Commentator Rachel Maddow calls it a “tough year”. Historian Michael Beschloss says we are at a time when “democracy is in danger”. Like it or not, Americans of the 2020’s, are faced with an “existential crisis” of the American experiment in self-government. It is, perhaps, the one thing that unites us all, across the political spectrum, and from Generation Z to the Baby Boomers.
Like It or Not
In 1966, United States Senator Robert Kennedy travelled to South Africa. While there, he gave a speech to the National Union of South African Students (NUSAS) at the University of Capetown. In a nation committed to apartheid, the legal segregation of society by race, the NUSAS was a young, intellectual force standing opposed to it. It would take another twenty-four years before that ugly legal separation finally ended, but the Senator from New York dared to stand in front of a student group dedicated to change and echo their call for freedom. His speech recalled the movement towards freedom in other countries, including the United States, and encouraged the students to continue their work (Affirmation Day Speech).
Kennedy outlined four dangers that prevented societies from changing. The first was futility, the belief that no one man or woman could make a difference. The second, expediency, was to bend hopes and beliefs to achieve lesser immediate needs. Third was timidity, being unwilling to risk the wrath of others to pursue right. And the fourth was comfort, clinging to personal wealth and familiarity rather than fight for change.
And then, Bobby Kennedy called out the younger generation of South Africans in front of him. He said:
But that is not the road history has marked out for us. There is a Chinese curse which says “May he live in interesting times.” Like it or not, we live in interesting times. They are times of danger and uncertainty; but they are also the most creative of any time in the history of mankind.
Call for Service
The 1960’s were a time of upheaval. Here in the United States the decade started with the powerful promise of President John F. Kennedy, calling a new generation of Americans to join together to make our Nation live up to its promise.
In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility — I welcome it. I do not believe that any of us would exchange places with any other people or any other generation. The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavour will light our country and all who serve it — and the glow from that fire can truly light the world.
And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.
Political Consequences
It was an auspicious start, quickly followed by the development of the Peace Corps, and the national commitment of sending astronauts to the moon. America, perhaps in spite of itself, even began to progress towards civil rights. It was a time of high goals and promises. But it soon began to shatter. The assassination of President Kennedy, the slow pace of racial equality, and finally the quagmire of the Vietnam War brought Americans into deep conflict with each other.
There were protests, first for civil rights, and then against the War. Some of those degenerated into riots, and American inner cities burned in the mid-1960’s. The political consequence of unrest led to more assassinations, of Malcolm X (1965), and Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy (1968). Protestors were shot in the streets and on college campuses. What started as a movement to sacrifice for “your country”, devolved into a physical battle for control of government.
The MAGA Choice
The words of that past echo in our present political crisis. “Like it or not”, today we too live in “interesting times”. In the next year we, again, face an existential crisis in American government. What many of us hoped ended with the election of 2020 and the defeat of MAGAism, now comes back for a second round. And like a bacterial illness, treated but not cured, MAGAism has come back from defeat even stronger.
This time their goals are clear, openly outlined in their plans for government “retribution”. Their intention is to remove the guardrails; in the bureaucracy, the military, the courts and the media; that dared to stand up against MAGA extremism in the first administration. Now they are poised for an ideologic cleansing, should they regain the reins of power.
Interesting Times
To use Senator Kennedy’s rubric, I sense the futility, in our “modern” age. We don’t know what to do, or how to reach those lost in the cult-like “silos” of information that allows them to hear only what they want to hear. And the 2020’s are nothing if not expedient, giving away our long-term goals, like protecting the environment, for short-term gain.
Timidity: nothing describes our era better than intimidation. We are afraid to speak the truth “out loud”; afraid to face confrontation when our ideals conflict with extremism. And it’s not just a matter of being shouted down. There’s an unspoken threat, symbolized by the extremist dependence on the Second Amendment. And the disquieting feeling that, maybe I too need protection.
And finally comfort; Americans, if they only ignore the pending future, are doing better. The stock market and salaries are up; the post-Covid inflation is down; and the ticking time-bomb of 2024 can still be pushed away, at least for a month or so.
But reality is that we live in “interesting times”. We are one of the “generations granted the role of defending freedom”. It is up to us, to not fall into the traps of futility, timidity, expediency and comfort. “Only” the fate of the American experiment is on the line: the freedom and democracy that we so boldly celebrate to the world is at stake. We are only two years from the 250’th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, the founding of our Nation. What will our government look like then?
Do not take comfort. Instead, ask, “…What you can do for your country”. It’s never been more important, and the stakes truly have never been higher.
