To Live in Interesting Times

There is a Chinese curse, somewhat disguised as a blessing, that invokes a wish that the recipient “live in interesting times.” While its origins are a bit suspect and difficult to attribute to any specific translation of Chinese expressions, the ascribed intent is for a person to live in a time of chaos and uncertainty. Another, perhaps more specific Chinese expression translates as, “Better to be a dog in times of tranquility than a human in times of chaos.”

Whatever the intent of this proclamation, it is a fact that our current time, as many of its predecessors, is a time of turmoil. If you have lived a long life, I’m sure you can reflect on the more glaring negative aspects of your own contemporary history. I have personally witnessed a rapid transition in post-war America where a thriving middle class made great technical and social advances only to have the pendulum return for another swipe at the “little guy.” This same period which started with full segregation in the south gave way to the Civil Rights movement. Those advances in civil rights are now being diluted by a more divided politic.

If there is anything true in human nature it is that we are a diverse collection of individuals and, like the rest of our animal kingdom, only the strong survive and flourish. Others may survive, but they will not flourish. There are sadly those among us who will crush all others to advance their own lot in life. In fact, many of these individuals are revered for their tenacity and the lengths that they will go to achieve their aims. We will call them successful, and they will be rewarded with riches. It is a fine line that we walk where we make our most significant advances through great effort that sometimes has casualties.

Everybody has an agenda. The religious right believes they have the moral high ground and that their will should prevail without challenge. They only believe in democracy in so much as it is a means to an end. They will rationalize everything to steer our laws and the enforcement of those laws toward their objectives. The current most pressing of those objectives is outlawing abortion. They are in the minority but that doesn’t seem to matter. They found a way.

The racists among us run the gamut from card-carrying Klansmen and Nazis to the more passive who blame all their ills on all people of color. Some will wear their racism as a badge of honor and others will deny being racist to all but their closest allies.

A subset of these two groups is the xenophobe who likewise blames all their ills on anyone who is “non-Christian” or who is not “American.” To them, immigrants are rapists, job-stealers, criminals, and free-loaders trying to get a free piece of the American pie. Compassion may be a Christian ideal, but that compassion has priorities for domestic consumption only.

In a recent contradiction of motives, this same cadre of zealots who push the sanctity of life and the need to protect babies has promoted the idea that, immigrant babies should be left to starve when it comes to solving the current shortage of baby formulae. It would seem that all babies are equal, but some are more equal than others.

On the horizon for our descendants is global warming and a continuation of the drought that is currently several years into the crisis. Food shortages will be more severe for third-world countries but the crisis will soon impact western nations. With shortages of water, grain, fertilizer, and food will come supply chain disruption and a continuation of our energy problems. The war in Ukraine will have a lasting impact on the European economy that will reverberate to the US.

In a true democracy, the will of the greatest number of people would prevail. The fact that our democracy is crippled by a constitutional structure that provides a louder voice to land-rich but people-poor states, will always mean that we can never be a true democracy. That fact and the twisting of the intent of the constitution that bestows monied corporations with rights designed for actual people further exacerbates the problem.

This all portends a continuation of racism and hatred that will run like an undercurrent within modern society, and which will pop up in the more frequent episodes of hate crimes like we recently saw in Buffalo, New York. While both political parties have some level of responsibility in our current situation, there is one party that panders to the religious right, says that it is pro-life, but also says it is pro-gun. Their most recent leader got elected by catering to these groups and by winking and nodding in support of the racist groups that seem to live on the extreme right of the political spectrum. This is the same president who also indulged Vladimir Putin and praised his every act.

A cornerstone of current Republican politics is “replacement theory.” Once confined to white-nationalist sites and similar hate groups, it is now a rallying point that is being used by some Republican politicians for financial support and by media sites to bolster flagging ratings. Exploited anger is seen as a primal motivator to gain support. Replacement theory is molded to fit the desired narrative but loosely proffers that non-white and/or non-Christian “others” are in a concerted effort to marginalize and replace white Christians. Tucker Carlson is a champion of replacement theory as is New York Congresswoman Elise Stefanik and Florida’s Matt Gaetz.

This replacement theory rhetoric is not just innocuous speech that gains cable ratings or loosens the purse strings of political donors, it can also foment violence. A radicalized 18-year-old, who blamed extreme pandemic boredom for his behavior, recently went on a killing spree in Buffalo, N.Y. He claimed that “an elite cabal of Jews, corporate leaders and politicians are intentionally diluting the white population through permissive immigration and by promoting diversity.”

The Republican party has found that by catering to highly motivated fringe groups through their anger, they have a recipe for success. Each of these groups may be a minority but, if you indulge their extremism, you have a loyal following. So, give lip service to the religious right, the gun lobby, the racists, the xenophobes, the antisemites, and any motivated fringe group, and now you can muster a popular majority.

An adage claims that politics makes strange bedfellows. It was reworded from Shakespeare’s The Tempest where he wrote, “Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows.” Trinculo’s words were meant to relate that those interesting circumstances can bring together people who otherwise would have little in common. These are truly interesting times, and the Chinese curse would seem to be upon us.