A fairly big lack of political
enthusiasm hangs over America at a time when its politics have rarely been more
important.
In the (race? crawl? slugfest?)
for the top dog spot, one man is somewhat narcissistic, insecure and in need of
affirmation, self-trumpeting, overly pragmatic, and excessively afraid of being
perceived as weak and ineffectual (as a certain one of his predecessors was
labeled). The other is a vacuous man who
wants his past hidden, who doesn’t want to run on specifics, but only vague
promises that leave the electorate nothing to evaluate, but whose proclivities
favor more of the criminally disastrous rich-serving policies that have brought
us ruin and extended deep recession.
We are “shocked”, “offended”
and “threatened” by marginal or transitory things, and make THOSE things
important while our real threats go unnoticed or uncared about.
When one examines
history, one finds that when a culture is not mass offended—neither among the
masses nor among the elites—by the things which are true threats to the body
politic, the society, and the civilization, then decay and downfall have
begun. When that culture is instead
diverted by spectacle or a series of mostly meaningless “scandals” or momentary
buzzings, then the decay has accelerated.
When future
historians look back at us, they will see turning points. For example, witness the country—and its
elites—who were near uniformly shocked and revolted by what Nixon did
(including illegal wiretapping and other spying). Thirty years later, witness little shock and
almost no revolt at illegal wiretapping, indefinite detention, torture,
etc. Then, to cement for us how much
power has shifted and how little we seem to care, we at most faintly whimpered
when a Vice-President (Cheney) declared the Vice-President “not a part of
government” and so not accountable to the people, nor to its investigators when
they want copies of emails and other documents and communications.
It is a scene played
out in sickening similarity to the long decay of the Roman Republic. One does not have to wait until the end of
the Republic in witnessing the demise of its defenders (including the quite
imperfect Cicero). It was a long and
steady decline, with one thing after another occurring that in previous times
would have called forth both the people and its elites to set to rights. A people’s character can change over time,
and it is often not for the better, especially when the country becomes richer
and more powerful. The Roman Republic’s
long decline of a century and a half, from the Second Punic War to when Julius
and Octavian finally effectively finished it off, was marked by character decay
in the patrician class certainly, but in the plebeian class as well.
And they too had their
Pogos who spoke out yet not enough listened, cared, or acted.
