The Referendum on Democracy, and The Start of a New Dark Age

Ninety seconds is all I could take of last night's debate. Which was not at all a surprise for me: for the past several years, I have been physically unable to watch Donald Trump for more than the time I am able to hold my breath. I have no problems reading secondary sources about him or even writing about him. But I'm simply unable follow either his unhinged Twitter trail or his verbal stream of nonstop bullshit. I'm fine watching him on mute, but the second I hear or read his deranged rantings, my subconscious gets triggered to seek an immediate mute button, X button, physical exit, earplugs, or escape of any kind.

I guess that's my version of Trump Derangement Syndrome. But it's actually a very adaptive response. Because, over the last five years, Trump's unceasing insults to reason, civility, democracy, and the rule of law have stacked upon each other to the point that near-complete avoidance of him is necessary to maintain a balanced psyche. The force of his psychopathy is so strong, there is no wonder why those in his orbit have abandoned previous commitments against white supremacy, foreign interference in elections, rape and sexual misconduct (26 accusations of which he is faced with), and abandoned any pretense of supporting basic democracy and peaceful transfers of power. Which, I submit, is the true Trump Derangement Syndrome.

There's no doubt that Biden will win the popular vote by a landslide-- my guess is it will be something like 56% to 42%. Though less certain, I'm still confident that Biden will take most of the swing states and that Democrats will win a slim majority in the Senate. Most likely, Trump will be removed from the White House in January (one way or another), and our republic will survive in attenuated form. But even that modest outcome is not assured.

It is not far-fetched that misinformation on the right will feed a massive amount of unrest by radical groups like the Proud Boys, who (rather than condemning) Trump told last night to "Stand back, and stand by." He also told his followers to "watch very closely" what happens at their polling places, so it is also likely that we will see the worst voter intimidation in a half-century. And as we all now know, Trump has repeatedly refused to agree to a peaceful transfer of power, so a true constitutional crisis and even military involvement remains a distinct possibility.

But the biggest question on this topic I wrestle with is this: can our democracy survive if nearly half of otherwise normal Americans are living in an alternative virtual reality without any anchoring to basic facts? Even if our institutions survive the unrest that is likely to follow the November election, there is no end in sight to the political polarization and rapid dissemination of fake news and conspiracy theories on social media. No democracy can long stand the onslaught of what I will term Social Media Derangement Syndrome, which all of us are affected by to some degree. For the past decade, our institutions have been living on borrowed time, drawing on the strength of a bygone era, weakening and now cracking under the increasing weight of an unsophisticated populace entranced by their algorithmic social media feeds, beholden to "alternative facts," and susceptible to extremism that is rising on both ends of the political spectrum, but particularly on the right.

We are entering a dark time. The pandemic is simply an insult added to the injury our institutions are experiencing and the true mortal threat our planet faces. We are in the early throes of long-term environmental, political, economic, public health, geopolitical, racial, economic, and spiritual turmoil which promises to last decades. Though I want to offer hope and prescriptions, it is critical that we first recognize that we are likely to face unprecedented levels of unrest and tragedy in the remaining 21st century, no matter how proactive our society manages to become in the coming years. 

The forces of light have been battling bravely to save us from ourselves for decades. Activists for environmental, racial, social, and economic justice have long waged a quixotic battle to bend the arc of history toward justice, and the solutions to many of our biggest problems are already tested and known. But though their achievements have been impressive, true reform movements in this country and around the world have not been able to keep pace with our society's version of "Whack a Mole," in which threats to free societies and the planet itself keep popping up, powered by corporate greed and platformed by fascist political parties.

To paraphrase Tristan Harris from the most recent Making Sense podcast, the best hope for change at the pace and scale that's needed is a massive cultural movement of psychological self-awareness. People have to start researching incomplete information deeper, asking people to explain their narratives, steelmaning each others' perspectives, and unfollowing outrage media like Fox News, InfoWars, and even MSNBC. Informed by Richard Rohr's work, I believe this type of movement can only occur if individuals are transformed by a combination of contemplation and social action. We need many more stable, compassionate, humble, and thoughtful individuals in our society if we are to turn the rising tide of extremism, dogmatism, greed, pride, hate, and fear.

E.O. Wilson wrote that "the fundamental problem of humanity is that we have paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions, and accelerating godlike technology." Big, structural change of the type espoused by Elizabeth Warren and Ezra Klein will get our institutions out of the Dark Ages, if we can politically manage the transition. And though we can't upgrade our paleolithic hardware, through action and contemplation we can install some new (and old) modules that will go a long way towards catching us up with our technology, and hopefully channel our future cultural and technological developments in healthy directions. The solutions to our cognitive-institutional-technological mismatch are there for us all to take.

But will we? With the great love but little faith and hope I have, I pray for God help us all to make the changes needed in ourselves and in our society over the difficult months and years ahead-- so that we will save ourselves from ourselves.