America's Rubicon
Following American politics is like traveling into a river of darkness. Goodbye to that negativity.
View looking from Algiers (probably about where Mardi Gras World is now) looking across the Mississippi River. On river are a variety of sailing ships, steam ships, row-boats, and a flatboat. Across the river is the skyline of the "American Quarter" of New Orleans, with the dome of the first St. Charles Hotel prominent just left of center. The French Quarter to the right is mostly obscured by ships, but the towers of St. Louis Cathedral can be recognized behind ships' rigging near the right edge. In the foreground along the river batture are seen, left to right: two men in top-hats and prosperous outfits of the time with a dog; a small group of African Americans (likely slaves), both men and women, working taking soil from the river edge and putting it in wheel-barrows (presumably building up the high-water levee a short distance inland); two white men in working garb seated on a log with barrels; two large metal anchors; and two men moving a small sailboat which is tied to a post on the bature (presumably either about to put it back in the water or almost finished dragging it on land).19th century color engraving. Painted by W. J. Bennett from a sketch by A. Mondelli. Engraved by W. J. Bennett.
Recently, I talked to a close friend about why I haven’t written a blog post in a while.
My last post was in the far-off land of Summer 2024. I reflected on the debate between President Biden and former President (now President-elect) Trump:
Trump Could Be the Next President of the United States
Note: Happy Friday, and enjoy the weekend. Drink plenty of water! I wanted to write down my thoughts about the debate before the weekend. A lot is changing at a rapid pace. It is sad the state of our nation. Today, I’m reverent for everyone’s support and love. The tools needed to stay informed are more important than ever.
The piece expressed my feelings that the former insurrectionist, adjudicated sexual assaulter, and classified documents-thieving president could become president again despite all that has been revealed. Sadly, that reality came true as a torrent of disconnected campaign messaging, social insensitivity, and Democratic Party malpractice ushered in another period of destabilizing Trumpian chaos and American carnage.
But this blog post isn’t about that. It is about evolving.
Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness
I finished Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, a book I hadn’t read yet but has long been on my list. As I read it, I rediscovered the joy of regaining a 30,000-foot view of problems, in this case, imperialism and the limited imaginations of individuals. The main character is identified as “Marlow,” who Conrad infuses his own experiences visiting the Free State of Congo under the auspices of a late 19th-century Belgium-based ivory exporter. Conrad’s Marlow travels up the literal and metaphorical river, leading the reader into the heart of Congolese colonial exploitation. The protagonist anticipates encountering the ivory trader commanding the deep-seated Inner Station, referred to simply as “Kurtz.”
Throughout the book, Kurtz is idealized either through the career jealousy of the General Manager, who, from his seat at the Central Station, witnesses loads of ivory coming out of the inner jungle, or through the wonderment of the Russian trader Conrad describes as having similarities to a “harlequin” in Kurtz’s court. The lead at the Inner Station is built up to be a productive exporter of ivory and a cunning philosophical mind. But the reality is much different.
Marlow’s journey is filled with Conrad’s symbolic use of light and darkness and the contrast between white and black imagery to portray the evanescent ideals of Europe’s involvement in parts of the African continent. He sees natives trapped in mining projects where they are held down by metal collars that resemble the treatment of a wild animal rather than a human being. He notices the downtrodden state of the Congolese people as overworked and brutalized natives silently waste away into the soil of their homeland. Marlow’s descriptions of the Indigenous people are often patronizing, racially insensitive, and animalistic, which tracks considering the prevailing ideas at the time this story was published. However, the journey is more about his break from the notion of the continent needing to be civilized and the ivory trade being a product of that civilization. Even the company resorts to uncivilized tactics as they traumatize and set back the local population. It also sabotages Kurtz by slowing Marlow’s steamboat repair while lessening the Inner Station’s resource access.
The disillusionment comes full circle as Marlow meets Kurtz and realizes he is a broken shell of his former self. He is a man who has indulged in the inhumanity of his ambitions, which is evident in how he surrounds his station with the decapitated heads of rebels, all of them but one facing the edifice within which Kurtz operates. Ironically, Kurtz was built up by this Dutch company and was now being ousted by that same company due to the liability issues his methods imposed on the organization. Methods that were once celebrated for yielding ivory.
He was useful until he wasn’t.
This book isn’t about one particular character over another, and the lesson isn’t provided by viewing the protagonist in one way or the antagonist in another. The allegory is set by examining the way this more extensive system of exploitation alters the individuals within it. The brutal raping of Indigenous groups, the naked careerism of the foreign traders, the eventual loss of their humanity, or the experience of rank disillusionment are all effects of man’s inhumanity to man within the larger context of late-19th and early-20th-century colonization.
A Loss of Innocence?
One theme of Conrad’s novella is the loss of innocence. Though people discuss the 1970s as a loss of innocence for the United States, I believe today is more so. Fair warning: I don’t consider myself an authority on the topic, especially since I was born after the 1994 midterm elections.
