Some Day

Imagine future anthropologists sifting through the digital archives of the twenty-first century.

They will see a polarized world. Was it money or technology that split people away from one another? Those stuck sorting through petabytes of selfies would laugh; though not as much as those sorting through Facebook pages or internet forums.

And they will see change. People stood up to defend the rights of strangers. Abuse long swept under the rug, was fought. One morning, a scientist remarks offhand that there indeed was unity amidst all that divide. A colleague agrees, positing that in spite of President Trump, progressive changes really started to occur in the first decades of the twenty-first century.

A long discussion begins. He said what about white nationalists? Anthropologists take turns recounting the events of his term. How did he get elected again? Adding some levity, someone points out society’s perseverance in the face of such absurdity. He actually spoke like that? Thankfully, that yellow hairdo never became a fad. Talk turns to better things as they press on through the archives.

When a similar scene happens years from now, it will be because civilization survived. Perhaps not into a perfect future, but a better one. Because resistance worked.