Concerning the Upcoming Elections

We are living during dangerous times.  It is an interesting time to write an ethical guide.  On the one hand, ethical guides should transcend the moment.  If it is only good for 2018, it's utility is extremely limited.  On the other hand, an ethical guide that refuses to engage in the ethical dilemmas of the moment is not very useful, either.  No one is going to want to read hypotheticals when we have real crises to deal with.

I've tried to avoid writing about the moment.  This project precedes the current national climate, and I hope it outlives it, too.  But avoiding writing about it neutralizes the impact I may have.  A text should be able to respond to extraordinary times just as well as ordinary times.  And this one can.  During my first year of this project, I wrote about incels and the harassment of women, the rise of Black Lives Matter, consent,  criminal justice reform.  But this year I've neglected to discuss the present as much.  Whether this is active avoidance or because the themes of the chapters didn't lend themselves to the moment is a topic worth debating, but not today.

Last week has been a difficult one.  Bombs sent to politicians and media outlets.  A shooting in a synagogue during religious services.  Other violence that has gotten less media attention.  And we vote next week.  We're in between a terrible week and a week of hopeful possibilities.  Now is as good a time as any to confront the present directly.

This chapter is called "Fog on the Barrow Downs."  The hobbits leave Tom Bombadil and head east.  The Barrow Downs is a hilly landscape the hobbits must pass through.  At lunch time, they take a break on top of one of the hills and fall asleep.  When they wake up, they find fog has enveloped all but the tops of the hills.  They decide to attempt to walk through it, but Frodo gets separated.  Frodo is captured by a barrow-wight and wakes up to find Pippin, Merry and Sam all laid out next to him, seemingly dead.  Panic leads to despair leads to grim resolve.  Suddenly, Frodo remembers the song Tom Bombadil taught them when they left him.  He sings it, and Tom arrives and fights off the barrow-wight, banishes the fog, and revives the hobbits.  Then he leads them all to the border of the Barrow Downs, where he turns back home and they continue on to the village of Bree.

While they are attempting to make their way through the fog, the text tells us "...it seemed plain that they had come further than they had expected.  Certainly the distances had now all become hazy and deceptive, but there could be no doubt that the Downs were coming to an end."  The fog had clouded (haha) their progress.

And so Trump has obfuscated our place.  We are constantly told Trump is bringing about a major change in America.  Or that he will soon.  Or that he already has.  Or that he is president only because such a major change has already occurred.  Or that he, himself, is the change.  Change is, will, or has happened.  It can be hard to tell.

Antifa and right-wingers fight in the streets.  Minorities are demanding equality in ways they hadn't before.  Bombs are sent to political opponents.  The press is labeled "the enemy of the people".  Churches and synagogues are targeted by shooters.  Is this America?

Yes - yes it is.

People seem to be particularly concerned about the degree to which we have changed.  Can we recover from a Trump presidency?  Can we return from the empowerment of White Supremicists at Charlottesville? When does left-wing reaction become an overreaction?  How many synagogues need to be shot up before Jews should consider leaving, as they have so many other countries throughout time?  Or is one already too many?

The distance we have come has become hazy and deceptive.  There can be no doubt "how things were" is coming to an end.  Or will soon.  Or already has.  But when we can't agree where we are it is hard to agree how to fight back.  Birthright citizenship is being questioned.  Is this the dawning of a new era, or just further proof we've already reached one?

Election day is next week - maybe we can wrest control from Trump's party.  Election day is next week - what kind of violence can we expect?  Election day is next week - but due to gerrymandering and voter suppression, we've already lost.  All are valid evaluations of the situation.  All require different responses.

For myself, I think we should give the benefit of the doubt to the progress of our oppressors.  They have already gone too far.  I see no reason to be optimistic that they have been sated or will be slowed.  We must begin to respond to this new reality.  For myself, I've come to the conclusion that totalitarianism is on the rise woldwide.  The time to stop it has passed.  It now must be contained and undermined. We must measure not in battles won but in battles not lost.  We must use our resources sparingly.

As I said before, reasonable people disagrees what stage we are at.  I'm sure the narrative will change after the elections, for better or for worse.  But, at this moment, we do not agree.  Some of this is because America is a very big country.  Not everything is progressing at the same rate all over.  California engages in a resistance of its own.  Voters in Georgia and North Dakota, meanwhile, struggle for basic voting rights.

But even that isn't the end.  Trump threatens violence if his party loses.  I'm sure some leftists threaten violence, too.  Do we want another civil war?  But also: What will we give up before we realize our Chamberlain moment was in Charlottesville, or Pittsburg, or Newtown, and that we wanted peace in our time so much we surrendered justice?

Back to the text.  Frodo is taken by the Barrow Wight.  He awakens in darkness.

He thought he had come to the end of his adventure,

and a terrible end, but the thought hardened him.

He found himself stiffening, as if for a

final spring; he no longer felt limp like a helpless prey."

Though Frodo is taken, he turns his despair into resolve.  If our Republic is to weaken or crumble, we must fight with our last strength.  I know there are some among you who do not like America as it was even before Trump.  That's fine.  You should join us, too.  Where Trump is taking us, there will never be true justice.  America is full of promise - and broken promises.  Trump will break them all.  Before we fix the leaks in our mighty ship of state we must take control of the ship again.  We must remember why we fight, but we must fight to win.  "Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right."  Martyrs inspire future generations, but history is written by the winners.  We must win.  America is a huge, colossal world power.  We must not allow it to be taken by those who would use it for naked evil.

Our institutions have not failed us, but, as we learned last week, institutions have a way of being undependable.  Tom saves Frodo and the hobbits, but it is still up to them to destroy the Ring.  Institutions value stability.  We need more than that though.

I don't know what the solution is, and it is my own opinion that these elections will not provide a solution - only a stopgap at best.  I guess we will find out.

My advice is this:  Despair can quickly turn into indecision.  Indecision is paralyzing, and a losing proposition.  So when you sense yourself approaching despair, turn that into resolve.  If you cannot save all the things you care about determine if you can save any and focus on those.  A struggle like the one we are in requires nimble thinking and flexibility.  Hard choices must be made.

It may be noble to say "I will not choose one over the other, both are important" but if the end-result is losing both, that nobility has been only selfish.  Often we hear: "What is required for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing."  Often we think that do-nothing attitude is intentional - the good people don't care.  What if it's a byproduct of caring too much?

If we allow despair and paralysis to take hold within us, surely our enemies will triumph.

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