There is a seemingly harmless meme in the info-sphere about the life cycles of human invention. It is entirely organic, stemming from the human experience of ages past. The winds, the rains, the seasons, the tides; for all of our 'civilized' history, and excepting cataclysmic events, the natural world around us has fluctuated in predictable ways. Having been so exposed to patterns of rise and fall, advance and abatement, and creation and decay, it is only natural that we have imposed the cyclic model, either by perception or by practice, on human endeavor.
We see this in many discussions. We apply this to the rise and fall of ideas, political parties, and empires. We find the sentiment in many great writings; “This too shall pass”.
And so 'it' shall, as all things must. But where there is such a simple truth, often there is false hope. We like to believe that all calamities will end, and we are absolutely right to believe so. Unfortunately, we are far too eager to be optimistic, to believe that the storm will blow over 'soon', or worse; convince ourselves that it will never come, or that it doesn't exist. We can do that, as humans. We can shield ourselves from uncomfortable knowledge, but that, as we all know, does not undo the reality.
Most readers here are aware that the US is deep in the grip of fear. We know that the economy is on very shaky ground. We know that poverty is increasing, education is falling, and that we have been thrust into a downward spiral only seen at the beginning of the end of other nations and empires. We are pushing back, but the facts are stark, irrefutable, and easily connected by simple reason. We aren't out of the woods yet. This paints a desperate tableau of our future, and it is all too easy to placate ourselves with assurances that 'This too shall pass'. For however true that might be, it too easily dismisses the larger problem we face as a nation.
Like most human events, tides that inundate the shores and set the natural rhythm for marine life are governed by relatively simple forces of nature. The Moon revolves around the Earth, the Earth is pulled into a centrifugal relationship with the Moon, and the seas both facing the Moon and on the opposite side of the planet rise, while the seas in between the extremes recede (ever so slightly). As with most political movements, there are also natural forces of human discontent that drive them, are allayed, and then allowed to recede, making way for the 'return of the pendulum', as we are wont to say.
From The Guilded Age, through the Great Depression, the New Deal, the economic boom of unions, the wastes of war, outsourcing, and all the microcosmic reflections of this great cycle, like eddies in Charybdis' whorl, have led us right back to a New Guilded Age. We know this because it is as plain as the faces of identical twins. The gap between the rich and poor, the bleeding away of the middle class, the potency of the very rich in creating policy, the elimination of safeguards against poverty, disintegrating wages, and public health... are all a mirror image of the world created by the 'Robber Barons' over a century ago. This would appear, for all intents and purposes, to be just the tide coming in. A Tide to be weathered, resisted, and ultimately dispersed by the natural forces of opposition that inevitably rise in response to injustice.
But this rising Tide is not typical in any way. It is driven by natural human forces that have never been so dangerously aligned. These human forces have always been the cause of great suffering, they are greed, the quest for power, and the need for security. Interestingly, these are all derived from fear. Who else but the most insecure vie the most vigorously for power? Who has more to lose than those with the greatest power? Who is therefore the most insecure? Perhaps that is another discussion entirely, but the point is the same: the common fears driving this tide are in alignment.
And they are:
White Fear:
There is no denying such a thing exists. We know and have seen many pundits, preachers, and purists descry the 'shrinking white race'. It is everywhere. On white supremacist sites, the Fox 'News' and Limbaugh blogs, and all through the 'Tea Party', the fear of 'white extinction', or 'white subordination' by non-whites is a common theme. A simple search of 'white race' will bring up a number of sites where people seriously discuss the 'disappearance' of Americans of European descent.
These are people that are terrified of becoming 'ruled' by people that do not look the same as they do. In a classic case of projection, these people expect from another 'race' what they have committed themselves: suppression, subjugation, and violence. They believe completely that once 'brown people' control the country, they will be made into second class citizens themselves, and they are indeed terrified of this. Perhaps this would not be a serious concern if there were not millions of these frightened folks all over the nation.
Conservative Fear:
Like white fear, conservative fear is of 'those who are different'. It is not exclusive from white fear, as many conservatives fall squarely into that category as well. In the vast majority of individual cases, social conservatives simply cannot imagine WHY anyone would deviate from their definition of 'normal'. This is frightening to them for so very many reasons, but like White Fear, it is based on the notion of one's culture and traditions facing extinction. The difference is that while White Fear is justified by the overblown idea of an ethnic type becoming extinct, while conservative fear is justified most often by faith. As we know, very little is as dangerous as a self-certain zealot with the dispensation of a Supreme authority... let alone millions of them armed to the teeth.
Greed:
It is plain to see that greed is merely an extension of fear. The need for more wealth and resources is the de-facto admission of material insecurity. Once all basic needs for food, shelter, and comfort are met, it is easy to find gaps in one's personal security. This is the primitive form of the quest for power. “Keeping up with the Jones'” is a real thing for many people. Once someone possesses a resource that you don't, they have become 'more powerful' in some way. Those fearful of 'not having enough' fall into the trap of greed. In many cases, the 'need for greed' is met through investments by people with modest, middle-class means. There is no crime in this, of course. Stepping over the line from 'not enough to invest' to 'investor class' is very understandable. But past the nest eggs (often pilfered by Wall Street), the investor class seeks more than mere financial security. Otherwise investors would all divest once retirement needs were met. This creates a dependency dynamic between the investors and publicly traded corporations. A corporate CEO signs a contract to produce a profit EVERY quarter. In perhaps overly-simple terms; should that corporation fail to do so, the stock falls in a sell-off by investors who are, yes, AFRAID of losing their money. Therefore, corporations will pursue profit above ALL else. Social justice, the environment, the economy itself are all waylaid in pursuit of this three month goal four times a year. To this end, we have all seen the wave of lobbying efforts that have resulted directly in legislation written by corporate entities and introduced to the legislative process by groups like ALEC. The simple driver of this corruptive force is the greed of Wall Street entities and the investor class.
