Sam Smith, 2022 – Starting with the presidency of Ronald Reagan, America began to turn its back on the New Deal and Great Society and develop two powerful subcultures. One consists of the destructively dominant, those who have the money and strength to gain power while ignoring the needs of others. The other is the dysfunctionally decent, those who, though large in number, lack the skill or heart to organize and create meaningful reforms.
The destructively dominant are
symbolized by the collapse of labor unions and the rise of Donald Trump. Their
basic goal – their own success – was strengthened by a misleading argument on
behalf of capitalism and individual achievement that ignores the role of
cooperation and sharing common values in a community.
The dysfunctionally decent are
symbolized by the collapse of institutions formerly leaders in moral and mutual
achievement, symbolized by the decline in social and political importance of
universities, the growing subservience of the media to the most
powerful, the decline in church attendance and the increasing indifference to
community issues – rather than just personal goals.
Because the destructively dominant
are guided only by power, their control of institutions such as the media and
politics have led the larger public to increasingly accept behaviors that were
once considered intolerable. As one example, the attempted coup of January 6
was the most traitorous activity since the Civil War, yet even the Democratic led
Congress and Justice Department are treating it more like just another
complicated legal matter with slight public recognition of its historical
status. We have also been taught to accept the massive dishonesty of the
powerful, even their cleverly revised statements when found in error, with the
gap between strength and honor growing ever greater. The lies of a Donald Trump
are just more colorful examples of, say, efforts to convince rural
Americans that liberals want to ban beef or take their land under eminent
domain. It would be hard to find another time when lies played such a major
role in our society.
At the other end, the
dysfunctionally decent are either scared or unprepared to react effectively
against the falsehoods and other excesses. Once much stronger voices from
colleges and universities are now either afraid of endangering their own
careers or being ignored by the media. Colleges and universities have
themselves drifted into the corporate mode. The students, that in the 1960s
were redefining their nation, are stunningly weak in their words and actions.
Churches that during that same decade provided haven for the active, now settle
on faith rather than the causes that exemplify it. There is not only no lively
underground press, local media of all sorts has greatly diminished.
One way to deal with this mess is to
think differently about our society and how it functions. Accept for now that
the powerful will betray and lie to us while offering few meaningful solutions.
And recognize that the answer, oddly as it will seem to many, with our smaller
communities.
As noted here before, over a
thousand environmental laws were passed at the local and state level before the
first national legislation. And it was some fifty years before the
federal government caught up with the wisdom of many on handling marijuana
I have been blessed by having lived
in places where the local held its own against national misdirection. For
example, Capitol Hill in the 1960s was a dramatically more decent and
positively active place to be than in the nearby great white structure referred
to in its name.
And now I live in a small town in
Maine where I haven’t heard a substantive lie in decades. Where 8000 people
donate enough goods to their local community services organization that its
thrift shop earns over $300,000 a year. Where the police respect citizens, and
the latter return the favor. Where a volunteer fire department will not only be
there on time, but with a lot skill.
I can’t imagine Donald Trump or the
staff of Fox News serving in our fire department or on any local committee. It
is another world.
The challenge before us is
strengthening the power of the dysfunctionally decent. Creating an alliance of
those working with cooperation and community against the selfish, dishonest and
destructive.. Our numbers are there, just our strength and strategies need
help.
A good place to start could be
for middle and lower class blacks and whites to discover and act upon what they
have in common – like labor organizing, healthcare and education issues. It
could be Internet news sites where communities could share their information,
problems and solutions. It could involve a campaign to push public schools to
teach local civics and getting along with other ethnicities. It could get
churches to open up for activist meetings. It could involve gatherings at which
those involved in community efforts explain their work. And it
could involve creation of a nationwide organization of neighborhood and
community leaders.
Above all, we need to give strength
to our local goodness, stop paying so much homage just to national power
and give communal decency a new prominence in what we do and say. We have
the power; we just have to come together and act on our hidden strength.
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