wars and dictators. No news, just beautiful, empty Northland beaches. It’s the kind of bliss I can’t achieve. As things currently stand, the only source I’ve given up is the 1News weather man, or “Mother Nature” as he’s known around here.
One day at a time, my old friend says in a text. He’s having relapse problems of his own. His struggle is with drugs and alcohol; my fix now is needing to itemise every court case involving ex-president Trump. We’re up to 91 felony charges in four criminal cases. Then there’s the civil litigation against him, including a court finding that he was liable for raping then defaming a plaintiff. And the major fraud trial in New York.
On the phone, a relative muses, “Would a second Trump term be so terrible? When Ronald Reagan was elected, we were terribly worried by his Star Wars defence plan and his evil empire rhetoric. And it turned out all right. The Wall came down.”
It’s true, Trump hasn’t started wars. But he doesn’t believe in democracy. Voted out, he engaged in a conspiracy to stay in power that involved complex fraud and violent insurrection. His followers threatened to lynch vice president Mike Pence. Trump has said that if he gets back into power, he would not be a dictator “except for day one”. He’s so willing to subvert the rule of law that President Joe Biden calls him “a threat to democracy”.
It’s also true things never turn out as expected. In the 80s, the Reagan administration’s rhetoric was so fiery the Russians decided the Americans were planning a pre-emptive nuclear strike. They looked for evidence, and erroneously found it. Russian paranoia was high enough potentially to cause a catastrophe. But events intervened. British prime minister Margaret Thatcher decided President Mikhail Gorbachev was “a man one could do business with”. Meanwhile, senior KGB agent Oleg Gordievsky had had enough of the repressive Soviet system and was passing secrets to the British.
When the UK learnt how dangerously paranoid the Russians were, it realised the rhetoric needed to cool. Thatcher took secret advice from Gordievsky on how best to soothe the Russians. Reagan met Gorbachev, relations thawed and the world survived. Delicate diplomacy was required, and rational behaviour.
Could Trump and the morally flexible people he would empower act to avert a nuclear war? Would they do anything coherent about the climate crisis? About anything?
Time to flee back to abstinence. Back to celebrity weddings, to beautiful Northland and its wild, radiant emptiness.
