Essay: An Atrocious, Doom-Worthy Moment in Human History

An Atrocious, Doom-Worthy Moment in Human History

 

In the hit musical Hairspray, the vivacious song, “You Can’t Stop the Beat” revels in a full-throated celebration of the advances taking place in the 1960’s.  The entire cast belts forth jubilant, choirful cries with a resonance so great it envelopes the audience, with lyrics like:

 

Oh, Oh, Oh
You can't stop today (no!)
As it comes speeding 'round the track (oooh, child yes!)
Yesterday is history (be gone!)
And it's never comin' back! (look ahead)
'Cause tomorrow is a brand new day and it don't know white from black (yeah!)

 

The “beat” in this song, which occurs during the show’s final, represents the drumbeat of progress:

'Cause the world keeps spinning
'Round and 'round
And my heart's keeping time
To the speed of sound
I was lost 'til I heard the drums
Then I found my way
'Cause you can't stop the beat

 

The entire musical is a triumphal statement against racism and, less directly, sexism. 

And yet,  today as I  type these words, the sensational certainty of Hairspray seems absurdly optimistic and ridiculously wrong.  The reason is that a charismatic fascist, backed by a cult following of about 30% of the electorate (comparable to the percentage in Hitler's Nazi party), was elected President.  It happened on one of the most awful days in the history of civilization.  That awful day, a day worse than 9/11, was November 5, 2024.  It was on that day that a death stroke was delivered to American democracy.  It was a monstrous murder of a republic, a slay that greatly increases the chances of a World War Three. 

I refer to that day as 11/5.  On this day, humanity, instead of advancing its ethics technology, slid back into a primitive, immature, war-mongering level of ethics technology.  I have argued, over and over, that if humanity does not advance its ethics tech, it will not be able to successfully manage its weapons tech. 

In the past, a low ethics tech, the utter immaturity of our species, the complete capitulation to rulership by the despotic sword, led to war.  Over and over  … ad nauseum … for thousands of years, war, war, war.  But today, the weapons of war are different.  They are armageddon-level.  All-out war today means nuclear attacks.  Within a decade, it will mean robot soldiers, planes, tanks and satellite attacks.  It will mean lab-engineered pathogens and weapons the size of molecules, the so-called nanites.  It will, in short, usher in the end of civilization. 

Still, despite the clear warning signs, we humans remain trapped in a self-defeating loop of primitive cultural-programming, one that includes poor ethics tech.  The election of a fascist dictator in the USA on 11/5 exemplifies our utter tragic myopic folly.

On 11/5, a narcissistic felon was chosen by the voters, despite his public track record of bankruptcies, crimes and civil violations, including being found liable for rape.   He made it clear that he had every intention of becoming a dictator.  After only a few months in office, he has moved at light-speed toward that end, gutting the civil service and expropriating Congressional and Judicial functions as his own. 

And so, we Americans now live in a burgeoning ethnonationalist macho state.  Not only has the “beat” in Hairspray been stopped and silenced, it is in the process of being purged out of existence.  It is now the case that White men are the victims of racism and sexism,  not Black people and women.  Even though our dictator’s congress and cabinet members and various minions and, as well, his primary demographic of constituents, are grossly and disproportionately White male, even though the CEOs and other leaders of our country’s institutions—financial, education, legal, municipal, and so on—are grossly and disproportionately White male, it is these very White males, it is now declared, who are the victims.  This is a conclusion, of course, in direct opposition to the facts, which include a seamless history of White male patriarchy.  

But the truth simply doesn’t matter.  Our new fascist leader ran for office on lies, including the “big lies” used by the likes of Hitler.  As Hitler said in Mein Kampf:  “the people will more easily fall victim to a big lie than to a small one.”

The people of America knew our fascist leader—Donald Trump—was a liar, a rapist, a con artist, a bully, a boor and a generally disgusting man.  They knew this far before he was elected.  They knew he was diagnosed by multiple psychological experts as a narcissistic psychopath.  It was all public knowledge, much discussed on national media, and backed up by solid, mountainous evidence:  verified references, witnesses, court cases, biographical accounts, expert testimony,  and so on.  The people who voted for the fascist knew all this.  They knew it.  Some of them simply embraced it.  Others decided to bury the truth in the graveyard of their corrupted conscience, ignoring their leader’s disgusting sins and records of failure and crime.

Ever since I began this blog, so long ago and in a different world, I have argued for a simple point, one that, nevertheless, we tend to sweep under the rug.  That point is this:  people are far more psychological than they are rational.  We like to pretend that human beings, due to our mere membership in the species, are capable of making smart decisions. 

The mightiest counter-example to this canard is 11/5.   Before that day, the USA had the strongest economy and the best recovery from the covid epidemic in the world.  The USA was admired and respected.  Despite numerous failures, flaws and, yes, inflictions of horror, we were still quite a force for democracy—an advocate and propellant for equal justice under law, human rights, and decency.

We are now a tyranny.  A typical tyranny under the same low-ethics playbook:  the use of fear, hate, force and greed—the dark carrot and the terrifying stick—to sow division and paranoia.  In such a society, the citizens rush downward toward their lowest, most vulgar denominator.  They spy on each other for favor from the government.  Virtue is considered foolish.  Kindness is weak.  In other words, Americans now live in a projection of the empty soul of a narcissistic psychopath.  In such a land, having an honest conscience makes you a threat.  Instead of conscience or ethics, ‘anything goes.'  All you have to do is get away with it.  You are expected to behave this way.  If you don't, you will get stepped on.   

In all of history, I ask you, has any group of people ever been more disappointing and self-destructive than those who voted for Donald Trump on 11/5?   The whole world has been destabilized by this colossal debacle.  America’s status has been instantly decimated.  Our financial integrity—such as the US Dollar as the world standard—is in grave jeopardy. 

What fool these mortals be.  What a terrible, agonizing defeat manifested on 11/5.   If there are angels, they wept.  If there are demons, they roared.

Not all of us, mind you, fell prey to evil.  Many of us wanted to advance world's ethics tech.  We voted for Kamala Harris, an Indian and Black woman who championed human rights.  Only those who voted for Trump, those seduced by his racism, sexism, homophobia and other evils, only those steeped in the cess of hate and fear, suffered the con.  “Con man” is short for “confidence man.”  And Trump not only won the confidence of his constituency, he turned them into boot-licking cultists.  He defrauded them of their very souls.

 

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