Modern man is drinking and drugging himself out of awareness, or he spends his time shopping, which is the same thing. (Ernest Becker, author of The Denial of Death, 1973, winner of the Pulitzer Prize)
Prologue
Yes 2024 has arrived. Sure, it most definitely could become the worst of times in the United States and across the globe, but it could surprisingly become the best of times in far more complex ways, to paraphrase the writer Charles Dickens in The Tale of Two Cities, written shortly before the American Civil began in 1860.
You can’t successfully make a better future if you’re convinced that the future is terrible. (Jill Lepore, historian)
No Blank Slates Citizens
We do do what we do don’t we. The subject becomes disturbingly compelling as we watch ourselves across the planet first consume our young, for they are the tempting appetizer. Then the dubious adults begin gnawing on each other with gusto as they devour the main course. Finally, we mourn our upset stomachs, and then we gnash our teeth, rent our clothes and wail to our favorite entity somewhere beyond yet nearby. We love every minute of it. It’s obvious. We do it over and over again. Don’t we do what we do do.
Gathering Such Information
In 2023 the Human Genome Project was successfully completed and the human genome was 100% sequenced. The human genome has something like 3 billion biochemical rungs of DNA molecules, the entire instruction manual for making a human being. Shortly, words like dominant and recessive genes, allele and nature vs nurture became part of our everyday vocabulary, well, maybe not every day.
I first heard the term genopolitics thirteen years ago. It was intriguing. Did genetics and biology have something to tell us about our political views? Why were some people conservative and some people liberal? Who might be open to new ideas? Who might remain more attached to the status quo and what we may refer to as tradition?
Some people of course genuinely want to return to a recreated past, believing it was better. I believe, for a few, it probably was better. The problem is that oftentimes these same people want to force everyone to return to the “vanished gardens of Cordoba.” What’s good for me is clearly good for you. But it most certainly is not.
Trillions of cells in our body need to communicate with each other and do this through chemical messengers—hormones. For example, many people have heard of steroid hormones like cortisol, estrogen and testosterone. These hormones activate genes and determine sex characteristics.
Then there is the sympathetic nervous system, which is the release of neurotransmitters, similar to hormones. Some well known neurotransmitters, like serotonin and dopamine, play a role in motivation. How much or how little of just these two neurotransmitters are significant in how we act as individuals … or perhaps influence us in how we vote, or not.
There is a structure in the limbic brain called the amygdala, which causes the feelings of unease. The amygdala is connected to the cingulate cortex, an area critical to self awareness and how we as individuals respond to various situations.
Brain scans have shown that when stressed the cortex and the amygdala light up differently. In other words the part of the brain supposedly dampening down fear response is not doing very well in some cases.
Of course, maybe it’s just a matter of having some good sex and a satisfying orgasm that releases oxytocin—the cuddle hormone, believed to be the hormone smothering the amygdala and allowing increases in generosity, trust and so forth when amygdala responses are lowered.
The opposite, however, is that the amygdala is the part that raises suspicion and increases fear to protect us from real danger. Try to imagine our ancestors a very, very long time ago having climbed down from the trees and now moving cautiously across the savanna. Was there something moving in the tall grass ahead of them?
Hm-m. Why would a grown, seemingly “sane” adult in the 21st century want to dress up in a GI Joe costume and get excited about fondling an AR-15, and then readily believe what some barely literate treasonous degenerate tells him or her or perhaps even they. Just a bit of musing, but the why is very important it seems to me, occasionally for extremely significant reasons.
In 2024, while we don’t yet have some “smoking-gun” demonstrating cause and effect and know precisely why and how individuals react in specific situations, the ideas remain intriguing and tantalizing close to discovery, in many cases, as the research spreads out and travels in numerous directions.
I’ve often thought that’s why science is so continually fascinating. It never stands still but needs to look around the next corner. On the other hand, it’s far easier for too many of us to see it all as dark forces hiding in the basement of a pizza parlor, the bowels of the CIA or Satan himself having taken control of the universe. Then again, I could be totally wrong. Perhaps it really is the benign demiurge suffering from undiagnosed bipolar disorder hovering over everything after all.
The title of the article is Born That Way (see below). Developmental scientists call it temperament. Within the first days of life babies make their “inborn temperament known to parents.” They react to sights differently, smells differently, etc. Some newborns are simply agreeable, others cranky and still others may be clearly fearful.
These are innate dispositions that can effect long-term development—the impact of environmental influence. This is the nature-nurture explanation writ large. We most definitely are not born “blank slates.” One well known psychiatrist, several years ago, that studied serial killers discovered that he had the genetic predisposition to become a serial killer himself, yet grew up in a loving and caring family thus negating the genetic predisposition, the trigger if you will.
Give all the power to the few, they will oppress the many. (Alexander Hamilton)
We The People
These people are frightened. They vote out of fear, but they do vote—hoping to hold on to something they’ve never really had and at the same time not understanding that Trump will not deliver what it is they really need—liberty. They won’t mind an autocratic government or a despot, if they can just be assured they have a place to live and can exist from paycheck to paycheck.
For them, democracy is not the voting cry that it should be. They want peace. They want quiet. They are worn down and have no energy left for courage. As the musician sang, freedom of choice is what they’ve got and freedom from choice is what they want. A guarantee of a safe life that cannot be delivered is the ultimate aphrodisiac for some. (Enough with the big lie, by Brian Karem, 1/6/24)
Do You Actually Believe In Anything—Beyond Yourself That Is?
