Summary: The press tells us a series of exciting stories, but does little to pull these threads together to see the full picture. Here’s my version, dark and grim. This is the capstone to the almost 5,000 articles posted here since 2003, describing America’s future and setting forth a new purpose for this website.
Wave good-bye. He believes that we no longer deserve it.
First, there was the Satanic Ritual Abuse hysteria of the late 1980s and 1990s that sent many Americans to jail with the same logic as the Salem Witch Trials (and made Janet Reno America’s attorney general).
Then there was the Y2K hysteria, sharing many of the features of a moral panic.
There was the “rape culture” hysteria (more here), followed by the MeToo hysteria – since we must believe the woman (despite the many false accusations) unless the accused is a prominent Democrat (even if he is a rapist).
There was RussiaGate hysteria, known to the FBI from the beginning as both fraudulent and politically-motivated (and perhaps in part a Russian attack on Trump).
Then there was COVID-19, (in which the best-prepared nation became one of the worst affected), also sharing many of the features of a moral panic.
The latest is the Black Live Movement. They are not protesting the daily flood of Black and White blood shed by the mind-blowingly high rates of crime by African-Americans, fueled by the collapse of our inner cities since the 1960s. Much of their family structure has burned away. Their broken schools are among the results (for an example, see this video, the transcript, and more evidence here). Scores of studies (examples) show that there is little or no racial component to police violence. Also, African Americans are employed as police proportionate to their population (national data, by city) – and that the Democrats are screaming racism about police brutality largely in cities they have run for years or generations. Meanwhile, the police are both violent and corrupt, the criminal justice system is an evil joke, and our prisons are often nightmarish. Fixing these things does nothing for any faction of our elites. But getting us marching like drones in the streets yelling about racism burns off energy that might power reforms.
All of these panics richly display two trends that dominate the news. First, the growing dysfunctionality of America’s vital institutions. Government agencies (DoD, the FDA, the CDC), corporations, cities, professions (e.g., journalism), charities (e.g., the Boy Scouts) – they are falling like dominoes. Some have turned outright parasitic, such as Defense, health care, and the legal system. Each day fewer social processes work well in Americal; each day’s headlines reveal new kinds of chaos and madness.
Second, there is the growing instability of our thinking – revealed as these panics increase in frequency and magnitude. We have become weak and easily manipulated, like sheep. With little effort, we can be driven into irrational and emotional stampedes – which fade away leaving few traces behind. This is one of the reasons our elites look at us with contempt.
These trends are making America into ClownWorld, whose people cannot cope with their proliferating problems – or even clearly see them.
“When logic and proportion
Have fallen sloppy dead
And the White Knight is talking backwards
And the Red Queen’s off with her head …”
— Lyrics from “White Rabbit” sung by Jefferson Airplane (1967).
While the news overflows with exciting stories about these things, there is little analysis of how they fit together. We see the trees, not the forest. These are not isolated phenomena but part of a larger process: the fall of the American Republic. The Republic is no longer considered legitimate by many Americans, and their numbers are increasing. This washes away the foundation of our society, breaking our social systems (and the institutions which are their expression). Since 2003, almost five thousand posts here have documented this and predicted the likely result.
As America dies, we adapt
Slowly awareness of this, the defeat of Founder’s hopes, grows. Every society experiences defeat in its own way.
“But the varieties of response within vanquished nations – whether psychological, cultural, or political – conform to a recognizable set of patterns or archetypes that recut across time and national boundaries. A state of unreality – of dreamland – is invariably the first of these. … In the wake of German’s defeat in WWI, Ernest Troeltsch coined the term dreamland for this phenomenon, in which all the blame is transferred to the {bad guys in the old regime} and the {people} feels cathartically cleansed, freed of any responsibility or guilt.”
— From the Introduction to Wolfgang Schievelbusch’s The Culture of Defeat: On National Trauma, Mourning, and Recovery
This is America today. Everybody blames the others for our problems, inventing comforting and often elaborate fantasies as explanations. Democrats blame Republicans and vice versa. Blacks blame white supremacy and police racism for their problems, not their horrific rate of criminality, high rate of broken families, and widespread disdain for education. Comfortable suburbanites turn a blind eye to their inner cities, with their often Third World-like conditions. Many on the Left and Right passively dream of the violence to come, when they Arise and Smite Their Oppressors (so much more fun than tiresomely working the political machinery bequeathed us by the Founders).
