Reality and the Meaning of Freedom

I remember my first crisis of faith. At about 11:15 am on September 11, 2001, I walked out of my English Literature class into a totally different world. Over the next few days, I had a foreboding sense of what was to come. But by September 14th, when George W. Bush assured a crowd “the people who knocked these buildings down are going to hear all of us,” to cheers of “USA! USA!” there was no doubt in my mind we were headed for war. The lead up to what would be two wars, the conduct of those wars, and the response to criticism of those wars, brought me to a crisis of faith between what my country was and what I knew we could be.

I suppose the Gen X and Xennial generations, with the Oklahoma City bombing, Waco, Ruby Ridge, LA Riots, Y2K, 9/11, torture memos, Global Financial Crisis of 2008, global pandemic and lockdown, January 6th insurrection, and multiple ethnic cleansings and genocides have been one long crisis of faith in basically everything. But I think why we are where we are politically comes from the awful truth that some people are not strong enough to handle a crisis of faith and so they retreat into “enlightened” cynicism and apathy or radical un-reality.

Un-Reality: Our Nation Undone

You need no more proof of this catastrophic unreality than Florida Rep Cammack. Due to an ectopic pregnancy, anti-abortion politician Cammack needed a medical procedure to keep her from dying: an abortion. Due to Florida’s laws, that she supports, it was unclear right away if anyone would provide her with an abortion.

As you can imagine, suffering the physical and emotional pain of a miscarriage while potentially dying due to the policies you support might have an effect on you. A sane person would come around and think “wow, abortion really is life-saving medicine, maybe I should talk to my colleagues about this.” And she did talk to her colleagues and the media, to explain why this was all democrats’ fault.

You’re not insane, and I didn’t type that wrong. The anti-abortion politician needed an abortion and when she couldn’t get one, blamed pro-choice democrats and people believed her. This is the level of un-reality we’re dealing with. Your life can literally be on the line, and you are still unwilling to confront reality.

The fundamental issue here isn’t the peddlers of un-reality, it’s the desperate believers who cannot be bothered to think for themselves, preferring nonsense slogan. They are too weak to deal with the crisis of faith (both religious and in the nation) that Trump represents. And yes, I know it’s not nice to blame Trump voters, but I’m kind not nice. Maybe if they were a little less worried about being nice and a little more interested in being kind, Democratic politicians would find their guts. Part of that process means hitting the pause button on all the think-pieces about Trump voters having regret (they really don’t) or figuring out how to “start dialogue” with people who have no intention of listening.

A Declaration of Independence

It’s been 249 years since July 4, 1776, the day the American colonies declared their independence. We’ve had some hits and some misses since then, but a look at where we are today is enough to sober even my star-spangled optimism. There’s a lot to despair about: global climate catastrophes, an economy owned by billionaires that gets worse for the rest of us every day (see also: global climate catastrophe, culprits), and of course, the shredding of everything that American experiment was supposed to stand for.

I’m not going to take this time to call for secession, though there are plenty of organizations around the country in New England, California, and parts of the Midwest and New York. But I will say that it might be time to exercise our history and peacefully overthrow the government and institute a new one, preferably without billionaires and unregulated social media.

Since we’re on the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, it’s probably a good time to remind ourselves of what it says the government is supposed to do:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,

So, point one: we have these rights. The government’s job is to protect these rights. The government is only just/legitimate if they derive their just powers from the consent of the governed (gerrymandering, voter suppression, and so forth have pretty much killed any chance of that).

Next:

That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Point two: If the government is not doing its job and is actually harming our rights, We the People have the right to alter or abolish it. Great. Let’s talk about how to do this without the Hot Civil War that the right wants or the Cold Civil War that we’re actually in.

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.

Point three: we will slow walk ourselves to death for the comfort of pretending nothing is wrong because people are epistemically lazy and don’t want to deal with it. Boy did they call that one.

Happy Independence Day.