11 Sep By the Pricking of My Thumbs…
As Clover looked down the hillside her eyes filled with tears. If she could have spoken her thoughts, it would have been to say that this was not what they had aimed at when they had set themselves years ago to work for the overthrow of the human race. These scenes of terror and slaughter were not what they had looked forward to on that night when old Major first stirred them to rebellion. If she herself had had any picture of the future, it had been of a society of animals set free from hunger and the whip, all equal, each working according to his capacity, the strong protecting the weak, as she had protected the lost brood of ducklings with her foreleg on the night of Major’s speech. Instead — she did not know why — they had come to a time when no one dared speak his mind, when fierce, growling dogs roamed everywhere, and when you had to watch your comrades torn to pieces after confessing to shocking crimes. There was no thought of rebellion or disobedience in her mind. She knew that, even as things were, they were far better off than they had been in the days of Jones, and that before all else it was needful to prevent the return of the human beings. Whatever happened she would remain faithful, work hard, carry out the orders that were given to her, and accept the leadership of Napoleon. But still, it was not for this that she and all the other animals had hoped and toiled.
— George Orwell, Animal Farm, 1945.
I hate today. I hate everything about it. I hate what happened. I hate that nearly a quarter-century later, I remember it so vividly. I hate that our political class doesn’t appear to remember it quite so vividly. I hate that it still makes me so angry. I hate what was done in the name of this day and what wasn’t done in its name. I hate that it’s become a political issue, an excuse for both parties to pretend, once a year, that they care about the events of this day, their causes, and their potential solutions. I hate that the video I used to watch and post every year on this day (the original Enya “Only Time” 9/11 video) no longer exists anywhere on the interwebs. I hate the stupid name that Congress gave to the remembrance of this day – “Patriot Day.” I hate that the politicization of everything has made patriotism, as traditionally understood, largely impossible. I just…hate it.
I apologize for not publishing a note yesterday. I tried. God knows I tried. But I just couldn’t get anything worthwhile written. Eventually, I just gave up, my head aching miserably from pounding it into my desk every five minutes or so.
A big part of the reason I couldn’t write anything worth reading is that I was agitated and, as a result, distracted.
First, I was agitated because today was yesterday’s tomorrow. And I hate today.
Second, I knew that the only scheduled presidential debate was set for last night, and I knew that it would be awful. I knew that the moderators would be terrible. I knew that the moderators being terrible would be a convenient excuse for President Trump’s poor performance. I knew that Trump would perform poorly because he’s not really good at these things. He’s undisciplined and easily baited. That’s just who he is. I knew Vice President Harris would be smug and condescending. That’s just who she is.
Mostly, though, I knew the whole exercise was pointless, that it wouldn’t change a single voter’s mind. Maybe, once upon a time, presidential debates were important and affected how people voted, but those days are long gone. Even the most important debate in recent memory – the one in which Joe Biden’s infirmities were definitively exposed, along with the coverup perpetrated by the Democratic Party and the mainstream media – didn’t change anyone’s mind. It may have forced the Democrats to get a new candidate, but it didn’t cause anyone to switch parties or question the legitimacy of the entire process.
Finally, I was distracted by an overpowering sense of political doom. Even today, I can’t quite articulate why that is or what it means. I think it’s because the size and scope of the issues involved are so enormous.
For most of the day, I was trying to write about an interesting conversation with an AI bot about the reasons empires collapse. Inevitably, corruption plays an enormous role in all these collapses, political corruption especially. The amount of corruption in the Western world today – including the United States – is incalculable. Political corruption, administrative corruption, financial corruption, political and financial collusion, corruption of language, corruption of science, religious corruption, media corruption, educational corruption, you name it. Everything is corrupt. Everything is broken.
Unfortunately, the consequences of this type of brokenness are clear from history: consolidation of power in the hands of corrupt elites, imposition of inequitable and authoritarian tactics for the maintenance of order in defense of the corrupt elites, breakdown in the legitimacy of the regime, further constriction of liberty to compensate for the loss of legitimacy, preference falsification in public opinion, and eventual collapse stimulated by an internal or external trigger.
None of this is inevitable, of course. This pattern need not play out as prefigured. Stopping it, however, would almost certainly require society to address the matter of corruption before it becomes too potent, too overwhelming. And I can’t help but wonder if we haven’t already passed that point. I think that’s one of the problems that plagued Donald Trump’s presidency. Neither he nor anyone else in his orbit was prepared for the level of institutional/administrative corruption that they would find in Washington. The administrative state operates almost independently, and no one has the guts or the power to bring it to heel – no matter what they say or how much they bluster.
Not quite seven years ago, I wrote the following about the “end of history”:
If you look at all that has taken place over the last month – and believe us, this is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg – you’ll see that the Second Amendment is, more or less just fine. The First, the Fifth, and the Fourteenth, by contrast, aren’t doing so great. And neither, for that matter, is the preamble to the Declaration of Independence. Add in the fact that the tech companies, who control a great deal of what we see, hear, and think are working in collusion both with left-wing organizations and with federal authorities to deny any semblance of privacy or free expression in the public square, and you might get the impression that Americans’ civil liberties are under tremendous stress, the Second Amendment notwithstanding.
For several years, we have believed that the United States, Europe, China, and Russia are all headed toward the same place. Some – namely Europe – are fighting external forces that may delay or accelerate their journey to that point. But all are headed there, at one time or another.
Way back in the late 1980s, the sorta-conservative academic Francis Fukuyama theorized that the global community had, more or less, reached “the end of history.” Liberal democracy would be the wave of the future and a semi-permanent state of affairs, he explained. The fall of the Soviet Union and its satellites and the presumed eventual fall or adaptation of the Chinese government would free more people from tyranny than ever before in human history. And the system of government that would replace this tyranny would be very similar to that which we have enjoyed in the West for the better part of last two or three centuries.
Fukuyama was wrong. History didn’t end with the collapse of Soviet Communism. Moreover, the Chinese government never fell and changed only modestly, while a new form of oppression – Islamism – took root in the soft and seemingly simple 1990s.
Not only that, but Fukuyama was wrong as well about the form of government that would prove most attractive and enticing to the global elites and that would thus form the rendezvous point for the world’s biggest and most powerful states. Liberal democracy wasn’t the end, sadly. Soft totalitarianism likely will be.
My unease – agitation, distraction, whatever – is fueled by the sense that this prediction is inching ever closer to fulfillment by the day.
As I say, I’m not sure it can be stopped at this point. It can, however, be defeated, although that will require time, effort, and cleverness. It will require taking to the proverbial catacombs, not just to hide, but to rebuild community and to keep alive the fires that forged our civilization in the first place.
I’ve written about this in greater detail before, and I will write about aspects of it in greater detail again. In the meantime, it can’t hurt to prepare yourself as best you can. Something wicked this way comes.