The most bizarre example is our contempt for the officials we elect. Each political tribe clearly sees the corruption and recklessness of the other party. A broad majority looks at the ballot – which often lists weirdos like Hillary Clinton, Trump, and Biden – as if it was drawn up on Mars, not by political machinery we are too lazy to operate.
Some people dream of new laws that will fix the government, a kind of magical incantation. Others dream of redrawing lines on the map of America, as if new nations can be created from America with pens. Some dream of a world government, others of America fragmenting into happy self-governing villages.
None of these can work because they all ignore the common element in our bewildering and multiplying array of social, economic, and political problems: they all involve Americans. We flee from self-responsibility like vampires from sunlight. We are no longer willing to bear the burden of self-government – which is why our institutions, public and private, are dying.
A new phase for America
This is not the End Times. We have entered the transitional phase between the America-That-Once-Was and the coming new regime that will restore stability. Until then, expect continued decay of our institutions accompanied by more frequent bouts of increasingly weird mass hysteria. Probably with increasing violence, in many forms.
While revival is an inherent possibility in every soul and every society, at some point it becomes unlikely. At some point in these times future historians will draw a line and say this was the day America died. But we are not ready to see this (hence the fantasies).
In the coming years powerful groups, led by strong leaders, will arise and contend for mastery over America. Our decay into tribalism will make this easy, as a nation of citizens become one of followers. People who believe what they are told. People who do what they are told. That is the key element in the list panics which open this essay, as it is in our security theater performances in airports. They are, in effect, training exercises for new Americans. Like troops taught to march on the parade ground so that they can fight on the battlefield.
The course of this transitional period is unknowable. We should bet that our new rulers will rule in their own interest, not ours. But we will have the right to whine.
The Founders looked to the Roman Republic as their model for America. How fitting that our decay resembles that of the Roman Republic. Let’s hope that our transition will briefer and less violent than theirs. And remember that Rome grew in power and wealth for two centuries after the Republic fell.
A new phase for this website
This post concludes a series that began on July 4, 2006: Forecast: Death of the American Constitution. Like so many others, since then I have described the slow decay of America. Reading such stories is a popular form of entertainment for America’s Outer Party (college-educated middle class). I had hoped to act as a dime-store Thomas Paine or Samuel Adams, helping to arouse Americans to begin the great work of reform. I now think that is a hopeless endeavor. We have the power, but not the will to use it.
So what remains to do? We can watch the circus, enjoying it with gallows humor. We can watch the circus, looking for indications about the new America that lies ahead. And perhaps the unlikely will happen and the horse will learn to sing.
Contest
I will send a copy of Rome’s Last Citizen
A copy also goes to whoever suggests a new masthead for this website. “Helping to reignite the spirit of a nation grown cold” shows a hopeful spirit I no longer have.
For More Information
Ideas! See my recommended books and films at Amazon. For something different, see “The Swallow – a story of the WWII Night Witches.”
I highly recommend Martin van Creveld’s new book, Seeing into the Future: A Short History of Prediction
If you liked this post, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. For more information about this vital issue see my posts about fear, about the Constitution, and especially these posts …
- A 4th of July reminder that America is ours to keep – or to lose!
- The danger facing America, the names of the guilty, and our best hope for reform.
- Our institutions are hollow because we don’t love them.
- Rome’s last citizen warns America: don’t repeat our mistakes.
- After Independence Day, look to America after the Republic.
- We have become cowards. We can become brave again.
- We gave our rulers the greatest gift that we can give.
- The Founders’ error dooms our Republic, but not the next.
See the past to foresee our future
The Founders looked to the Roman Republic for ideas and inspiration. In this time of peril, we too can do so. See two books about the people who were the poles of the forces that could have saved the Republic, but instead destroyed it.
Caesar – a biography by Christian Meier
Rome’s Last Citizen
