Photo by Pete Linforth
Now is a time of heightened threat, trouble, tribulation, and tumult for America. There is high anxiety, palpable risk, a lack of clarity, fear like I’ve rarely seen it, and unprecedented tribalism. We need everyone on the field, and “our better angels” to persevere. Indeed, America needs wisdom, hope, courage and love like never before.
I am not going to lie—I’m nervous.
Let me say from the outset: I do get that America has had its issues from the time the first settlers hit the shores of the “new world” 400 years ago. There has been a hell of a lot of pain, anguish, suffering, death, decay in our long history as a nation. We have even faced (or in some cases, caused) genocide, slavery, stock market crashes, wars, and pandemics before.
Every era (and, I think, every person) tends to appear (or feel) as though it is going through unparalleled danger, threat, and darkness. Certainly if one were in a concentration camp (1944) or in the English subway system at night to avoid bombs (1940) or storming the beaches of Normandy (1945), it would seem pretty dismal and depressing.
But having said that, I am willing to say this: I’m feeling pretty dark right now.
I don’t even think that (unlike perhaps some times in my past) my own mind, my unique brain chemistry—basically, my internal goings-on—account for this mood I am experiencing. Heck, yesterday I applied to a graduate school I am pretty excited about! No, personally, things are going fairly well in my marriage, with my health, and in my finances.
But that’s not what is bothering me.
What is causing my heart to beat faster than usual is my external world. The world we all have in common.
Friends, we are in a time of unprecedented tribalism, rarely-seen national anxiety, and extremely serious threat. It is a perfectly normal reaction to all this to feel bad, dark, and uncomfortable.
The famed documentarian Ken Burns said he believes this is a time of unparalleled threat to the American republic. He has investigated America pretty thoroughly—the Civil War and so on. He is aware of the Civil Rights struggle. He knows about World War II. He is not ignorant of The Cuban Missile Crisis or The Great Depression or Watergate.
And he feels this is a very dangerous, perhaps momentous time for America (story here). He is not taking any of our threats lightly, and neither am I. He definitely sees the unprecedented tribalism that now grips America like a vice. We Americans have truly planted some demon seeds, and are now dealing with flowers of fire (U2’s words).
Or to quote another awe-inspiring lyricist reflecting on some haunting stuff, my man from Rush, Neil Peart:
When they turn the pages of history;
When these days have passed long ago,
Will they read of us with sadness
For the seeds that we let grow?
Think about all the things that are stacked against us Americans at present:
- Trump and Trumpism and lies and cover-ups and political chicanery are still running amok. One look at the news and it is patently obvious that the Republicans have created a Frankenstein that is forty years in the making. Indeed, the junk that was coming out of Reagan’s mouth in the 1980s and the way the GOP has conducted itself has led ineluctably to the mad situation we now all face. And they can’t stop. They just can’t tell the truth, recognize good moral values, or stand up with courage and character. It’s ignominious and it’s all around us.
- Unprecedented tribalism, inter-group dissention and hate, and fear and loathing of the demographic changes that are upon us. Nowadays, everything is a partisan fight, a political issue. The GOP throws around epithets and tropes and red herrings such as “woke culture,” “far-Left extremism,” and “Biden’s inflation.” Those on the political Left are pretty amped up, too, and often mistake minor inappropriate language or perceived insults in the Right. Folks have shown up at Supreme Court justice’s houses, become very angry at the toppling of Roe v. Wade and the politicization of the SCOTUS, and raged at the abysmal situation in Uvalde, Texas.
- Guns, guns, guns. A fourth of the country is obsessed with guns (I wonder what Freud would think) and buys more guns every time there is a major mass shooting for fear that they will have to use them to fight blue-staters or the government or who knows what bogeyman. Three-fourths of the country resents that these folks and the NRS and the craven GOP politicians won’t do much at all to deal with mass shootings.
- Beyond mass shootings, we have a major epidemic of gun violence in this country. Inner cities erupt in street violence very summer night. Rural violence is up 25% in 2020 (the latest statistics on record). Suicides and murders and other violent crime are up—and the shit is splashing on certain big-city mayors or D.A.s who want to try to do something to ameliorate the mass incarceration or racial disparities in the justice system.
- Opioid use is up, and fentanyl is turning out to be omnipresent wherever there is a drug catastrophe. Yes, a big pharmaceutical company was largely responsible for this (in cahoots with certain doctors of very low moral character) but the people are buying drugs. As well, marijuana is so potent and so plentiful that certain problems with its use and its legalization are coming to the fore lately. Turns out that a country of our level of education and average mental sophistication isn’t ready for self-dosing extremely high-THC strains of marijuana. Maybe Bill Maher has some suggestions for us since he lobbied heavily for pot legalization….
- Did I mentioned unprecedented tribalism??
- Inflation, debt, and the bear market are worrisome. I want to sell my remaining stocks, buy silver, and go hide. But I know that is not a functional and reasonable thing to do. So, I sit with the anxiety… And I have it better than most people; I can afford to fill my tank or buy whatever food I want, but a lot of folks are under great pressure financially. Plus, though electric cars are increasingly more popular, a lot of Americans bought big SUVs in the last decade—and now that chicken is coming home to roost.
