The 1% has been waging a psychological warfare against the people, and we need the Marianne Mindset to fight back. No, I am not selling you anything today, there will be no orbs, no healing crystals. Only the power of love. But I will get back to that. Let’s begin with a summary overview of the two most immediate ways in which we the people are totally fucked by hate. The two most urgent and pressing storms in the ocean of bad vibes that we currently flow along:

1. Climate change. It is already here now. People in my country Nepal and other parts of the developing world have been dying en masse every year from unprecedented floods, landslides and other climate catastrophes. Everything is projected to get dramatically worse and experts say we have about 12 years to make an attempt to reverse this apocalyptic train.

2. The brutal subjugation of third world peoples through pointless wars, coups and shady deals with dangerous U.S. allies. The people of Yemen, of Palestine. The people and children at the southern U.S. boarders in cages for trying to flee local catastrophes, the masses of black and brown people in cages for made up crimes and those that get murdered regularly by the police.

Them’s the baddest of vibes, and here we are those of us born to witness the train-wreck. No wonder we are so depressed and anxious — not to minimize the actual alienation that so many experience from being locked into the wage labor economy that strips us of our dignity. We’re exhausted. The few hours a day we are granted by the masters of mankind to pursue our own interests, we want to Netflix and Disassociate. So we can prepare for another day another hustle. Rent is due on Friday. Can’t go on that strike because we’ll get fired. No time for social life. No energy for community. No money for therapy. Starved for solidarity, many of us with the privilege to do so retreat online, some of us extremely online. If you are completely disintegrating from within, sure posting on r/chapotraphouse is praxis.

Except hate already got their first and now online is doubling up that anxiety and depression. How many likes did I get? I am going to stop scrolling through my facebook feed and go outside in a second. I close the facebook app. I’m already on twitter. Hate is all over it, I’m feeling more anxious I should go outside. Gotta hit up reddit first though. Oh look this random person is being stupid, this is the anonymous internet, time to go and say something nasty, this is praxis. How many likes did I get?

It is exhausting, all of it. The bad vibes are everywhere, including within us (ok most of us you sanctimonious fuck who just thought hey, not me). With the weight of bearing witness to urgent catastrophes, we resign. We become nihilistic. 12 years. It’s game over, there is nothing we can do.

And that’s how they win the psychological warfare. Unless.

We can begin by removing the hate hiding inside us. The hate that makes us forget that people on the other side of our screens are human beings with full ranges of emotions that absolutely do get caught up in our online shenanigans.

We have to begin by believing we can be better, we can feel better and we can help others feel better. We have to begin by caring about the psychological wellbeing of others because most people are struggling just like us and gosh it really sucks.

I understand 30% of Americans are beyond hope, they have been consumed by hate. That leaves some 69% of remaining people, who are reasonable for the most part to work on. They probably don’t want the world to end. They probably don’t support the various crimes against humanity occurring around the world daily. Are you in the 30% or the 69%? If the former, you can stop here.

If the latter, then let’s refer back to points 1 and 2. THIS IS URGENT! Disasters are ongoing. We are in the middle of a really terrible time and we might not have a planet to leave our grandkids! But that said like, stop freaking out. That’s how they win the psychological warfare. We are at war and you have to fight back, otherwise we have no chance to win. Devise a plan, a strategy towards wellness, whatever that may look like for you.

For me it’s meditation. Being a South Asian woman who was literally born 20km from the birthplace of *the* Buddha, I can confidently say that most people will likely benefit from some form of meditation. It’s free and you can start with as little as 5 minutes a day so compared to any other wellness activity. The 1% has coopted this entire way of living to sell apps. We must retrieve it for the people. My suggestion is metta, a compassion-based technique because hate thrives most where there is a lack of compassion for ourselves and others.

But it’s not just about “self-care” don’t just do it for you, do it to build the psychological resilience and tenacity to protect the dignity of all peoples. Do it so you are fueled by the continued passion to take action. Real praxis. Grassroots organizing. Making time for your own community. Donating to social movements you believe in. Being kind at every opportunity online and offline.

Also, elect Bernie Sanders. Sure, he is a succdem. Sure, there are many other “qualified” candidates. Who cares? WE DON’T HAVE TIME! That’s my only argument in favor of Bernie. The ruling class has been manufacturing our consent for so long, how can we be sure anyone but Bernie is going to actually take radical climate action? Warren probably would. But we can never be sure because she’s with the establishment and used to be a republican. Of the 12 years we have, are we going to chance a 4 year gamble? Bernie is not here to build a political career, he is here to shake things up wherever he can and then die. If he is so old that he dies in office, at least I can say with confidence he will have done everything in his power to combat climate change. Not so much with the endless wars and crimes against POC though.

That’s where the Marianne comes back in. See Marianne isn’t a socialist. She’s hardly left in terms of domestic policy. She doesn’t even support ending private insurance. Yet she’s the only one who called out the U.S. for perpetuating violence in Latin America during the debates. She genuinely wants to see the end to all the violence. She genuinely wants to establish a U.S. Department of Peace. And you know what, we sure as hell need one! Bernie would probably include her in his cabinet for foreign-policy, if we made him. We have to demand the things we want! Always remember that. Politicians work for us. Until a time that we dismantle and rebuild a new structure entirely, we have to find the fastest most efficient ways to deal with problems 1 & 2.

If all this sounds too whimsical to be real, you suffer from a great ailment known as the failure of imagination. Right now we are at this threshold where we can change the very fabric of our society. Electing Bernie and creating a Department of Peace would be barely a stepping stone towards more long-term radical action that is required. But without these steps we are going to fail with certainty. The real truth is we don’t have to fail, we can begin our trajectory towards success by harnessing the power of love.

“Harnessing the power of love” obviously in the metaphorical sense of loving our fellow human beings and our planet. But some of us also mean it in the literal sense that love is a form of pure energy that exists within our material reality as a powerful force! You can laugh at us, that is in fact encouraged.

I’ll leave you with a quote from Michael Pollan’s “How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence” (yes, you should add this book to your Marianne Mindset Starter Pack). While tripping on shrooms, Pollan had a very strong insight that “love is everything.” Funny platitude, right? He writes about the experience:

Is a platitude so deeply felt still just a platitude? No, I decided. A platitude is precisely what is left of a truth after it has been drained of all emotion. To re-saturate that dried husk with feeling is to see it again for what it is: the loveliest and most deeply rooted of truths, hidden in plain sight.

Now let’s heal society with the Marianne Mindset and continue to heal the internet with Marianne Memes.