I have been trying to collect the welter of thoughts in response to the mob attack on the Capitol yesterday.
The bottom line is that it was another act of iconoclasm, an assault on American history indistinguishable from the ones we saw over the summer and continue to see now.
Only this time, it came from a tribe of the Right.
The reality is there are a large number of people, including prominent ones in elected office, who do not love the Republic. At most, they love a hypothetical state, one which, like "true communism," will never exist no matter how many bodies are added to the foundations.
And yes, there were and are no shortage of cranks on the right--I remember talk radio during the Clinton years, the Michigan Militia and the like, up to the unlamented Steve King, as well as other cringe legislators in safe districts and cynical executives, government and private sector. But at least--or so I used to comfort myself--the average guy on the right was a patriot who loved America's history and respected her symbols.
I have no love for the corrupt corporatist oligarchy which attempts to dictate what we say or do. I agree that many of them--the information-molding monstrosities of BigTech leap to mind--are corrosive to the institutions of the Republic and the civil society which undergirds it, and deserve to be smashed repeatedly with the anti-trust hammer.
Pour encourager le autres.
And there are additional social, economic and political reforms which need to be made to give the country a chance to survive intact into the second half of this century.
Simply, the grim reality is this: America no longer generates a sufficient number of the kinds of virtuous citizens she needs to sustain herself. She is spending the capital built up by previous generations, and spending it quickly.
Yesterday demonstrated that with grim clarity: average right-leaning joes stormed the Capitol.
People who heretofore loved the symbols of this nation--and probably still do, not comprehending they are wounding that which they profess to love. Nevertheless, wound it they did.
Yes, left-wing shit-stirrers were present, contributing to the chaos. Which only reinforces my point about America not generating virtuous citizens to sustain the Republic. But that point is easier to point out to folks in a right-wing tribe. It is, to quote a much-beloved formulation, a truth which is self-evident.
It's harder to accept it when an allied faction does it. Maybe even impossible, as this comment thread at The American Catholic suggests.
More to the point, the leftists were not the majority of the stormers, and the blame cannot be shifted to a convenient them.
Can America regenerate peacefully, reforming herself to endure and more broadly prosper, long-term? Sure--all the tools are there, awaiting the vision and spirit of self-sacrifice and compromise which would enable their use.
Are there massive forces arrayed against it? Absolutely: there are giant piles of money to be made from the current spiral, and cupidity is amply rewarded by selling out the long-term well-being of the citizenry and Republic. All the while spouting pieties about individual rights, justice, global cooperation, privilege and the sacrosanct nature of private enterprise, naturally.
Those are tough odds, but not impossible. It has happened before--survival cancels programming, and crises have a way of focusing the collective mind.
But peaceable regeneration becomes impossible when people sever themselves from their traditions, virtues and reason--and then act accordingly.
God grants no nation a promise of enduring unity. And we appear to be much nearer the end of that unity than even my pessimistic estimation had feared.
I had just posted this over at my blog: "In the end, more than freedom, they wanted security. They wanted a comfortable life, and they lost it all — security, comfort, and freedom. When the Athenians finally wanted not to give to society but for society to give to them, when the freedom they wished for most was freedom from responsibility then Athens ceased to be free and was never free again."
ReplyDelete-Edward Gibbon.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shays%27_Rebellion
ReplyDeleteOne could argue the american tradition is being respected just fine. (Depending on how cynical you want to be about America.)
Otherwise I warned people all last year: if you don't define your lines and rules this is exactly what will happen.
Or you'll be in a camp warning the other occupants, "Well we can't do anything about it now, it would be disrespectful to our history."
If you never answer the question of "if not now, when?" then stop being surprised by several people deciding that when is now.
My line is that you don't start a war because you lost an election. Not even if you believe it was stolen--see, e.g., 1876.
DeleteTo borrow a phrase from one of the worst enemies of humanity: "internal contradictions."
In the absence of the devil figure in the White House, the internal contradictions of the ruling party are going to play out like a Mad Max version of demolition derby.
And when you throw in the new variants of coronavirus spreading around and the unspoken economic depression making its way through the marketplace, the front burner issue is going to be taking care of the people God has given to us.
So as long as the person in charge allows elections - no matter how fake or fradulant - it's not appropriate to rebel?
DeleteNOT sure how to parse the rest of your reply. You implying things will self destruct? I suppose. The Soviet Union did fall after many decades and many millions dead. Hopefully North Korea will in my lifetime but no sign of it yet.
Not sure that's as comforting as you intend.
Do you have a reasonable hope for success? That should be the first practical question asked under the just war calculus. And I think you have a point about accepting fraud in perpetuity.
DeleteBut you have to convince enough others to have a prayer. In 1860, a lot of Americans were outraged by the election results and acted accordingly. Five years and three quarters of a million dead men later, they were literally sifting through the ashes of the homesteads.
And my catastrophism isn't meant to be comforting in any scenario. But I don't think North Korea is the right analogy. Spain or the former Yugoslavia are closer, if not exact.
"America no longer generates a sufficient number of the kinds of virtuous citizens she needs to sustain herself."
ReplyDeleteThis might only be true if we keep expecting white male saviors to come riding in on horseback. People of color, women, and certainly some young white men, even immigrants. I've worked with young people who have shown me otherwise. Not enough to lift the nation in my own subjective experience, but no single person, not even a globe-trotting pope, will witness that.
I don't think these days are any more or less exceptional than any other. The difference, and the discouraging factor today, is that the person in charge isn't wearing the clothing of the hero, and his followers don't want to admit his naked butt waving at them in the breeze.
What is your obsession with race? I've dealt with honest to God racists who bring race up less often than you do.
DeleteIt is more accurate to ask what the US obsession with race is. I'm just pointing out how impoverished the white male only schtick is that eviscerates more than half the potential leaders from the get-go. Real racists ignore it. They won't talk about it. They can't confront it. They deny it.
DeleteThe catechism of intersectionality works a lot like the Baltimore: repetition is central. And in the former, I'm in the part with Lucifer and the rest of the Fallen, so...
DeleteThis might only be true if we keep expecting white male saviors to come riding in on horseback. People of color, women, and certainly some young white men, even immigrants. I've worked with young people who have shown me otherwise.
ReplyDeleteYou're a chorister, Todd.
I'm not particular about the demographic category of a fine leader, just as long as that person emerges.
As has been noted, your insinuations are gratuitous, and in character. You might try improving with age. Other people manage.
I observe some folks steer the discussion away from the topic and onto the people with opinions. Neither this essay nor my comment was about me. It was about widening one's expectations and expecting to be surprised. That's how God operated through history. The runts, the downtrodden, the underdogs--these were the leaders out of darkness. Less so the rich, the eldest son, the kings, etc..
Delete