What is really happening in the US?

“Either the United States will destroy ignorance or ignorance will destroy the United States.”

W.E.B. DuBois, Niagara Movement Speech, 1905.

What is really happening?

When guys of my generation get together the conversation often turns to this question: What happened to the Black community of our youth?

And by extension: What is happening to white people in America? Where and how did it go wrong?

A casual observer could conclude that the answer to each question is “a significant number, if not an outright majority, of white Americans.” A more nuanced observer might ask, “what’s wrong with most white Americans?

In 1920, W.E.B. DuBois wrote, “Darkwater: Voices from within the Veil.” In chapter two, “The Souls of White Folks,” he poses a question: “But what on earth is whiteness that one should so desire it?”  DuBois discerns the answer: “Then always, somehow, someway, silently but clearly, I am given to understand that whiteness is the ownership of the earth forever and ever, Amen!”  This question, and the answer, form the foundation of his musings on early 20th century America.

The answer leads him to ask what this question: “Now what is the effect on a man or nation when it comes passionately to believe such an extraordinary dictum?”

I would suggest that 100 years later we have inverted this question. What is the effect when a man or nation can no longer sustain an illusion it passionately believes to be reality? 

If Darwin’s Theory of Evolution has taught us anything, it’s that we, like all living creatures, are products of our environment. For most of human existence our day-to-day survival has not been guaranteed. This fact has dominated the reality of what it means to be human. People’s values and behavior are shaped by how secure they feel about their survival.

When we discuss insecurity, we usually speak in physical terms. Are we safe, will we starve? This is still the case for most people on the planet. But physical security is a given in the world’s economically advanced countries, particularly Western Europe. This is not true not in the United States, and this separates this nation.

Insecurity is not just physical. It can also be emotional and psychological – an example is when your identity is threatened. Identity is a social construct, but it tells you who you are, and where you are in the world.

The loss of identity represents the same kind of existential threat as plague and war. What happens when any group of humans face an existential threat?

There is an innate, intuitive desire for predictability and stabilization which manifests itself in what has become known as the Authoritarian Reflex. When people perceive their survival is threatened, they culturally close ranks behind strong authoritarian leaders. They form a united front against a real or perceived outside threat. Sound familiar?

MAGA white America includes people who feel the most threatened by the challenge of what it means to be white in America today. Specifically, this is a loss of privilege that has been historically connected to identity.

America has not changed yet, but America is changing. What it meant to be white in America when DuBois wrote “Darkwater” is not what it means to be white in America today.

To understand the behavior of MAGA America you must process the seismic demographic and technological changes that have created today’s paradigm cultural changes. The America of 2023 is nothing like the America of 1960.

Before you say “1960 is ancient history, and has nothing to do with today,” someone born in 1960 isn’t old enough to collect Social Security in 2023. When you consider the cultural changes during those 60 years, the current behavior of MAGA America is perfectly rational.

I didn’t say ethical or moral, I said rational. There’s a logic for it. In fact, I’d argue there is no irrational behavior, just behavior that’s caused by factors many people don’t know or understand. 

The reality is that the 2024 presidential election is likely to be a contest between two old white men from an America that no longer exists. They will be fighting to define a future they’ll never see. This illustrates the dysfunction of the American political culture.

When the answer to the question of America’s future is either Joe Biden or Donald Trump, the Titanic has already hit the iceberg.

But what about us? What happened to us?

To be continued…