I am depressed.
Globally, I see a breakdown of the international, economically liberal, and progressive social order that replaced the chaos after the World Wars and the Great Depression.
We seem to be reverting to a historical mean of isolationism and the strong eating the weak. If you squint, you can see the hints of re-colonialization in Russia, Iran, and China.
I’d hoped that the United States would provide a counter-vision, but this election shows that we are no exception to the global shifts in values. The broad contours of Trump’s campaign are political isolationism, economic isolationism, de-regulated commerce, crushed labor, and the eradication of social justice. And America overwhelmingly voted for it. I don’t think we can call the voters stupid if they are simply expressing their values. We could maybe call them evil, but what good is there to shout into that void?
Some of us have lived in places where the strong eat the weak. Like it or not, we understand that in such societies, justice takes a back seat to protecting those you love. We can and should try to change the world, but we are foolish if we hide our eyes from the realities we live in.
There is very little stopping these new values from being encoded into the laws and institutions of the country. And history says that with no guardrails, the voracious hoarding of power will actually be very popular for the near term. They can make the trains run on time for 70% of the country through the pain of 30% and that will be an effective, winning strategy.
To be clear, I don’t foresee anyone crowning himself king. Rather, the game will become even more biased towards those with power - the rich, the demagogs. Instead, the very institutions of progress will be ossified into a permanent bias that allows those who would consolidate power to claim they do so through the ongoing support of the people.
To stop dystopia, the left needs to be very targeted on the biggest threats. And, unfortunately, I think everything else that might alienate white people and white men especially will need to be dropped from the platform.
Global climate change is the exogenous catalyst for a catastrophic realignment of power that can take any liberty away from the masses for a century. Stopping that is the only thing that matters now.
” on social media.
