Sam Smith – This summer it will be 69 years since I covered my first Washington story. Since
then I have never seen a political administration as corrupt and dishonest as
Donald Trump’s.
But perhaps because I was an anthropology major in college I
don’t see this as strictly a political matter. Other aspects of our culture
have also changed, such as the size of corporations, our standards of financial
decency, and the growth of business
schools and broadcasting corporations, TV and the Internet. These have
dramatically altered the way we live. And one of the effects of this, although rarely
discussed, is that our society is now split between old human based communities
with traditional values and an increasing population absorbed mainly with
power, money, corporatism and social status.
In short, we are facing not only AI – artificial
intelligence – but AH - artificial humanity. As with AI, AH is a model of what
it means to turn the moral, communal and decent into a system in which only
technology, personal power and money are what really matter.
Although I have decades of experience covering corrupt
politicians I have never had to face values that are so indifferent to classic
human standards. People like Trump and his gang are not just politically off
the charts they have rewritten what it means to be corrupt…. And human.
I spent my high school years in Philadelphia and went to
college at Harvard next to Boston so I early had plenty of experience with the
nature of corruption. I was introduced to politics at age 12, stuffing
envelopes in a Philly campaign that ended over six decades of Republican rule.
And in four decades later, as a Washington reporter, I saw plenty of local corruption
but not only was it balanced by the decent, even many of the corrupt had more virtue then you find
today.
What is missing from the way we handle today’s problems is
the lack of a loud spirit of decency and community. Even ordinary honest
friends seem more scared of our Trumpist society than active as their earlier likes
were, say, in the fight for civil rights. We have not only changed our politics
but are losing the energy and courage to restore a decent America.
I learned a lot about
my hometown DC covering the real city and not just national politics. For
example, back in 1971 71% of its population was black. And Washington’s
neighborhoods were important enough that we even had elected advisory
neighborhood commissions. This was a totally different place than the
Washington you saw on TV or read in the morning paper.
Aside from a few things like the Martin Luther King riots,
Washington got along with itself pretty well. In part this was not only because
it elected black officials but whites and blacks joined on a number of
important matters including fighting some freeways and supporting home rule and
statehood. One of the best cures for ethnic division is finding agreement on key
issues.
With a father who worked for President Roosevelt and my
later decades as a journalist, recent history is not just an academic matter,
it is also a story I covered each day.
For me, for example, the big change in America came in the
1980s not juste with Ronald Reagan, but also the rise of television and viewers
who lowered community activity and the frequency of gathering with their neighbors. And as the media played a significantly
larger role in our lives there was a
greater emphasis reporting on those with power and money and less on what was
happening in real life around us.
In short, as a society we moved from traditional human
habits and values to the new AH and our social
significance and relationships were increasingly turned over to artificial
humanity.
