The Crisis of the Individual and the Whole

America seems to be falling apart because it IS falling apart. And it's all by design.

The hits came fast.

On Thursday afternoon, in succession, Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema dealt President Joe Biden’s push for necessary voting rights reform a potentially deadly blow as she announced opposition to changing the body’s voting rules, right before the Supreme Court announced their decision to allow the president’s mandate for medical workers to be vaccinated while striking down the demand that large businesses require their employees to vaccinate.

As frustrating and angry-making as these developments were, it was unarguably the system working as it is designed. Sinema’s function in the Senate is to hold off any possible legislation that might benefit the people or expand democracy. To do this, she is rewarded handsomely by corporations and special interests who like nothing better than to own members of both party so there’s never really a doubt as to who will come out on top when the votes are counted. The Supreme Court has been stolen, but its existence as a body is predicated, much like the Senate itself, on thwarting the interests of the masses, preventing “excess democracy,” and protecting the rights and interests of the wealthiest few.

It is not pleasant to admit the truth, but the United States of America was designed, implemented, and executed with the sole purpose of creating a new society where a small elite of wealthy, white men ran every facet of government because they believed their wealth, power, and race signified their ability to do so. That we have reached this point where white supremacy is lashing out in fear of change to curb any progress whatsoever out of terror of “being replaced” is not shocking once that very simple fact is granted.

Likewise, it is not shocking that we should feel the way that we do. It should be different. It should not work like this. And to watch these events play out while politicians like Sinema and bodies like the Supreme Court continue to peddle rhetoric niceties and assure us our institutions are fair and respectable and impartial, all while they continue to do the work of the white, wealthy, and powerful, is infuriating.

To make matters worse, everything is treated as a mystery. “We don’t know why this is happening.” But we do. We know very, very well exactly why this is happening, and yet so many of us are terrified to even attempt to mouth the words.

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In a recent traffic jam in Virginia on I-95, some motorists were stranded on the highway for over a day. The incident, which gained attention largely because Senator and former vice-presidential candidate Tim Kaine was among the afflicted, was largely treated as a strange aberration, a story that very briefly gripped the headlines and then dissipated like so much snow and ice on the first sunny, warm day.

America is full of these stories. Traffic jams. Natural disasters. Lead in the drinking water. Shootings in public and private and everywhere in-between Tragedies small and large that are exacerbated by climate change, greed, incompetence, indifference, and the general crumbling of this society that we can all feel and smell and touch. The litany of these horrors grows by the day and begin blending into one another. One historical wildfire bleeds into the next. An unprecedented tornado gets replaced in the news by the mass slaughter of a school or workplace. And the beat goes on, worsening with every new measure.

It is possible to gaze upon all of this and pretend there is no common denominator. New York Times writer and mainstay David Brooks did as much this morning. I’m refusing to link to the piece because it doesn’t deserve the attention. All you need to know is that Brooks, who has built himself a considerable fortune and a massive platform on having all the answers and proselytizing morality, recognizes the symptoms quite clearly, but can’t quite put his finger on what’s happening.

“What the hell is going on?” Brooks ask while chronicling the decline of America. “As a columnist, I’m supposed to have some answers. But I just don’t right now. I just know the situation is dire.”

No kidding.

Honestly, Brooks’s entry is embarrassing and self-incriminating. Over the course of the editorial, which examines rising conflict and growing distrust, he comes very near naming the problem several times. He cites a lack of social ties, a gravity to bring us all together, but somehow, despite his years of experience, substantial education, and prodigious intellect, just can’t seem to get there.

And why can’t Brooks put his finger on the problem? Why can’t people in his position, in politics, in every place of power, figure out why things keep getting worse? And why can’t they do something to slow the decline or, at the very least, make that decline a little less worse for the rest of us?

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We have been left to our own fates. And there are choices to be made. In Virginia, stranded drivers helped one another by passing out blankets and oranges, sharing what little gasoline they had. Elsewhere, on planes, in stores and streets, violence and brutality won out.

Our neoliberal era is amoral and unethical. It isn’t interested in democracy or the good of anyone besides those profiting from its markets. The birth of this system originated in an authoritarian regime and it is currently rewarding and prioritizing the rise of neofascist authoritarianism. As we grow more frustrated and angry, markets capitalize on the resulting lack of trust and safety. The Republican Party and the National Rifle Association, and the constellation of Right Wing, predatory businesses and individuals they represent, make an absolute killing off the killing of Americans. There is no economic or political reason for any of these entities to stop radicalizing and endangering our lives. They have all the money in the world and every bit of power available to gain from pushing the pedal to the metal.

Meanwhile, our lives have been drained of meaning. Neoliberalism, as a strategy, seeks to destroy ideology and replace it with unvarnished self-service. We are supposed to distrust one another, to regard each other as economic and social threats. That’s the oil that makes the machine work. All purpose and drive has been removed because the architects of neoliberalism, the wealthy and powerful, want nothing more than to make us consumers rather than democratic actors. Our votes are dangerous because they impede the will of the market and disrupt the economy.

The frustration we feel is warranted. If we lived in any other time, we would have at least the beginnings of a political option to vent those frustrations. We might find new candidates, form new parties, make our way toward something more equal or fair. But neoliberalism, as an ideology, has intentionally prevented that. Members of both the Republican and Democratic Party, such as Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, share a belief that the government shouldn’t help you. For all of the feuding done on cable news, they are in economic agreement about the principles of how a country should operate and who it should serve.

Meanwhile, bereft of meaning, many Americans are drowning in conspiracy theories designed to shift the blame from those profiting off this madness. In these fever dreams, neoliberal globalism is replaced by evil puppetmasters and satanic cabals. Economic conditions give way to spiritual matters. And none of it means anything. It’s just about how anger gets deflected to vulnerable communities and political enemies. That radicalization, and growing neofascism, benefit the system and reinforce it, all while its proponents make fortunes.

People like David Brooks and politicians and pundits who continue to feign ignorance can’t explain this moment and this crisis because they benefit from it. Their positions, their wealth, their power, their affluence, is predicated on playing important and integral roles within the very system they’re being paid to reform and explain. To even begin wrapping their heads around this mess, they’d first have to look in the mirror and see that they, themselves, are the problem. And so, it’s much easier to stand in front of the public and shrug their shoulders and admit their ineptitude.

This current state is neither inescapable or permanent. The problems we are witnessing, particularly with neofascism and authoritarianism growing, tell us that the neoliberal order is straining and possibly breaking. Its lack of meaning and purpose undermines its power and gives potential hope for its downfall. The Right Wing ideologues and demagogues have ideas. They wish desperately to exploit neoliberalism’s need for radicalization for their own purposes.

But the solution can be different. The need for meaning and purpose can be exploited for something better, realer, and more human. All it takes to imagine that possibility, to see a brighter future, is to think of those motorists in Virginia. Cold, frightened. Abandoned by the government to their own fates. Walking, car to car, handing strangers their oranges. Their blankets. Recognizing, despite every voice and reward telling them otherwise, they were in it together.