Red, white and so very blue
We celebrate America’s 245th birthday today as we emerge from 18 months of terrible upheaval and loss. During this sad passage we’ve heard or used the phrase “unprecedented times” too many times to count.
Through the centuries, though, America has experienced pandemics and racial strife and has not merely survived, but has corrected course, prospered and grown. Now, despite a roaring economy, many of us report great dissatisfaction with our nation’s direction and civic life. Why is this, and what could restore our confidence?
I worry we’re waiting for the right person to appear, stir us with hope and bring us together in some mystical way. We’ve seen charismatic preening and demagoguery more than once in this new millennium, and we know it isn’thealthy.
What if, in our ever-more-diverse democracy, it isn’t one transformative leader we need, but many? Not one George Washington (who wisely eschewed kingship) but a whole passel of Founders courageous enough to stand against prevailing powers and prejudices. And what if some of those people arealready on the national stage?
The greatest “prevailing power” of our era is technology — beyond anything King George III could’ve imagined. It drives our divisions and feeds our discontent in more ways than perhapswe know.
Consider the past 18 months — those “unprecedented times.” The only thing unprecedented about the COVID-19 pandemic and the racial unrest that followed George Floyd’s murder was our inability to escape roundthe-clockawareness of them.
The nation has endured pandemics thatclaimed similar percentages of the population and racial violence more widespread and deadly. Today, though, thanks to ever-present technology and the roiling passions of socialmedia, there is no respite.
We have no time — we allow no time — to digest a 24/7/365 diet of bad or contradictory news and angry, bitter opinion. Information assaults us around the clock, with fraught headlinesthat drain and demoralize.
We manage the onslaught by “thinking” in increasingly coarse categories. Which is to say, using stereotypes that reinforce prejudice. We have no time to ponder ideas that contradict the popular crowd’s opinion, no time for people who challenge the political fad du-jour. We are not thinkingmuch at all.
It has therefore never been more important to have leaders in politics and entertainment who defy the rigid stereotypes and expectations that popular culture forces onto them accordingto “category.”
Right now our culture says, “You’re Black? This is what you’re allowed to sayand stand for.”
“You’rea Democrat? A Republican? Thisis what our party dictates.”
“You’re a woman? Here are the ideas you must espouse.”
Wherever rigid stereotypes come from — whether media or party base — they must be shattered if we are to have a functioning representative democracy.
On the political scene, Sen. Joe Manchin infuriates many by being a free-thinking,stereotype-defying Democrat. The people of West Virginia should continue to bless the country by voting for him. Ditto for Sen. Susan Collins, the GOP and the people of Maine.
Eric Adams, a former police captain, won New York City’s Democratic primary for mayor last week despite, orbecause of, his pushback against the “defund the police” movement. In Georgia, football legend Herschel Walker (who, like NYC’s Mr. Adams, is Black) appears to be preparing to run for the U.S. Senate as a Republican.
Comedian/podcaster Joe Rogan, cartoonist Scott Adams and movie stars such as Chris Pratt, Matthew McConaughey and Vince Vaughn speak out fearlessly and insist on freedom of thought. We may disagree with their opinions, but we should agree we needmore like them.
The people who defy and surmount technology’s stranglehold on our moral imaginations will someday be regarded as noble revolutionaries. We couldhelp by using technology against itself to “follow” them and defy the snarky herd mentality in comment sectionseverywhere.
For the first time in decades, polls show our confidence in the nation’s direction is not improving along with the economy. We know something is wrong. Only we the people can secure America’s freedoms, but it requires intentionalityas never before.