However, my observations and readings of the period and post-period reveal a theme we should consider. After the tragedy of the Vietnam War and the systematic dismantling of the Civil Rights movement, the U.S. entered the last decades of the 20th century with a false sense of exceptionalism and self-gratification. We could frame our historical narrative around a sense of progression as a society.
That false picture was fueled by a sense that racism was being solved even though data progressively revealed racial divides grew in numerous quality-of-life metrics. Similarly, the idea that American militarism would never replicate the hubris, buffoonery, and viciousness that it did in the Vietnam era proved wrong in the face of a nebulous “War on Terror,” which seemed to echo the same pattern of imperialism, resource greed, and the patronization of a native population identified as a racial and religious other. We told ourselves that deep-seated violence towards women was a thing of the past despite the Me Too movement revealing the chilling acceptance of sex crimes in the halls of power coupled with the twice election of an adjudicated sex criminal. Women have also watched a constitutional right get rolled back, and now queer people fear for their right to marry and love merely a decade after the right was recognized.
We wanted to believe that we were okay with transforming our society through immigration, even if that society began resembling the cultures and faces of the Global South rather than the Global North. Instead, we are a society putting kids in cages and separating them from their parents because a well-financed right-wing talking points machine uses racism, fear, and economic anxiety to dehumanize migrants and make sure the story of their home country’s destabilization stays in the fog of debate.
Today, we deal with a population that can’t articulate their very real grievances without falling prey to bigotries (which reflect a lack of diversity within one’s social circle or educational development), disinformation campaigns, and false advertising. Therefore, this loss of innocence will be hard to sweep under the rug through hollow marketing slogans like “Morning in America” or artificially juicing the economy through financialization while ignoring the titanic losses in the real economy.
The American people chose anger, fear, and frustration by voting for Trump after he caused an insurrection to overturn the 2020 election, logistically and rhetorically mismanaged a pandemic, cut deals with the Taliban, sided with the historically antagonistic Russian head of state over our homegrown intelligence (also not having the best track record), and provided permission structures for hate and destructive nihilism to further metastasize through our society through official institutions.
But when examining our history, it’s hard to deny that this may be who we are at our core. It becomes increasingly difficult for any intellectually honest individual to ignore the truth about our tremendous appetite for self-delusion and how that impacts whether we are a free society that encourages intellectual growth and diversity.
The River of American Politics
Back to talking to my friend about writing and political events, I explained to him that the relationship had become abusive.
I love exploring political debate, the process of passing laws, the interactions of the differing branches of government, the founding philosophies behind our government’s inner workings, and the use of historical thinking to connect the dots and challenge the notions of “developed” and “exceptionalism.” But that thought stream has been brutal to decipher and unpack in an age of commercialized stupidity, historical irreverence, open bigotry, and oversimplified appeals.
Witnessing our home country send signals to the rest of the world that we are a decadent nuclear power addicted to instant gratification and too comfortable and materialistic to engage honestly in the civic process has been nothing short of heartbreaking. One’s heart can only be ripped to shreds so many times, and the next four years promise to be filled with more heartbreak and a continued loss of faith in the inherent goodness of the American people.
As a media monitor for Media Matters for America, I witnessed the outright bastardization of our corporate media organs. Specifically, Fox News has become an unserious joke that intends to propagandize, instill fear, and usher in an idiocracy. It wouldn’t be able to achieve this goal without the help of other mainstream legacy outlets, which have become a parlor game for myopic conversations among elite forces within the nation.
Still, I have a persistent need to engage with intellectual products, encourage intelligent conversation, and study the deep inner world of humanity. Therefore, I will use this blog to explore topics that are not necessarily political but more about the larger human condition. That comes from studying literature, history, and emotional growth. Sometimes, that process can offer indirect insights into our political deficiencies, but that’s not the guiding principle. The goal here is to make thinking about and studying the American condition fun again. That is impossible to do when living within the frames of a dead journalism system and the happenings around some in our public life’s malicious actions.
A historic and dark epoch in American life must be understood but with sustainability.
We are a nation that looked at this insurrection against the voices of most Americans and shrugged our shoulders as if it were another weather event. (Even those shouldn't be shrugged-off responses when considering the threat of climate change.)
On the fourth anniversary of the January 6th attack, unpacking the feelings leads down a rabbit hole of negativity. This picture is a thousand words, reflecting how short-sighted political games led our nation to this disastrous place. Writing about it isn't easy, and it is becoming a less constructive choice.
Despite the brief reminder of January 6, 2021, this blog will be reoriented to provide nutritious food for thought as we witness our society’s collective loss of innocence. It is crucial to do this through a healthier lens that studies the broader topics of art, literature, history, and humanity's overall journey while avoiding contemporary political changes and media alarm bells. All of this is to say that I will not engage in the humiliating and mind-numbing gambit known as American politics and instead will focus on American life.
Thank You
Lastly, I appreciate everyone who has subscribed and stayed a subscriber, paid and unpaid! I will do my best to provide a knowledge product that is stimulating and reassuring while still engaging with the sharper aspects of our humanity that are too often ignored and obscured.
Let's collaborate?