Victor Davis Hanson
Our nation’s change into something unrecognizable just four years ago had a few precursors and catalysts.
The first was the Obama administration’s redefining of American norms. Before Obama, “racial relations” were largely defined as the historical 12 percent black/88 percent “non-black” dichotomy, in the context of dealing with the sins of southern slavery and Jim Crow and widespread discrimination—and the quest to make race incidental not essential to us all.
Sixty years of serial Civil Rights acts, affirmative action, increased integration and assimilation, interaction, and intermarriage, and “content of your character, not the color of your skin” mentalities were all working toward an ecumenical society, in which soon we would not consider race relevant to who were are and instead focus on the individual not the collective.
“Climate change” took over from “global warming” as Al Gore/John Kerry were unleashed. Suddenly clean burning natural gas was a culprit, a fossil fuel supposedly wrongly disguised as a valuable transition fuel.
Abroad, Iran was redefined as the oppressed Persian, Shiite counterweight to the overdog Gulf monarchies and Zionist Israel. We then would green-light a “Shiite Crescent”—Teheran to Damascus to Beirut to Gaza—that would balance our former pro-Western allies, Israel in particular. We then from time to time, as the rivalry heated up, would adjudicate the ensuing creative tension. America would be the honest broker with no real preference for a democratic Western Israel or pro-American autocratic governments in the Gulf, Jordan, or Egypt.
A second catalyst in the “sudden” transformation of America was the ill-fated Covid-19 lockdowns, the first time in American history that the entire nation went into quarantine. The result, as we can finally see in retrospect, was a disaster in almost every dimension: increased suicides, spousal/familial/substance abuse, economic ruin, increased psycho-social problems, social polarization, unsustainable federal spending and deficits, destruction of a critical two-years of K-12 education for millions of our school-aged children, universities shut down, GDP in freefall, and unemployment up.
Yet in retrospect, the Swedish model of focusing on the vulnerable and elderly while keeping society open and functioning cost no more lives than Covid-19 but saved millions from life-long disastrous consequences of lockdowns.
In the case of the U.S., millions were shut inside their homes, distant from human interaction. They became inert and dependent on their computers, cell phones, Zoom links, and televisions for news, communications, and information. The result was a caged, paranoid society now prone to rumor, hysteria, and fits of passive-aggressive mania. Without human interaction and conversation, a nation of 330 million recluses after a year or two became susceptible to what followed the death of George Floyd.
Discussion (12)
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It's always a complicated mix, but Jacobins is really the most accurate and analogous as to what they are.
An elder co-worker explained to me that what is happening in America is a loss of Fear (respect) for God. Solomon taught that the beginning of wisdom is the fear of God. People have lost the fear of God. They act like he is not there and that there are no consequences for their actions. But not only has been a loss for of the fear of God. It has been followed by a loss of fear (respect) for their country, their leaders, their parents, their neighbors, and even for themselves. As there is a loss of consequences for bad actions (decisions, behavior), it is replaced with a self-indulgent hedonism.
VDH has been telling us the remedies for several years now. He told us that citizenship is dying and what it take to be a good citizen in his book the Dying Citizen and throughout his podcasts and articles. In an nutshell, become informed and vote wisely! It does not hurt to get out and help those who will be good stewards of our governments, local, state and federal! Let's hope it is not too late.
Professor Hanson: I have been listening. Can’t we quit calling them Jacobins and start calling them Marxists? They have taken over the Democrat party, hiding in unions, universities, and in the public schools until they had the numbers to fundamentally change our country. It’s happening, and we need to call them by their names—Marxists. Otherwise we lack focus in fighting them. Let’s not attenuate their threat by giving them a name from the 18th century.
Yes, remedies!
Obama was a terrible president. He caused much damage. His legacy will be written by lefties, so future generations will have no idea of the divisiveness he created. Off prompter, his lack of verbal agility is painful to witness — an unsteady stream of stammering uh, ah, er, and total lack of clarity. However, in the fake world of teleprompter land, he was brilliant. My personal covid history is evidently much different than most. Due to being retired, I did not have to deal with employer mandates. I did not need to fly. The only time I wore a mask was when I went to the doctor or dentist, and then only if they demanded it. Never masked up outside, in stores, at pubs, or any other non-medical venue. The whole idea seemed silly to me and I had no difficulty telling that to anybody who cared to listen. Naturally, I did not take the vaccine. I eventually got covid (two years later) and it was almost a non-event. Much milder than my last bout with the flu. Living in the woods, I was already isolated from most people. To me, it was as if covid never happened. Why did they shut down the schools? I see no logic here. It is important for people to know that not everybody went along with the lockdown insanity. Some of us were not swayed by mass hysteria. Next time, just say “HELL NO!”.
Apparently, hindsight is truly 20/20. Now the senior Bush family's claim that Bill Clinton was like a son to them, and proclaimed a brother by W seems frighteningly enlightening in light of all that has gone on these last two presidential terms.
Obama and his race baiting administration are the “root cause” of how we got here.
Really enjoying this series Professor. Looking forward to more!
Prof. VDH, I’m patiently waiting on parts III & IV THEN the remedies on how to “…Make America Great..” again.