It has gotten worse every year, yet this culture for our nation has come to seem so natural, almost self-evident. How could it be otherwise? Is it inevitable that this is the price we pay for the opulent prosperity of the 21st century? Is there no going back from post-post-modernity? No, we can only go forward and hope we come out the other end some day.
This is where my thinking was at the beginning of the year. Everything now feels different of course. Among the strange twists of the last few months, we have been granted a glimpse into a world in which the power and influence of celebritydom and fame has been suddenly greatly reduced.
Early during the shutdown, I was talking to one of my friends, and I told them how I had walked down to the neighborhood grocery store to look for foodstuffs. There was a quietness about things that was uncanny, even though the scene appeared ordinary. There was a group of boys outside standing with their bicycles. Something struck me about the way it all felt.
"It feels like 1968," I said.
I didn't mean that as a comparison to political events of that era, although many are now making exactly that particular comparison. I meant that everyday life felt to me as it last had in the late Sixties---not just because I was a young child, but because the world felt different.
For the first time in living memory, the attention of the most people was on the immediate circumstances of their life, unburdened by having their free time filled with everything else that was going on in the world, fed to us by media and social media, concerning people we don't even know.
Our attention collectively was no longer centered on the virtual. We weren't spending our free time talking about, pinging cultural references off each other to determine friend and foe in the great cultural struggle. Those things still continued to exist, but their magnitude was diminished. The buzz had ceased. The world of the here-and-now had suddenly leapt back into prominence. It felt strangely like peace.
I had noticed that almost everyone had begun compiling a list of things that had gone away or been suspended during the shutdown that they wished would never come back. The shutdown had released a yearning in us for something different that a dystopia from which we could see no exit.
The Lord in his mercy had granted us a vision of it, and with this vision now implanted in us, there is no going back to the swaddling cocoon of media culture that existed just a few moments ago. It can never again have exclusive sway over us.
This irreversible historical gate we have passed through is, I believe, is one of the deep psychological reasons that we are seeing the frantic lashing out. The madness only nominally arises from the specific events that supposedly triggered it. Instead I see it arising from a panic that the control over American society exercised by media culture, one that has seemingly only grown for half a century, and which has served certain cultural and political aims, has been irreparably broken. No longer does anything feel inevitable.
We are seeing the last-gasp all-out assault to regain that control, the last chance to marshal that kind of force by the leaders and acolytes of Mediadom. It feels like a suicide charge, all the while proclaiming its triumph.
The charge is not made in the name of any of the noble-sounding ideals being mouthed by them--for those change at a moment's whim---but rather in a much broader cause, which is at the very heart of Postmodernity. It is the idea that by crafting the right narratives, and we can take control of our own historical destiny as a people reshape human nature and history by our will. The specific goals are not so important as the fundamental idea of how we can change society.
The point is not that you are supposed say any specific slogan--for those change with the seasons---but that you say what they tell you to say at any given moment, that you take your direction from the movement. Pay attention to what the good celebrities say. Pay attention to what the good people are saying on social media. Pay attention to how the corporate accounts change their logos for marketing. Rinse and repeat. The details will be sorted out later. You'll be happy with the outcome. Just let yourself take your direction from the movement. Be plastic and we will mold you.
We represent all the good things you want to come into being. We are building the Kingdom here on Earth. We can right all of History's wrongs. Anything is possible--a just, rational, and fair society---so long as we all just get on board. All bad things can be torn down and destroyed. We can reimagine everything.
The other side---those awful people--are trying to stop this better world from coming into being. They are outdated and are ignorant. They just don't get it. They are the old model of human being is that is being replaced by the new. It is obvious to any intelligent rational observer that we are the side that represents the good, the just, and the fair, Those virtues are built right into our slogans. We have trademarked them.
Oh, you still need to believe in God? That's ok for now, I guess. A legacy concept like that can still serve the cause. But make sure you use the right pronouns in your prayers. We have our eye on the churches, so don't get any funny ideas. We've spent a lot of time over the years making sure churches won't be a problem for us. Can't you see that fearful, nervous look in your pastor's eyes, talking about current events in his sermon?
We are love. We are compassion. They are hate. Anyone can see that. Anyone can tell you that. Look it up in the dictionary, if you need to, or take a college class. You'll come around. You'll see things our way. And if you don't, well, then we know what kind of person you are, and we'll put you a list and deal with you in a way that is appropriate. You'll regret not taking this advice.
Certainly we shall se the rage continue at least through the election in November, for tactical reasons, but it feels weak. We will see the all-out assault to convince us that great change is underway. Change is underway, of course, but not in the way they think. All of the slogans that people are being forced to mouth will soon get old. Politics is everything to them, and after the colossal political defeat they are going to suffer, it is going to be very difficult for some folks on the other side to adjust. Fortunately for them, our side is much more merciful and forgiving than they imagine.
'Tis true, the stuff I bring for sale Is not so brisk a brew as ale: Out of a stem that scored the hand I wrung it in a weary land. But take it: if the snack is sour, The better for the embittered hour; It should do good to heart and head When your soul is in my soul's stead; And I will friend you, if I may, In the dark and cloudy day.
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