I’ve got a busy morning so I leave you with a few reading assignments. It struck me how many people are of-a-sudden beginning to view what’s happening in a broader perspective than petty politics. From Evelyn Markus’ piece that draws painfully accurate comparisons of 21st century America to the totalitarianism of Nazi Germany, to Simon Black’s article that traces the trajectory of a failed culture all the way back to the Romans, to Stacy McCain, who examines societal breakdown through one man’s lens – all focus on a civilization in retrograde.
America Playing With Fire
- Evelyn Markus notes the many similarities current day America shares with Nazi Germany in the 1930s - obsession with race, suppression of dissent, control of the news and confiscation of history and culture.
What used to be unimaginable is now taking place in America. We see certain aspects of totalitarianism in the United States: the obsession with race, declaring an ethnic group collectively guilty, shaming, humiliations based on ethnicity, lootings, arson, racist violence, intimidation of opponents, cancel culture, controlled dissemination of news, and indoctrination of children in schools. We see fake news, conspiracy theories, an overhaul of history, a new language imposed, and unprosecuted theft. All in the name of a more just culture.
Ms. Markus ends on a decidedly downbeat note, wondering who will liberate us from the stranglehold of totalitarianism.
Western Civilization has become a never-ending Jerry Springer episode
- Simon Black
It’s difficult to not see the historical parallels when reading the daily news in our own times…
Similar to ancient Rome, there is no cohesion, no community, no civility. People are now so tightly wound that nearly every possible issue leads to outrage and violence.
Sometimes it feels like western civilization has become a never-ending Jerry Springer episode, replete with fist fights, race riots, screaming matches, puerile insults… and an eager, bloodlusty crowd chanting for more.
Ancient Romans had their Coliseum. We have Twitter.
Black is actually hawking gold and global assets, but ignore that, he still presents an interesting perspective on our current societal malfunction.
Falling Down and Falling Apart
“I’m the bad guy? How’d that happen? I did everything they told me to.”
- Stacy McCain
McCain discusses Falling Apart, a 1993 movie in which the breakdown of a man tracks with the breakdown of society.
We have heard a lot of rhetoric about “social justice” lately, by which liberals mean a redistribution of rewards and punishments in the system, for the benefit of those allegedly suffering oppression. In reality, however, oppression is not neatly distributed according to the identity-politics formulae of the Left. Everybody has their own grievances, and attempts to explain human frustrations by such simplistic labels as “systemic racism” — or “patriarchy” — fail to capture this reality.
None of these articles provide a neat answer to the problem before us but taken collectively they certainly do reframe our current malaise as an age old situation that will not somehow fix itself.
It’s rehab time baby, rehab.
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