We all have twinned lives of state and personal selves.
One stands over the other in various guises of authority, pecking orders, responsibility to others and defense of kin.
The other gets on with the civil business of living.
The civility between these selves is disintegrating. The personal is called by shrill state demands like parents of colic. Authority’s in a dire, demanding way. Defense of nation and kin are at odds with principals. Crime and punishment conflate to a Stones lyric; cops=criminals, sinners=saints and an Altamont day of reckoning’s coming.
Suspend the Rock & Roll fever dream and behold only one man on the stage. He summoned us here. He promised safety and delivered fear, he professed law and order but trafficked in deceit and profit, he railed for justice and delivered torture. He has but one self and is ferally disposed to its promotion. He remains a bad boy rockstar. He is the touchstone of privileged immunity and godfather to every bully. He is the disintegrated heart of civility; a taunt to every principled notion of lawful freedom.
If we’re to going to get on with the civil business of living, we have to remove a spectral shadow from our state selves.