What Will It Take?
Such a surreal and historic moment for our country.
There has never been a time in modern US history when voters who supported a losing candidate have kept their fealty to the candidate and not the party. There are many historical examples, sure, but not in the United States — our peaceful transfer of power and rejection of lifetime or hereditary rule are what makes us different.
The nearest sort-of examples are the election of 1860, and a century later when white conservative Democrats, upset by Democratic policies of desegregation in the mid-20th Century, created their own party and nominated Strom Thurmond for President (that party collapsed after losing the election and conservative Democrats switched parties to become Republicans in the following years). But both of these disruptions to American political life were ideological splits fueled by policies and principles (and yes, racism). There is nothing to suggest that the conspiracy-fueled cult of Trump has anything to do with principle or policy, never mind a consistent political philosophy — unless you consider some incoherent marriage of authoritarianism and anarchy a philosophy. Any party split that may come from this moment is being driven by loyalty to one man. That’s the anomaly.
Blind loyalty to one man — to the extent of one’s willingness (eagerness?) to reject reality, commit violence and treason, and to dismiss any and all of his obvious and easily-provable transgressions — is an exception to every norm of American democracy and a truly historical moment in modern history. And it’s surreal and shocking to live through an obviously historical moment — especially after a century of relative peace and prosperity that has lulled the modern first world human into complacency. We are not well-prepared for this moment.
So what comes next?
The chief stabilizing factor in the ever-changing affairs of humanity is a shared reality — “truth” that can be relied upon. In past eras this shared truth may have taken the form of mythology and religion; more recently, systems of governance (Democracy v. Communism) or, in the spirit of the Enlightenment Era, the guiding principles of science and reason. These foundations for understanding and behaving are the anchors for not only one’s worldview, but for entire cultures, right down to the neighborhood. But today, in our era of individualized experience powered by the attention economy, we’ve experienced the disappearance of shared objective standards for truth. This is enabled by social media algorithms and a retail-like media environment that leads to a “whatever goes viral / choose your own adventure / information bubble” political discourse. Our “friend” groups and social networks have become just as ephemeral and shallow as our tweets and text messages — and the standards we apply for entry are not shared life experiences or physical proximity, but which side you’re on, what reality you have chosen, and, as we’ve seen, what message boards or social media platforms you subscribe to.
Our self-selection into alternate realities is extremely dangerous. Will there come a point beyond which lying becomes counterproductive? Or will the profit motive and complexity of the information age dampen our willingness to fight back against what the mass proliferation of lies are doing to us? If the events of January 6th wasn’t that point, then what is? That’s the scary part…
-AN
