More and more people, at least those who post the things they write, are realizing that the American experiment is over, done, and failed. This country is not a democracy any more, and it’s no longer organized according to the founders or the Constitution they wrote. The elderly, rich, white men who somehow got themselves elected sold out, got bribed into compliance, and abandoned whatever courage they might have once had.
Human affairs are going to be hugely different starting in the 21st century—different as compared to the immediately previous historical era, that is. There’s a pretty good chance that the new era is going to be worse in a lot of ways for a lot of people. There are warning signs everywhere: nationalism, religion, greed, hate, and willful ignorance and stupidity are all flashing red.
I feel guilty and responsible, even though I’ve never done anything that rose to any degree of significance. I could have taken fewer trips by air or using less gasoline, natural gas, and heating oil. I could, I suppose, have tried to obtain electoral or financial (or both) power, but even if I had any talent or abilities in those fields, which I don’t, would I have become a different sort of elderly, rich white man? The question is moot, of course, but I fear I would not have. Once you’re in a club, it’s very difficult to behave outside the club’s expectations. Humans are just a particularly vicious species of apes, after all.
Some things might even get better in the next era. It’s hard to see that happening, but it could. Religions might stop being engines of greed and hate. There are still parts of the world where learning and deliberation and reasoning are valued; those places might become ascendant even as this nation declines and possibly disappears.
It’s a strange thing, to see such enormous changes happening so quickly. Human history (all of it; not just the written parts) goes back tens of thousands of years, and there have been eras where nationalism, religion, greed, hate, and willful ignorance and stupidity were not all celebrated, at least not at the same time. Maybe something like that can happen again. But it’s hard to see.
