I do not listen to music when I am driving. I prefer podcasts or You-tube videos. Just as often, however, I am simply alone with my thoughts, which consists primarily of me straining to recollect my random ideas and organize them into some kind of coherent schematic. That was certainly the case with my recent three day ramble through central Texas.
I have been thinking a lot about politics lately—not the specifics of American politics, for that would be too grim a subject to dwell upon at any length—but rather the nature of politics itself; whether on average, it even has any underlying principles, or why does it assume such an overpowering role in our lives? A long conversation with my youngest son prompted this line of thought. He is a young man launching off into life and I would not want the jaded cynicism of someone my age throwing too much cold water on the earnest hopefulness of youth. (But in his defense, he is, in many ways, even more of a realist than I am.)
In the recent past, I took a keen interest in the political circus. I genuinely worried about the survival of any number of our institutions. As it turned out, my fears were not at all overblown; for it was even worse than I had imagined. But somewhere along the way I realized there was no reversal of our course, that this thing would have to play itself out, for better or for (more probably) worse.
So today, I cannot muster much interest, let alone enthusiasm, for many of the issues that trouble so many today. I have eased into the “plague on both their houses” mindset these days, seeing nothing on offer in our hyper-partisan market that actually solves any real problem. In fact, the very political process itself is often at the heart of the problem. Politics can ruin your life, your family, and your mental health before you realize what has happened. I do believe in being informed, or rather being knowledgeable. Being informed today is often a matter of just being led. And I believe in voting, exercising our civic duty, if you will. I just don’t think we should spend much time with it beyond that.
At the end of the day, politics is simply a process, one by which we govern ourselves. Every faction gives lip service to their foundational principles, but I would suggest we not put too much importance on this. They are more or less meaningless in the end. In a recent previous Administration, much was made of the crude “transactional” nature of Presidential politics. I agreed that it was a Bad Thing; but I am now not convinced that it was an altogether New Thing. In other administrations much the same result was accomplished, just with more skill and finesse, and consequently generating little outrage. Political factions represent Interests, and from time to time, there is certainly no harm in admitting to the way the world actually works.
In that spirit, we should be honest about a peculiarly American phenomenon, the relationship of Politics with the Divine. The former is allowed by the latter, but that is about as far as it goes. So, let’s be absolutely clear: there is no real relationship. There’s not the slightest whiff of the Transcendent to our political machinations. Our political credos reach no further than the here and now. Though we may clothe our actions in soaring rhetoric that can take on a life of its own (Declaration of Independence, Gettysburg Address, etc.), the underlying motivations are always rooted in the hard realities of that day. And as the Federalist Papers observes, “If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on men would be necessary.” So, you could even say that politics fills the void where the walk with God was meant to be. Our very rebellion (the Fall) necessitates it. And it has always been thus.
And to anyone who honestly faces the human condition, it seems clear that mankind will worship something. So in the absence of the Transcendent it should be no surprise that, at least in this country, we have made our politics into a something of a secular religion, both among the camps of the Right and of the Left. And it is not a particularly contemplative faith, but rather one that gets us all hot and bothered. This broad brush approach addresses extremities, and I know there is a middle ground where this is not as applicable; but the leavening effects of these trends work back towards the middle.
The low hanging fruit that exemplifies this process is the ongoing politicization of Evangelical Christianity over the last 45 years. Those folks are about as far down that road as one could imagine, so I am not sure what happens next for them. To an outside observer, it is hard to figure out where evangelicalism ends and politics/patriotism begins with them. This is a common observation made by people like myself who are outside their tent. A recent article, here, really gets to the heart of their problem.
Beginning from an already reductionist starting point, politicized Evangelicalism moves even further out to sea from any theological moorings; appropriating all the symbols of the patriotic Right. The Flag and the Eagle have replaced the Cross and the Chalice. Trinitarian theology is neglected for Support for our Troops, who “protect our Freedoms.” Political action is seen as the expression and manifestation of Christian duty. Voting the right way is an almost sacrament act, one that defines your Christian faith. This is a cautionary tale, for I might add that Mainstream Protestants, Catholics and Orthodox are not immune to drifting in the same direction.
