It's Beyond Me

What the metaphor tells us is that beauty always comes mixed with sharp pain

Because I believe in always having a Plan B when the world as we know it came to an end on the night of November 9, 2016, I was prepared. I would simply turn off the news until the Plague of the Sleaze had passed. It seemed relatively easy to institute a self-imposed quarantine since I spend about 90% of my time in splendid isolation. The TV and Internet were the only possible ways for the sickness to seep in, and for the first few months following the debacle of the 2016 Presidential Election I did a pretty good job at keeping the bad news at bay. But then an almost inescapable combination of factors caused me to engage in high risk behaviors that ended up pushing me out on the streets in protest (another one tomorrow); writing and reading almost nonstop about the wretched state of the nation; and turning on my computer each day with mounting, unrelenting dread. And so it was that this week, I joined so many others in reaching a state of peak despair. In this state I ask myself how would my condition differ if I had succeeded in protecting myself from the seepage…if I had truly blocked out every national political development of the past 19 months? Here’s an assessment:We would still be living happily in this exquisite place we call homeWe would still be living well enough off the money we’d put away for retirementWe would still be celebrating our 50th wedding anniversary this September in ItalyWe would still be enjoying the electric bikes we bought for Lorna’s 70th birthdayWe would still be reveling in pictures, texts, and visits with our kids and their kidsWe would still have both our health and our healthcareWe would still have a wide circle of friends for camaraderie     
That last item right there is the pivot point because although all the other items on the list would be the same with or without The Sleaze, the circle of friends would not. It is definitely not as wide or comforting as it was before The Sleaze. The Sleaze has become a litmus test for friendships because there is no way to share good times and mutual affection with people who condone what’s going on…who cannot get beyond themselves to see the far-reaching harm that is being done to our country. That’s what it comes down to when I reflect on the issues that have aroused my words and actions these past many months…the ability to get beyond me. I’m not black. I’m not a woman. I’m not an immigrant. And if I could just shut out what’s happening to them , I could continue along in my merry bliss, untouched personally by The Sleaze. So what is the mental calculation or emotional process that forces me to disturb my tranquility by assuming--at least collaterally--the burdens of others? The question leads me to contemplate what degrees of attachment did it take for people to forsake their own comfort during other national crises. In recent history we’ve heard many stories of people who watched the Twin Towers come down on 9/11 and immediately went out to enlist…some giving up far more than others and paying a far greater price. One wonders what the emotional hook was in a time before mass media. What, for instance, drove enlistment during the nation’s two most dire periods…the Civil War and World War II? Ideally we would like to think that millions gave up their private lives to free blacks from slavery or save Jews from Hitler’s ovens, but realistically that is primarily grist for Hollywood's myth-making factory. That leaves the field open for the cynical explanation that those people had no choice in the matter because of the draft. But available statistics belie that. Only 2% of the Union Army consisted of conscripts, and after France fell to Germany US polls showed that Americans overwhelming supported re-instituting the draft. Without benefit of being a war historian, I’m going to guess that the real motivating factor in both those wars was the fact that the country had been attacked…first at Ft. Sumter and then at Pearl Harbor. An enemy attack in fact seems such a sure bet for avenging “the patriotic gore” that a false one, such as the Gulf of Tonkin*, can do the trick.  

The despot's heel is on thy shore, Maryland!His torch is at thy temple door,Maryland!Avenge the patriotic gore

I engage in war talk here because I believe it provides the most extreme example of people sacrificing their lives--if not exactly for others--for something beyond themselves. It’s scarily relevant to the current situation because we’re probably closer to civil war now than we’ve been since the mid 19th century…and we have to ask ourselves how we feel about that prospect. If I inventory each of the current pressing issues individually:Rising authoritarianismElectoral fraudCodified nativismRampant government dysfunction and corruptionEpidemic gun violencePersistent, systemic racism and misogyny
...None on its own rises to the level of casus belli, but taken cumulatively they really do demand a citizen uprising that may require more than marches in the streets…more than yelling fuck live on TV from the Tony awards…more than chasing a gluttonous propagandist out of a restaurant. These things are mere prelude to what’s likely to come…or not. Perhaps, unlike the 1850s or the 1940s, more Americans than not will decide it’s not worth the sacrifice to fight for what’s important. More Americans than not will push aside the most persistent lesson of history—that appeasing brutes and bullies never works. More Americans than not will choose to be “Good Germans”—believing that as long as they’re not the ones physically pulling families apart; brutalizing minorities; robbing from the public till; lying on the public record; shooting up schools, churches and movie theaters then none of it has anything to do with them…that their hands are clean…that their security gates and skin color and ethnicity will allow them to continue living in their own private and privileged America.    No doubt that’s a gamble that many will take in the months to come. But history has shown over and over again that if you fail to get beyond me only two destinies await you: regret or shame. 
  

* According to John Prados of the independent National Security Archive, Hanyok asserted that faulty signals intelligence became "vital evidence of a second attack and [Johnson and McNamara] used this claim to support retaliatory air strikes and to buttress the administration's request for a Congressional resolution that would give the White House freedom of action in Vietnam."