First, a brief comment on the democratically dysfunctional Republican Party: When you’re the Manichaean political party of inchoate grievance, resentment, fear, anger and rage, willful ignorance, collective self-deception, denial, wishful thinking, phantasies, delusions, and an inordinate because insatiable thirst for political power, you lack the basic intellectual and moral capacities, let alone social and political vision and virtues, needed to craft coherent or plausible public policies. You are simply and dangerously a regressive political force on behalf of absolute negation, hence the predominant political strategies center on de-regulation and privatization while rhetorically propagating ideological phantasies the draw upon nostalgic myths and xenophobic nationalism framed in terms of American “exceptionalism” and dreams—nightmares for the rest of us—of omnipotence. There is both a cause and effect relationship with our next observation.
Americans remain goo-goo-ga-ga over all things monarchical and royal, and not in the funny and endearing way of babies, but in the babbling, stupefying, and distracting manner of ill-formed adults. This infatuation with royalty transcends class and education, extending through all sectors of the population and is not unrelated to the support for former President Trump, whose unquenchable narcissistic thirst for political power is autocratic, albeit gilded with the social-psychological remnants of monarchy. It reveals a regressive, phantasy-like clinging to obscene wealth and undemocratic power. Many of these same Americans cannot get enough of salacious and malicious gossip-mongering about people they secretly envy. And perhaps a greater number of Americans are addicted to “Reality TV,” an addiction which, invariably and inevitably, communicates in both subtle and flagrant fashion, messages about human living that have a cumulatively corrosive effect on good manners or social etiquette, fundamental social norms of co-ordination and cooperation, and ethical comportment if not simply basic morality. This is compounded by its crowding-out effect on values inherent in when not derived from an attraction to beauty, truth, and “the Good.” It represents or symbolizes the essence of barbaric entertainment, as we live vicariously through this virtual reality, finding not-so-subtle validation of our darkest desires and dispositional traits. Finally, an appalling number of us go through our daily lives caring only about ourselves and those near and dear to us, which is perfectly fine until we realize that if we cannot progressively extend that circle of care and concern both imaginatively and concretely, the madness and unnecessary suffering that surrounds us will catch up to us and our cherished ones as well, and then, alas, we will only be able to blame ourselves for that predicament, for that frightening state of affairs, for that intolerable condition. (I leave for another occasion my thoughts on the dark side of the Internet, social media, and habitual texting.)
If this is a moralistic rant, so be it. (My spouse will be pleased to learn that she alone is not subject to same.)
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