On Monday, I wrote this:
America is going to vote tomorrow, and if history is any kind of indicator, we’re going to fuck it up pretty royally. The division into tribes is almost total, and almost nobody seems to want to cover actual issues and policies. Social media ads dispense with even so much as the pretense of policy concerns and just get right to the “Give me money because the other guy might win!” line. No one even thinks to ask why that would be a bad thing, or why it would be a good thing if the beggar in the ad were to win. The domination of the American intellect is so near-total that we barely even bother to ask “Why might this candidate be good for me and my family” anymore, let alone why they might be good for the nation as a whole. We’re down to the bare minimum – Does this candidate have the right letter after their name? Will voting for them keep me safe and secure within my in-group? So amidst all the polling and predictions, I’m going to venture a guess and say that we’re about to see an entire country act like inmates in a prison yard and vote whichever way they personally feel will allow them to stick it to the people they hate most.
I believe this makes me the most accurate political commentator in America today. We did not see a Red Wave, nor did I suspect we would. We did not see Democrats sweep in some kind of policy validation either. What we saw was tribalism at its most basic. Understand what I mean by that. I mean it in the sense that Native Americans meant “tribe.” Which is to say, to them it meant something more akin to “Nation.” Each “tribe” was actually an individual nation and a people unto itself. It aligned with tribes – nations - that had similar languages and cultures, and it competed or warred with the ones who didn’t. They didn’t see themselves as the cohabitants of a shared land that no one could own, nor did they see themselves as the benevolent occupants of a land intended for all. They saw themselves most often as “The People,” and saw those who did not belong to the same nation (or alliance) as “Others.” If the comparison to Native American tribes makes you uncomfortable, then consider another term and see if it fits: Balkanization. Balkanization is the fragmentation of a larger region or state into smaller regions or states which may be hostile or uncooperative with one another. It is usually used as a geopolitical tool serving third parties with the justification of differences of ethnicity, culture, and religion, social status combined with some other factors such as past grievances. It is caused purposefully and systematically over time by powers that benefit more from division than from unity. The 2022 mid-terms were never about what’s best for the country. Even for those who have been raging about how bad current policies are, the motivation was every bit as strong to “stick it to the Dems” as it was to improve American life. Search your own heart and ask yourself truly if your motivation for voting the way you did was because it was what you thought would be best for everyone, your haters and enemies included. Was it that? Or was it because you were sick and tired of the lies and the offenses being perpetrated by the party in power, and this was a vote to investigate them and impeach them and make them suffer the same indignities they made you suffer? If it truly was because you believed you were voting for the very best option in and of itself, thank you genuinely. My heartfelt thanks and consideration to you for being one of a dwindling few. If not, please don’t have the audacity to be shocked at the results we see coming in. “They” did exactly what you did, and that’s why we’re still sitting at about 50/50, people who want the government to run their lives vs. people who want to punish those who want government to run their lives. If “getting back at them” or “giving them a taste of their own medicine” was any part of why you voted the way you voted or was the platform of the candidate you voted for, it should come as absolutely no surprise that things went the way they did. Because that’s exactly what the other side voted for too, and their side gives away “free” stuff. America’s voting populace is largely following the ethic of Conan the Barbarian – what is best in life? To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentation of their women. Mark my words, it won’t change until we change. It won’t come out any differently until the morality of the people exceeds the morality of the system. This is the result we will see time and time again until the will of the mob completely consumes the intent of the Republic, if it hasn’t already done so. This is no prediction on my part – it is an observation. Aldous Huxley was correct when he observed “That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons that history has to teach.” We haven’t learned much, and truthfully, we’re not likely to, either. What tends to happen in the Balkanization of societies is a process that proceeds generationally. Rebirth only happens when the last entanglements of the old tribes die off, absurd institutions and tribal divisions are laid bare as absurdities created in the service of tyrants, and reason once again comes to bear on rebuilding what should have been. With the blessings of Providence, we will still be around to see it.
I made the additional prediction in Monday’s entry. May We the Few devote the whole of ourselves and our wills to this, if nothing else:
The small minority of rational thinkers left will probably do what we’ve done all along. Keep going. Ignore most of the idiocy, except when we can’t. Be responsible for ourselves and our families. Console one another as we watch what was once a radical fringe encroaching ever closer on all sides toward the once-reasonable middle. Mentally plot the graph in our minds as predictable courses of action produce entirely predictable consequences. Keep our eyes open and maintain a mental record of all this idiocy so that when it’s time to deal with the fallout, we know where not to step. Do all we can do in service to self and to our relationship with truth. And no matter how tirelessly they try to prevent it, be happy and self-reliant, come what may.
😉