February 28, 2017
When negotiating a traffic circle, the idea is not to bisect
the circle at high speed. Rather, these circles enable vehicular traffic to
flow efficiently and harmoniously, where drivers enter in turns and navigate
the lanes using mirrors, signals, and a dose of civility. For my friends in DC
who travel Chevy Chase Circle, we understand too well that this latter
description can fail utterly.
And that’s really an apt metaphor for today’s United States, isn’t it? We’re no longer working in concert with others; no, by contrast we’re charging angrily into the circle, cutting through the lanes, sowing risk and spreading destruction in our wake. Everyone else be damned. So, for all those well-meaning and nostalgic individuals who say, “this isn’t America” … let’s labor no more under such delusions: this is who we are as a country. This is us. We’re going to try being the bullies on the block for a while, and see what that feels like. Are you ready?
As an historian recently (and wrongfully) detained at an airport so aptly put it, “We must now face arbitrariness and incompetence at every level.” Ever looked down your nose at those banana republics and their graft-ridden low-level apparatchiks? Well take a look in the mirror. Do you enjoy the freedom to say what you want, and be what you want, without the fear and reprisals with which other populations must contend? Better start watching your back. You should also get used to violence and intimidation against religious minorities; we see more of it with each passing day. Get used to people who are in this country legally now fleeing across the northern border (illegally) just to escape you. YOU. Get used to well-educated and economically additive immigrants choosing to leave the United States, or instead to never come here at all but to go elsewhere, and make those countries wealthier and more powerful – not us. For those of you that took the course, we’re going to try tossing macroeconomics out the window, and see how that goes. Let’s all slam the doors and throw up tariffs and walls and all of those things we’d once consigned to the trash heap of fiscal experimentation. Can we fix it? Perhaps, if it isn’t already too late, but that will take a lot more effort than we’ve shown ourselves willing to give.
So together we have a front seat view now of just how little is required to dramatically alter a nation’s climate to one of fear and intimidation, and to let loose the less savory and more violent instincts of what psychologists will tell you is a larger part of the population than you probably wish to imagine. How much fun that will be, for all of us. Oh, what a small number of words from a powerful set of lips can unleash, like a few crooked stones in the Oroville spillway. Before us now is a farcical tyranny of the masses, tossing gasoline on a fire in a desperate last act of irrationality and recklessness.
But the thing about burning down the house is, my friends – you’ve got to be prepared to stand in a pile of ashes. Ever sneered at those other countries which lacked our social, political, and economic stability, or maintained our professional and civil standards? Our long-standing religious rights and protections? You’ve got to be prepared to lose those rights, privileges, services, predictabilities, and opportunities you’ve come to expect (and perhaps never even really considered), as they were built on the very foundations you just torched. Have you enjoyed the comfort and peace of mind that comes with being the adult among nations? Say goodbye to the prestige you once carried, the doors held open, the elevated pathways afforded you.
Welcome to your Brave New World, America.
And that’s really an apt metaphor for today’s United States, isn’t it? We’re no longer working in concert with others; no, by contrast we’re charging angrily into the circle, cutting through the lanes, sowing risk and spreading destruction in our wake. Everyone else be damned. So, for all those well-meaning and nostalgic individuals who say, “this isn’t America” … let’s labor no more under such delusions: this is who we are as a country. This is us. We’re going to try being the bullies on the block for a while, and see what that feels like. Are you ready?
As an historian recently (and wrongfully) detained at an airport so aptly put it, “We must now face arbitrariness and incompetence at every level.” Ever looked down your nose at those banana republics and their graft-ridden low-level apparatchiks? Well take a look in the mirror. Do you enjoy the freedom to say what you want, and be what you want, without the fear and reprisals with which other populations must contend? Better start watching your back. You should also get used to violence and intimidation against religious minorities; we see more of it with each passing day. Get used to people who are in this country legally now fleeing across the northern border (illegally) just to escape you. YOU. Get used to well-educated and economically additive immigrants choosing to leave the United States, or instead to never come here at all but to go elsewhere, and make those countries wealthier and more powerful – not us. For those of you that took the course, we’re going to try tossing macroeconomics out the window, and see how that goes. Let’s all slam the doors and throw up tariffs and walls and all of those things we’d once consigned to the trash heap of fiscal experimentation. Can we fix it? Perhaps, if it isn’t already too late, but that will take a lot more effort than we’ve shown ourselves willing to give.
So together we have a front seat view now of just how little is required to dramatically alter a nation’s climate to one of fear and intimidation, and to let loose the less savory and more violent instincts of what psychologists will tell you is a larger part of the population than you probably wish to imagine. How much fun that will be, for all of us. Oh, what a small number of words from a powerful set of lips can unleash, like a few crooked stones in the Oroville spillway. Before us now is a farcical tyranny of the masses, tossing gasoline on a fire in a desperate last act of irrationality and recklessness.
But the thing about burning down the house is, my friends – you’ve got to be prepared to stand in a pile of ashes. Ever sneered at those other countries which lacked our social, political, and economic stability, or maintained our professional and civil standards? Our long-standing religious rights and protections? You’ve got to be prepared to lose those rights, privileges, services, predictabilities, and opportunities you’ve come to expect (and perhaps never even really considered), as they were built on the very foundations you just torched. Have you enjoyed the comfort and peace of mind that comes with being the adult among nations? Say goodbye to the prestige you once carried, the doors held open, the elevated pathways afforded you.
Welcome to your Brave New World, America.
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