Civic Virtue
Bad information and distrust of institutions can chip away at our commitment to democracy.
I was a Media Analyst at Media Matters for America from Fall 2020 to Spring 2022. In that time, I saw obscene media spectacles that bewildered and offended me. In retrospect, Americans that don’t pay attention to far right media will seldom understand the level depravity on Fox News and other right wing outlets.
Disinformation about the pandemic culminated with urging people to avoid vaccination. To me, it was stunning how so much of this stems from short-sighted political ambitions. Yet, the pandemic disinformation effort was only the beginning.Â
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The disinformation machine that empowers this brand of politics led America into a state of fractured chaos and the zenith was reached during the January 6th insurrection. The Trump-led assault on the Capitol building was a major inflection point for my studies. After the 2020 election, right-leaning political forces operating under the auspices of the Republican Party engaged in a relentless effort to hypnotize the public. The goal, to this day, is to spread a lie about a fair and free election.
The argument still is that the 2020 election is irregular and illegitimate due to pandemic condition (something that right-wing political messaging denied was legitimate for nearly a year at that point). As many political observers point out, the logical conclusion of this brand of gaslighting is violence. Understandably, we all hold our country dear to us and we all want to improve it based on our limited perspectives and experiences. However, a targeted group of people are still under the impression that they have lost their nation and that their voices have been canceled.
The reaction involved a fervor only seen in punctuated points of controversy within American history:
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It is not untrue that a nation as gifted as America must also foster a sense of civic virtue within its populace. The framers of our Constitution feared the steady march of despotism. So, the governing mechanisms they imagined (which were sophisticated for 18th century standards) sought to avert the humanistic inclination towards authoritarianism. But, these mechanisms would need to survive on the shoulders of the American people’s intelligence, will, and virtue in order to keep the dream of self-government alive.
The nation has its high points, as well as its frequent low moments. Yet, today we deal with a postmodern beast in the form of information complexes. They can brainwash individuals by injecting them with an overdose of bad information. It happens at a rate unseen in any other period of human history.Â
Gracefully, it has been difficult for many well-informed individuals to develop a sensitivity for people who mistrust government but are unable to articulate why. That skepticism is warranted, but too often ill-informed or half-baked.
A modern tool of governing is information chaos. The tactic is often utilized by governments on domestic populations as much as it is on foreign ones. It happens everywhere. Moments in our recent history like revelations about the true motivations behind the Iraq War to lop-sided financial bailouts have also created distrust among the citizenry. Thus, conditions are created that allow people to be misled and confused. Without an adequate education (or sense of due diligence), one navigates the deserts of information overload. Studies do suggest that one’s educational level can be a determinant in their ability to experience feelings of overload. Thus, the divisions that influence our society’s polarization are differences in educational levels. I believe this is increasingly more apparent than divisions based on race, gender, and sex. Even though those are still powerful factors that shouldn't be overlooked.
I will also add that a loss of trust in heuristic knowledge and expertise also informs modern divisions:
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America’s next frontier calls for it to be humble in the face of an intangible world of information technology. It begs the question: what is necessary for the nation to overcome this modern challenge?
We also must ask: are contemporary obstacles a continuation of unresolved (often ignored) problems within American life? Obviously, problems of bigotry, and more importantly, anti-intellectualism, can no longer sit on the sidelines.
Moreover, it can be intimidating to think about the 21st century and the challenges that will define American life. The Pax Americana was the 20th century, but history always exists in cycles. I am still hopeful about the American promise for our uniqueness to human history is clear. Yet, I am weary to the way nations are subject to larger historical forces. In that vein, I am aware of how our own nation believes itself to be immune to history.
History has shown that our citizenry is the key to our democratic success. Sadly, that key is rusty and deformed by an intense system of disinformation. Our collective judgement remains clouded by overload and distrust as our civic virtue is put to the test.
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