- There have been all manner of dysfunction and disturbance on the airlines. If it’s not COVID transmission it’s flight delays; if it’s not price increases it’s crowding and a lack of TSA agents; if it’s not pilot shortages it’s in-air fights that have often caused a redirected flight. This on top of the “pack ’em in like sardines and to hell with how the customers feel about it!” mentality on the part of the airlines that has only increased in the last three decades. You literally cannot bear to sit in the middle of two hefty folks, it’s too disturbing!
- Obesity is a big problem (no pun intended)
- The latest COVID variants are very scary. They evade vaccinations—and still some 30% of the populace is too deluded or dumb or irrational or irascible to get vaccinated. Long COVID is some serious shit! I have to lament how much of the unprecedented tribalism we have seen in the last five years center around vaccinations, masks, closures, etc. We have lost well over A MILLION AMERICANS to COVID, and it’s not over by a long shot. Truly scary situation….
- Ted Cruz still exists.
- Facebook, Google, Amazon, Apple and all those companies want to be our masters in “the metaverse.” If they have their way, it will be a world of artificial intelligence run amok. Of course, we will be paying for this because we are thought of as mere consumers by these for-profit corporations. Government, to this point, has been virtually unable to do any kind of realistic regulation.
- The GOP doesn’t do regulation at all.
- Citizens United and a few other absurd rulings by the conservatives on the SCOTUS have left us with a repugnant system whereby bribing politicians is legal.
- Have you seen the latest crop of far-Right political candidates? How about their gun-toting, straw-man-attacking advertisements? It’s like Sarah Palin on crack.
- White supremacy and far-Right violent extremism is on the rise. It’s a much bigger threat that any foreign threat…
- …except for Vladimir Putin, North Korea, and Iran. Very scary shit there!
- Finally—because I had better stop, lest I go on for another twenty bullet points—global warming, climate change, climate destruction…. Whatever you want to call it, we’re living it. The cost it is extracting from us in lives, in treasure, and in hope for the future is at times, staggering. Some days I am actually relieved I don’t have children and will never have grandchildren. The future of the planet is really very unsettling. If you’re not scared, you’re not paying attention!
Yes, we are in a time of unprecedented tribalism, remarkable chicanery and corruption, racial unease and religious tumult. But the main question is: how capable are we of coming up with realistic solutions to the problems that plague us?
First, I should point out that maybe I am being preternaturally glum. I know I can tend to get down about things, and that mood sometimes manifests itself in social criticism and doomsday scenarios. When I was learning more about Dostoevsky’s Notes From the Underground, I thought I should just do a little rethinking and consider that maybe I am being too pessimistic about all of America’s problems and character flaws. If you watch this video for the first six minutes, you can think about Dostoevsky and his Notes From the Underground, and see what your assessment is.
I fear that one of America’s biggest problems now is that we don’t seem to be able to solve solvable problems. The fact that 15 Republicans agreed to vote with every Democrat and Independent on the smallest, most incremental gun control legislation ever (June, 2022) is actually sort of amazing.
Some of our problems (like our unprecedented tribalism and political corruption) were created by none other than ourselves. Some are just bad luck but most are unintended consequences—or purposeful chicanery and skullduggery on the part of some very bad actors. Think about who has been profiting off of global warming in the past 50 years; imagine the cops who know very well there is a sickness in their ranks but do not stand up for progressive change; reflect on the fact that the wealthy have been gaming the system and lining their pockets since Day 1—but unfortunately the results are damning.
I am very worried, and a little angry! I want to have a good future like everyone else does!
I have seen from the popularity of my latest book (on wisdom, available here and here) that a lot of folks simply just don’t care about the subject (or, they do but they are looking for a book about Biblical/revealed/religious/Christian ideas of wisdom.
I have to say, a country that cares more about pictures of kittens, sports, rehearsing old ideas and prejudices, and the unprecedented tribalism that marks most social relationships now is not going to do very well.
That’s my bottom line here: if we don’t turn around now, as the Native American proverb goes, we might get where we’re going.….
And where we Americans are headed is no place we want to be.
I will end with a haunting Margaret Atwood quote (she is the author of that extremely disturbing—hopefully not prescient!—book and series, The Handmaid’s Tale. She warned America, a couple decades ago:
If you proceed much further down the slippery slope, people around the world will stop admiring the good things about you. They’ll decide that your “city upon the hill” is a slum and your democracy is a sham, and therefore you have no business trying to impose your sullied vision on them. They’ll think you’ve abandoned the rule of law. They’ll think you’ve fouled your own nest.
The British used to have a myth about King Arthur. He wasn’t dead, but sleeping in a cave, it was said; in the country’s hour of greatest peril, he would return.
You, too, have Great Spirits of the past you may call upon: men and women of courage, of conscience, of prescience.
Summon them now, to stand with you, to inspire you, to defend the best in you. You need them.
