Divided We Fall
Does our country even notice that prices are up and services are down? Should expensive fuel, eggs and other basic necessities really be the basis for outrage? How many citizens are living at the poverty line, and how many of them continue to support policies that actually harm them in turn? How many Americans have trained themselves to ignore the growing threat of climate change, gradual erosion of basic rights, militarization of law enforcement, mass incarceration of citizens, illegal deportation of immigrants and weaponization of language? We have grown too fat and happy to notice that all of these things are taking place at an accelerated pace. No one worries until the threat is at their doors, when it is too late.
It is a very human reaction to compartmentalize elements that are difficult to accept and even more difficult to resist. For most it is easier to go about their days as if nothing is wrong, hoping that the threat just goes away. But what happens when it does not and instead grows day by day? What our citizens are able to tolerate is sometimes staggering and often depressing. We need look no farther than what Blacks have suffered as “Americans” since 1776. The rise of ICE raids and illegal deportations are alarming and sound a call to resistance. Same for the federal occupation of American cities as if they had declared a state of martial law. The levying of unlawful tariffs, withholding of legal documentation of crimes, realignment of federal district boundaries and manipulation of public media outlets all represent a palpable threat to democracy and basic Constitutional rights. But most citizens would rather wallow in distraction, or ignorance, or pick a side blindly and defend it to the end even when it does not meet their own vested interests. This is the wobbly table leg that oppressors depend upon, the weak link. This is the same effect that all other authoritarian regimes have counted on for their success. That society will be too distracted, too arrogant and too intimidated to act. That the cost of resisting will be more difficult than the cost of laying down and accepting small inconveniences, until they become large inconveniences and there is no slowing or stopping them.
We are watching the end of an empire…slowly as the human being ages perceptively. Time is immortal and even the 100, 1000, 1 million year cycle that we can measure as human beings is little more than a blink of an eye. Next year the United States of America will celebrate its 250th anniversary as a country. As far as human history goes this is considered a “long time”. But is it? We can pat ourselves on the back and laud the accomplishment as the world’s longest functioning democracy but this accomplishment is evanescent at best. The facade is beginning to crumble as our leaders are beginning to tow us towards autocracy. American democracy has gotten lazy and content, seemingly unremembering of the fact that all governments must be monitored and regulated to safeguard against corruption and rot. Downfall won’t come in the form of bombs and bullets, it will come with a false smile waving an American flag.
Out of Sight, Out of Mind
2025 might be remembered or rather not remembered as the year that the hurricanes took the year off. The Atlantic coast has been quiet this year in an unusual trend that has seen the rise of more powerful and destructive tropical storms increase throughout the century. However, if this seems to offer a reprieve from the symptoms of climate change and global warming you won’t convince the states in the west who have seen some of the most destructive fires yet. Such declarations will also fall on deaf ears in the south and the east where historic flooding has wiped away entire communities and taken countless lives. The American mindset for this has mirrored that of the news cycle which is a trend that is primarily focused on ratings and few other factors. In the “age of information” this has inadvertently led to people blindly abiding only what they are persuaded to pay attention to. Add to this the growing tendency of information outlets to appease the current administration and you have a culture of sycophancy that would make Orwell blush.
Not only is the Trump administration only interested with the POTUS’s agenda, it dismisses the pressing issues of the day as if they were a passing phase. This is not indirectly the result that they have effectively neutered department after department that compose the nation’s security net for healthcare, welfare, energy development (non-carbon), environmental protection and regulation, labor unions, occupational safety, education and agriculture to name a few. And in a frightening new turn they are increasing their efforts at censorship. The book bans of the past few years followed a trend that is unfortunately often repeated in American culture and around the world. Restrict access to information and knowledge and control the masses. Literature bans in the United States usually achieve little else than to stir interest in the restricted books in question. Recent developments have led to a more insidious kind of media restriction.