Nikki Haley, member of the Republican cult, is currently running to be the President of the United States, a former United Nations representative under Donald Trump and a former governor of South Carolina, the first southern state to secede from the U.S. in 1860. She is now one of my favorite candidates for the “Deadenders” political faction.
A member of the audience at a recent Republican campaign rally in New Hampshire asked her what was the cause of the American Civil War, an easy answer for the average eighth grader but clearly difficult for Ms. Haley.
Haley’s head didn’t spin around or fall off but the question by all accounts rattled her considerably. She gave the standard campaign response that plays well in the land of Dixie but not so well in the northern state of New Hampshire. She babbled about freedoms and what the government was going to run, what people could do and couldn’t do, blah, blah.
The audience member that initially asked the question told her it was astonishing that she didn’t mention slavery, a central part of the history of the United States. But be not harsh toward poor Nikki, for she is merely another pathetic example of moral cowardice, political hypocrisy and the usual and insatiable hunger for power with no discernible “moral guard rails.”
Yet, probably a quarter of the population in the U.S, couldn’t have cared less what Haley said for a number of reasons, from total apathy and deadening ignorance to overwhelming agreement with whatever gibberish the candidate vomits up, a sacred offering to the voters. Haley of course is no political outlier in the world of deadenders.
The On Going Summary Of It All
The late Ursula Le Guin, the well known science-fiction author continually asked her readers, is a better world possible? She wanted us to imagine a different world, a different time and a different place. She was, however, perceptive enough to also ask the question, But whose imagination will be made real?
She pointed out that every successful dictator, be it a Caesar, a Stalin or Mao, knew instinctively that they had to control the narrative if they wanted to succeed. They had to oversee and control the story and make it plausible, relatively easy to implement and “guaranteed” to make life better for both the individual and the community and often enough the VOLK, the very nation itself … at least initially. It must become a grand vision that people can claim as their own and hold on to (see below, Le Guin, video)….
No. I don’t think the majority of Americans want cruelty, make all relationships transactional, prioritize fear and ignorance as essential values and establish inequality and unfairness as the norm.
No. I certainly don’t believe the majority of Americans want to be forced to use tax dollars to fund public religious education, establish some dreary sort of theocracy in America or give reign to something like Christian nationalism, a la the Handmaid’s Tale.
Yes. I certainly believe the majority of Americans want a health care system that aligns with the developed world, one that puts universal health care ahead of making money and stockholder lust. I don’t think most Americans want to gut the Affordable Care Act and make health care even more precarious than it already is.
No. I don’t really believe that most Americans actually think that they can continue doing the same things and truly have a healthy environment. At some level I also believe that delusion and denial is crumbling faster than many of us had dared to hoped, regarding global warming. The unease is palpable, even though the denial continues, but with less certainty.
Those Americans that truly believe in democracy and actually want authentic freedom and liberty for all, need to create and tell a story that resonates across the country and is indelibly etched in the minds and “hearts” of every American.
It’s got to ultimately be much more than ritualistic, jingoistic make-believe offered up by millionaire entertainers, corporate trolls and overindulged billionaires. The Super Bowl is coming! The steroid hormones are exploding! And we’re going shopping! Oorah!
Money Makes the World Go Around, Money Makes….
By all the traditional metrics our American economy is the envy of the world. We are doing well in terms of productivity, job creation and corporate profits. Yet, according to a poll (see below, Right Track/Wrong Track) only 23 percent of those that participated in the survey thought the country was headed in the right direction. Yes, yes one poll, I know. But 23% is really not very good.
Sure, Americans in general have a poor understanding of basic economic principles and certainly it’s hard to be sympathetic with those that are upset with the rising price of a Starbucks latte or that filling up the SUV with gas is costing more.
But Americans do react personally to economic issues that they can see in front of their faces. Yes, inflation appears to be coming down, but prices are still rising in so many cases. Rents in general are going up and buying a house is no longer the “obvious” and realistic American dream. Above all it is crystal clear to the average person that there is no shared sacrifice or shared benefit at the present time. The “traditional” economic metric is showing some rust around the door frame. (See below, People Are Pessimistic About Their Economic Future)
The Bad Place
Donald Trump, that bloated lump of gelatinous protoplasm really does, at the moment, represent a dark side of America, a deformed and disturbing poster child for 2024. It is, however, not something all that new.
The darkness has been with us from the very beginning of the country and has ebbed and flowed ever since. The United States certainly has been a promise across the globe but never has it become that “shining city” on the hill that some of us like to proclaim. But the promise we must never discard for that is how we move forward toward that more perfect union.
Consider
We’ve got to stop creating these lazy and harmful false equivalencies. The two major political parties, the Democrats and the Republicans, are not the same at all. The Republican cult wants entitlement, privilege and authoritarianism. The Democrats, as imperfect as they most certainly are, do believe in democracy.
Dear liberals, progressives and those that think of themselves as radical reformers, stop chasing and demanding the perfect. It exists only in a child’s world. What you have to do is to continue to push for the promise to make it better for all.
Finally, stop believing it couldn’t get that bad. Well, it really could under the right circumstances. In this case the authoritarians and fascist wannabes have told us quite clearly what they want to do. Believe them, for they have begun.
14th Amendment, section 3
No person shall … hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, who having previously taken an oath … to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies, thereof.
Reading List
Dangerous Philosophy of Ursula Le Guin, video
People Are Pessimistic About Their Economic Future
Right Track/Wrong Track National Poll
Trump Doesn't Actually Speak For the Silent Majority
The Hold of the Dead Over the Living: A conversation With Jill Lepore
I love bloated lump of gelatinous protoplasm. Nailed him.