Authoritarianism

I used to think that if foundational american institutions like democracy and the rule of law crumbled into authoritarianism, there would be a clear breaking point– that things would go from feeling normal to feeling apocalyptic. That some clear american quality would be noticeably lost and it’s absence viscerally felt. That there would be a specific day when America was lost and on that day perhaps there would even be a crackdown- martial law, tanks on the national mall, the raising of a new scary red and black flag. 

I don’t think that way anymore. 

I think for a lot of us- particularly those like me born into privilege and with a decent amount of wealth and socioeconomic shelter- things will seem pretty normal. Banal, even. We will still have our jobs and our consumerism, our screens and our entertainment. We will still look forward to vacations and family gatherings, holidays and life milestones. And yes, we’ll get uncomfortable– dismayed, even– when we look at the news and see atrocities committed on american citizens who are poorer or less privileged than us that would have seemed unimaginable a decade previous. We’ll see court rulings handed down that lack any semblance of impartiality, elections where certain voting precincts seem woefully unequipped to handle the lines of voters and where the turnout numbers seem strangely lower than historical counts. We’ll see these things and it will rile us up for a few hours. But our Amazon packages will still come, a trailer for a new movie will captivate us, and we will still go out and get drunk and go to sleep with a pillow under our heads and a roof above us. It won’t be that bad- it will be pretty good, even. We’ll brush off those “depressing news stories” as distant, multiply removed societal aberrations. Nothing to do with us. Unfortunate, but what can one person expect to do about it? 

My change in thinking on all of this has been partly due to witnessing the last few years in american politics and realizing how easily institutions can be corrupted and degraded from the inside, and how ill-equipped the government, politicians, and the media seem to be at maintaining accountability. Another reason why my thinking has changed is I’ve realized how quickly we can get used to– even comfortable with– changing situations. That our civic structure, our country, even the climate of the planet we live on can change drastically over time and if it happens gradually enough we won’t even notice it happening. 

But the final reason I’ve changed my mind is an inkling, growing fear that perhaps America never really needed democracy or laws or any of those supposedly high ideals to feel american in the first place. That the only true american institution- the one necessary american quality- is the idea that people who look like me should always be comfortable, and people who don’t look like me should not. That so long as there is a home with nice things and a veneer of liberty for the average white dude from a good neighborhood, America will be America. And that thought so offends and terrifies me that I let it be my discomfort.