The Quest for Power:
I remember George H. W. Bush giving a talk about leadership in Tallahassee in '06. During his speech, while talking about his son, Jeb, Bush Sr. broke down into tears. For some reason I could never shake the impression that this wasn't about pride in his son, but about the realization of the end of his family dynasty. I most certainly could be wrong, but the reality is that the Bush dynasty is indeed in its waning days. From its beginnings with oil, through the patriarchy of Prescott, the CIA powers of Poppy, and the seats in the Oval Office, the Bush lineage can certainly be described as a dynasty. The thing with dynasties is that they are ultimately at odds with all other dynasties, for they are all vying for the same thing: Power. Sure, where their interests align or advantage can be gained, alliances are formed. The Bush family and Saudi Royal family come immediately to mind. It is not too far of a stretch, knowing the nature of power and the tendency of the powerful to continue to create ever greater and more refined structures in order to create more secure echelons of control, that ever more narrow and more powerful positions are created. The ultimate result of this, however long it may take to create, is the greatest game of 'King of the Hill' in human history. With all worldly dynasties and corporations vying for power it is inevitable that, in the pursuit of ever greater profits and resources to secure that power, human rights will take a great toll. But history has taught us, and them, that when the masses are suffering, revolution is inevitable. For that, those with the power need to exercise one aspect of power very meticulously: Control. That's where the media comes in.
The media is the instrument through which all of the above are tied together. Very little of the above can be denied, although arguments can be made for where and in what stage our dynastic structures are at or in. Firmly in the pockets of fewer and fewer, and wealthier and wealthier individuals since the Telecom act of '96, the US Media is becoming ever more a tool of power. There is a reason that you do not hear stories of Monsanto on MSNBC: because GE owns both. Likewise you will not see the veil pulled back by any of the other major outlets, as doing so might harm the profits or standing of those who own them. More frightening is the ever more obvious divisive role that the media is playing upon the American people, as many of us have noticed.
Now, a serious question: “If in the pursuit of profits and power the inevitable visitation of suffering upon the lower classes must take place, how do those in power protect themselves from the wrath of those masses?”
Easy. Divide those masses against each-other.
No one with a shred of intellectual honesty can deny that millions of Fox 'News' viewers and Rush listeners have been slowly but surely convinced over the last couple of decades that their enemies are their own countrymen. The blacks, the immigrants, the gays, the liberals the secularists.... all the bogeymen of a great and fearful sector of the American public are paraded as nightmare foes through the living rooms of people who have long since been robbed of the ability to reason.
They have been convinced that the 'other side' is evil, and they will not, under any circumstances, take to heart any evidence or facts to the contrary. It is not because they are all stupid. It is because their brains are actually geared to respond out of fear and suspicion rather than curiosity. They have been ingrained with the certainty that the 'other side' must not be given any consideration of any kind. No study, no proof, no reason, no logic, no facts can penetrate this programming, and any honest intellect can easily see and confirm this through interaction.
That alone is not the frightening part. They have been told that the 'educated elite' and 'liberals' are their enemies, and they have had the civilized parts of their brains shut off. They are in permanently induced fight or flight mode... with nowhere to run and enemies all around them.
They have been terrified into buying record numbers of guns and rivers of ammunition. Every year they are more bold about their racist, xenophobic, bigoted worldview. Their hatred is on broad display in the calls for the assassination of our President, the murder of atheists and liberals, and the deportation or elimination by other means of those with different beliefs and cultures than their own. They have been convinced by those with the power, who sit on the boards of directors at GE, Newscorp, Boeing, Halliburton, Exxon-Mobile, and others, that the real threat to their way of life is their own countrymen. When they are told that their enemies can no longer be suffered, they will gladly fall upon them with guns, righteousness, and state-sponsorship. Yes, the corporations that own our government and our legislators will one day soon own another President who will do their bidding.
When this Tide comes, it will not be gentle. For the only way we can avoid the dissolution of human rights at the hands of the corporations and dynasties would be for those to give up their pursuit of power and ever greater security. Don't bet on that. We do not know exactly when the tsunami will hit, only that it is on the way. The conditions are met. The stage is set. All that is left is for the elite to pull the trigger and watch from their strongholds as the nation collapses into the semblance of White, Christian fascism.
It is true that no matter what calamity we face, we can be certain that it will pass. What we do not know is how much blood will be spilled (as has begun) or suffering must be endured.
We can try to fight with facts and reason, but those are the tools of civilized men. We do not face civilized times, we face the opposite. We can wait, we can hope, we can weather. But most of all, we can be prepared.
For this Dark Tide will be a great flood, and we will be under it for a long time before the Tide turns.