On September 10th a political personality was slain at a public college, the politically charged media storm that followed proved beyond the shadow of a doubt where the priorities of this country’s Administration lies. After years of violence at public schools, malls, clubs and the wide assortment of locations that needless violence takes place in America, this one singular casualty eclipsed them all. The person in question was a political pundit with extreme right-wing leanings and a close acquaintance of President Donald Trump. Apparently he was more important than the dozens of lives already taken by gun violence in a single year in America, or in years past of those taken by mass shootings and police violence. More important than the very philosophy that he purportedly espoused, that of freedom of speech. More important than the 3 Democratic senators/congress people murdered earlier this year at their homes by a right-wing extremist. Important enough to weaponize a single political opinionist’s tragic death in order to persecute and stifle those who express a differing point of view. In the days and weeks following his death, ugly words and calls for Civil War are thrown around by a generation who scarcely knows what this would mean to society. Such statements are merely the posturing of those who are easily fooled, willingly appeased and ignorantly entitled.
Democracy Must Die in Silence…
The first strategy that any conqueror must follow is that the flow of communications within an enemy force must be controlled and possibly stopped. This has been used to maximum effect through the centuries to wage war, quell unrest and silence dissidents. America has not always been the proclaimed safehouse for free speech and liberty that it would like to trumpet. When necessary the American government has spied, jailed, threatened and brought violence against those it perceived as “threats”. This includes citizens in the Red Scare years of the 20’s and 30’s, Japanese-American citizens who were dispossessed and placed into camps during World War II, blacks and whites who protested for desegregation in the 50’s and 60’s, and American actors who were targeted again in the 50’s and blacklisted as a result of the second Red Scare. An ugly fact about humanity is that even the most ideal of societies has contradicted its own policies and violated the rights of its own citizens from time to time to maintain order and stability. The rights of speech and rights of expression have not always been guaranteed in our country and it is important to acknowledge that suppression of this fundamental right has always foreshadowed corruption, vice and political manipulation. Historically this behavior is often punished with disgrace and loss of status or power of position.
Recent developments seem to indicate that this Administration will not suffer the traditional scorn or consequences. On the contrary, not only do they act with impunity, they also conduct their business as if they have no influence on the recent stifling of speech that is happening daily. Their mastery of communications is evident in their ability not only to control the media and message, but to also turn the accusations against them into a cudgel with which they bash their critics. Calling criticism of the extreme Christian right “hate speech” and criticism of ICE treason are two examples of how perception of “freedom of speech” is manipulated to become a “threat to liberty” conveniently for oppressors. You shouldn’t have it both ways. If you claim that you defend free speech and then say that to criticize a viewpoint that you don’t agree with is treason and justify its suppression then this is what Orwell called “doublespeak” or hypocrisy. The irony of doing so might be lost on the uneducated or those too intimidated to speak up for themselves, which is what they are counting on. The Administration needs to maintain the illusion of upholding the rights of the First Amendment while discreetly working to suppress that very thing. Actions such as taking talk show hosts off the air don’t happen as a result of a revelation that a network executive had randomly. These are carefully calculated and influenced measures that reflect outside pressure from specific groups or organizations to whom it benefits to have those voices silenced. With the rising support of extremist supporters and calls for a return to a more “Christian nation” are renewed with the rising spectre of persecution of the liberal left and threats of additional censure and suppression of speech, literature and assembly. Do you think that law enforcement is more likely to break up a MAGA rally or Proud Boys march than it is a BLM rally or protest against deportation?
I wasn’t aware that we were at war but I swore that when I saw an advertisement to join ICE that it seemed as if it were out of a show like Starship Troopers or a Leni Reifenstahl picture. They might as well have added a grainy effect and the sound of marching boots but it was surreal and at the same time terrifying and another indication of the Orwellian times we live in under this Administration. Trump’s recent comparisons during press briefings have included his insistence that “There is a war from within.”, but no one declared a war and who is the war between? Democrats and Republicans? Christians and non-Christians? Americans and non-Americans? For the President to say this very thing should be thought of as treasonous, but by now we know better. The thought of an additional armed, masked militia occupying every city in America is not only ominous but should be another warning of the authoritarian power grab that lies in wait for at least the next three years. The increased escalation of the police state in the United States will only result in anxiety, a rise in citizen-law enforcement conflicts and the continued rupture of our already strained political system. Not unlike so many countries and empires before it, ours is fooled by a false prophet. A charlatan who wants nothing more than all he can attain and then some. Glory for his people and creed on the backs of those he was elected to defend and support. It’s the same story for a new generation, doomed to the same ending.
They say that it “can’t happen here” but this is the echo of our human history of endless war, needless suffering and the rise and fall of kings and tyrants. Pay attention, it can and is happening here.
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