Thanks for the optimism, Dennis. I guess I am more concerned about the mindset of my fellow citizens/voters than I am about the possibility of Bachmann or Perry or or or.  I have taught courses on the last Gilded Age, on the New Deal -- progress and problems. I have also taught a course based on Supreme Court decisions on First Amendment cases. Also on the 17th century birth of science and of important notions about equality. On forms of imperialism and their connections to racism. On the fatal ironies of the Spanish Civil War and the failure to recognize the dangers of fascism. Why, for the first time in my lifetime, do I feel that we are moving backwards, intentionally?! Why are we celebrating ignorance and intolerance?  

Fiona, I share your concerns regarding society’s (particularly American society’s) devolution. (To a somewhat lesser extent I share Dennis’ belief that Americans are not yet ready to elect a Perry. But, that said, my trust in the electoral process hasn’t been quite the same since 2000.) 

I just read an interesting article in The New Yorker on Rimbaud, and there one finds Graham Robb, referencing the artist’s “poetic E=mc2.” As a close observer of American politics I would submit that the marked shift towards radical conservatism, towards compassion-free, hurray-for -me public posturing relates to the discovery of a “political E=mc2” on the part of American conservatives.

As much as the Tea Party and other right wing radicals seem to position themselves as defenders of all things, and individuals, related to the nation’s founding, beginning with the U.S. Constitution, they seem to conveniently ignore (or intentionally misinterpret) Franklin’s critical admonishment: (America is) “a democracy, if you can keep it.”  Wrapped within such pithy power is the importance of YOU, the individual, whose power to preserve this grand experiment is based almost entirely upon a broadly shared willingness to seek out the information that might inoculate against ignorance; that might protect against the emotional appeal of the demagogue.

I believe what we are witnessing is the unfolding of a political strategy based on the E=mc2 of American mass ignorance, and how one political viewpoint can now claim possession of the 45 (% that refuse to accept Darwin) more or less permanently. Such began, or perhaps dramatically accelerated, with the introduction of a television network (and related media empire) whose first order of business was to denigrate all other information sources. Once established, this source connected almost in a “lock and key” biological sense with the great swath of humanity “between the coasts” that (rightly or wrongly) felt, ignored, belittled, even ridiculed as outsiders begging at the doorstep of a nation marching rapidly into a destabilized future. They, Nixon’s “silent majority”, are always in need of a champion, or such was hypothesized. And thus, conservative causes, bankrolled by the top 1% (whose own motivations might be explained in the next paragraph) have happily provided the antidote to such fears, such powerlessness, such suspicions, as the everymen-now-on-the-march held towards a world of continual and threatening adjustment.

One thing that I enjoy is connecting seemingly disparate bits of knowledge, and, in doing so, to recognize a perhaps heretofore unrecognized reality. Another item in the Sunday (8-30) NY Times, Stephen Cave’s “Imagining the Downside of Immortality” references a study that I believe sheds some light on the inner, and perhaps almost wholly unacknowledged, motive behind this conservative drive. (That is, for the movement’s wealthy masters, not its' pliable, if emotionally-activated, foot-soldiers.) Cave’s idea is that the “quest for immortality drives civilization” and in the course of his essay notes a number of studies that support a thesis that may be helpful here. In what has been called “Terror Management Theory – particular aspects of our outlook are governed by our need to manage our fear of death.” One study by Greenberg/Pyszczynski notes that judges who were “reminded that they would someday die (before being asked familiar questions about the suitable monetary amount for a bond) were much more severe (9X) in punishing those who violated their world view. The bottom line of such research could be captured in the idea that “when faced with reminders of mortality, people would cling more fiercely to their beliefs and be more negative about those who threatened them.”  Thus money becomes a means to transcend death, as one projects an earthly power and presence that ripples out influence in some comforting, or at least distracting fashion.

So, what does this all mean in terms of what can be done to reconcile the dangerously mounting American schism? First of all, we must make the effort to communicate, particularly to those unlike ourselves; that the primary meaning of America (and by extension of other developed societies) can be found in the statement (as has been said): “that which connects us is greater than that which divides us.”  We, all of us who represent the 55 (% who accept Darwin), must begin a conversation with our counterparts currently under the sway of  self-serving “champions” who are in the process of  putting America on the path of becoming a “once great nation.”  One starting point in such talk might be to push forward the idea that our strategic advantage (in a business sense) over other nations is in fact our diversity, and that any attempt to narrow the definition of what might be considered an acceptable “American” obviously runs counter to such, and indeed marks the beginnings of our eclipse. Secondly, take (and make) every opportunity to project respect towards those whose fundamental political motivation is the sense of being disrespected and devalued.

So, Fiona, I reject the quest for a suitable environs elsewhere. Intelligence must make its stand HERE. America must continue to lead by, first of all, recovering from the present threat of elevated ignorance. And, such recovery can only be accomplished by people such as you. All one need imagine is an America in which those that think no longer have a home here, and such should provide enough motivation for “fight to the last” action in defense of the American future. Remember: people talking to other people can accomplish what political parties, and attack ads cannot do.