Perhaps we were all too busy staring at Facebook, or watching The Walking Dead, or generally sinking further and further into the social malaise that Neil Postman warned us about in Amusing Ourselves to Death which contrasts dystopian visions put forth by George Orwell and Aldous Huxley as dawning and intertwined realities in North American culture.
Inauguration Day 2017.
Time to wake up.
Suddenly the world was transforming into something...different. Our collective reality had suddenly shifted onto a trajectory that, until that moment was...unexpected.
The right words didn't come at first.
I found myself fumbling for appropriate description of the emotional impact the event had upon me. The victory was...strange. Somehow...counterfeit.
An alternate setting that should never have been realized.
Even Trump supporters seemed a bit dismayed when it actually happened. It was something from a reality TV show, a fictional Netflix series, a metaphorical advisory against the hubris of humankind. For the briefest of moments, even they hesitated to accept what had just been laid at their feet.
For my part, I had to sit with it for awhile. I had to consider what it might actually mean. It helps that I have the privilege of observing from a comfortable distance. Having moved to Denmark in mid-December provides breathing room to observe my beloved country as it struggles for traction within its self imposed asylum.
Truthfully, it pains me to watch, to listen, to be grilled with questions from outsiders about the status of the collective North American mindset that gave birth, either through complacency or overt approval, to this new era of xenophobic intolerance, sexism, and opportunistic malice. Whether or not this movement gains momentum beyond the boisterous few is irrelevant; what matters is that it can happen at all. In any country. In my country.
To assuage my misgivings about the state of affairs at home, I regularly seek those historical figures who best understood the dangers of politicians and government gaining too much control over our daily life.
I revisit the classic science fiction writers.
Listening to the discourse of every pundit, newscaster, and political affiliate railing for or against this new era does little to ease my mind. But give me an hour with 1984 or Fahrenheit 451, and suddenly things become quite clear.
These authors knew.
Either instinctively or through observation, Orwell and Huxley and Ray Bradbury and Arthur C. Clarke understood the way human groups interact. They understood how human groups consider each other. Layer on top of that the intent of government to control it's populations either through force or comfort or something in between, and the trajectory of our social construct was set. They simply noticed before anyone else.
Like the incarnate goddess Maat weighing the human heart upon the divine scale to determine its worth, these writers assessed the collective human pysche.
Sadly, they found it wanting.
They surmised that if humans could use social constructs and technology to observe and control under the auspice of protecting ourselves and each other, or protecting ourselves from each other, then we most certainly would. Fictional technologies written into their dystopian texts simply fulfilled that purpose.
The fact that we have since created similar technologies is no coincidence.
Because technologies may change, but humans never will.
The only thing that changes is which group takes their turn at creating havoc and imbalance within the human commune.
Who is the current conglomerate of humans to fracture the otherwise peaceful assemblage of individuals going about their daily lives? Who will be the next champions of terrorism, enslavement, genocide, brutal and vicious acts both collectively and individually? Why does the scale tip in favor of one or the other group, from time to time, historically?
The catalyst is simply... fear.
Because if we don't do it to them, they will surely do it to us.
Or not
But why take the chance?
Because the alternative means we have to stand in a constant state of passivity toward the transgressions that will surely be leveraged against us.
Or not.
It's best to seek balance. No one expects a person to not fight back when attacked physically, or threatened with harm, or when loved ones are in danger.
Evil walks; it finds its feet among humans.
But only if we allow it.
It's why World War II stands apart from other global conflicts. It was a noble fight. The center of that fight, the meaning of it was literally ordinary men and women standing against a very real onslaught of evil that had ensnared billions in its wake.
The smarmy political and government agendas that seek to exaggerate our differences and cast fear among us are merely wordplay.
For or against.
Us versus them.
Greatness is not achieved by demeaning others or through exclusion. Indeed, greatness diminishes in direct relation to the measure of our conceit.
After all, making mistakes might be the most consistent state of human existence, but accepting our failings, making amends, and seeking redemption is by far the most sacred.
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| Sunrise or sunset...January 2017 |
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