The Great Catharsis

Monday, October 20, 2025

Precisely what was the #NOKINGS protest all about?  Yes, people were very upset, but it made little to no sense really.  You can’t quite put your finger on what they were so upset about.  Oh sure, they had lots of things to talk about, but it just did not add up.  That’s when it hit me.

Catharsis:

1 –
a) purification or purgation of the emotions (such as pity and fear) primarily through art

b) a purification or purgation that brings about spiritual renewal or release from tension

That’s all it was for most people involved.  It was just a large, public emotional release of all this pent up hatred they have for Donald Trump.

So, it felt good, but did it change anything – really?  We’ve read all about how many people were involved and that those numbers “dealt a blow to Trump” but how precisely did they do so?  Especially when one account of the NYC event said there were 100,000 there and another 300,000?  What “blow” was rendered?

But the thing that bothers me most about all this is it was extremely organized which means several things.  One, it means there were organizers.  Who were they?  And given the extraordinary efforts to do this organization, what were their motives?  Way too many resources were required for the organizational efforts to be purely emotional.  Secondly, this indicates that people being organized were motivated enough to seek out something like this – which is an extraordinary level of emotional involvement in politics.  Finally, it means that those being organized are being used in some fashion.  Their emotion is being used to forward some end that no one seems to fully understand.

In the absence of any evidence, it would be irresponsible of me to make conjectures about who was doing what to who and why – that’s how conspiracy theories are born.  But what I can say is that under these circumstances the only possible outcome is chaos.  Given that everyone involved clearly opposes Trump, but the whys, wherefores, and reason are all over the map, and that the protests seem to offer no viable alternative to the current administration all they are offering the nation is chaos – a lack of government.

So in the end this cathartic event is destructive and offers nothing constructive in its wake.  And so it passes.  Headlines have been written, correspondents and camera crews dispatched.  Signs have been waved, chants chanted and everybody, I guess, feels a little better.  So endeth the story.