My physical state has led to some pretty weird psychological states over the last week or so. Mostly I would call it "thoughtful", but I've had some bouts of anxiety, depression, paranoia. I think it's mostly the fatigue, which conveys a kind of helpless feeling, and the crazy sleep schedule (I've been sleeping a lot more than usual, and more than once a day, so my body clock is sort of rolling out of sync with the world.
Still... it put me in a mood to finish up some things I've been kind of sitting on. Mainly two essays.
The first is a follow-up to the political essay I wrote in November 2024, right after the election was decided. I have tried to avoid politics on "Lunatics!" in general, but I'm afraid the Trump administration has broken my commitment to neutrality. This goes beyond "mere politics" for me.
Anyway, in "Entering the Dark Forest", I was trying to predict what to expect from a 2nd Trump presidency, and there was a lot of anxiety there, but I guess I was trying to downplay it, because I didn't want to come off as alarmist.
Well, today I feel like I really understated things. Nothing is really different from what I predicted, except harder, faster, and more painful. And well, that's what this essay addresses.
I had been kind of sitting on it, hoping to give it a more optimistic spin, talking about what I'm going to do. But in the end, I realized that was just dishonest. I've got some things I'm doing, but I'm not as optimistic as I'd like to be. So it just is what it is:
"Inside the Dark Forest"
https://lunaticsproject.org/2025/08/11/inside-the-dark-forest/
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