As one would expect, this process does not make politics somehow more godly, but rather makes religion more political; a cheapening of faith, you might say. Starting where they did, one might wonder if the Faith even survives such a transformation. I think the wisdom of Francis Urquhart is appropriate here: “You might very well say that. I couldn’t possibly say that.”
But before going too far down the road of the Evangelical Right, it has to be noted that the same quasi-religious dynamics are at work in the Progressive Left as well. Of course, they started from a place even less secure. As Christopher Dawson observed 100 years ago, civilizations have always emerged out of a culture, itself dependent upon a foundational cult of belief. Now for the first time in recorded human history, the West is attempting what had never been done before: crafting a New World without a transcendent foundation. Having shaken free of its religious shackles, a new civilization would emerge, based on the Individual.
Different adherents in different times and places may emphasize differing aspects of the new order, whether it be Progress, End-of-history universal liberal democracy, capitalism, communism, human rights, social justice—all lush plants that sprung forth and matured in the well-fertilized garden of the Enlightenment, our secular Reformation. So we shall see if it succeeds or not. There is certainly no past history from which to extrapolate from. Does it feel like things are working? Does the world feel to be in right order?
Today, most of the dogmas of the Progressive Left are aspects of the Cult of Progress, the belief in human rights, and a rolling search for social justice. After the 20th Century, it is a mystery to me why the first has any credibility at all. We are learning that the second is perhaps not as inalienable as we have been told, and the notion now seems mired in a miasma of jangling, jarring, juxtaposed and ever-evolving “identities,” whose proponents end up looking even sillier than those they deride on the Right. And I might add that no one has figured out where this actually ends. The third depends on who is administering the justice and who is receiving. If the moorings to the old faith were still in place, people would have known the limitations of justice.
The secular faith of these Progressives is more exactingly dogmatic than the faith they long ago abandoned. If the Right has the feel of a Southern camp meeting, then the Left has channeled the worst censorious judgmentalism of Calvinistic Puritanism. Opponents do not just have differing opinions, but are rather evil, forever among the damned. Other writers, far better than myself, have been making this point for some time now (Mary Harrington comes to mind, among others.)
The politicized Evangelical Rightists, while swinging the cudgel of Religion, end up destroying the very faith they were endeavoring to promote. The politicized Progressive Leftists, wielding the sword of Justice, in an orgy of deconstruction, dismantle anything that reeks of timelessness. And yet, there is one area where the Evangelical Right and the Progressive Left come together in pseudo-religiosity. This is our City-on-a-Hill/Manifest Destiny/American Exceptionalism/End-of-history/Democracy Agenda conviction in the inalienable nature of Western Liberal Democratic Global Capitalism. Both sides adhere to an ahistorical world view: the American democratic experience is unique and Providential, and thus immune to the normal cycles of history that have governed other such movements. Both camps simply accept that this is right and proper because it is our story, so it must be True.
Both sides require beliefs in competing mythologies. This has long been the case, but the worrying thing today is that there is so little overlap between the narratives. Rightists engage in denialism and fantasy about the present and the past. Leftists engage in denialism and fantasy about the present and the future. I suppose this is why I stay more alarmed about the fantastical denialism on the Right. It is easy to dismiss the projections of the Left, knowing that the utopias about which they fantasize will never happen, and the dystopias they fear may work out differently, depending on circumstances. But the past is a place where things actually did happen. I am very comfortable in the past. I find it cozy. The Right’s near dogmatic mythology of past events is harder to digest, not knowing whether the ignorance is of the usual kind, or whether it is willful or malicious.
My ramble through central Texas backroads did reinforce one idea; that is that American politics today is pure tribalism. Flags line the byways of this part of the state, even more so than in my native East Texas. Often they are in groupings of 3: the American flag, the Cult flag of the previous President, and a flag using a sexual euphemism directed at the current President. Were I in other parts of the country and in urban areas (such as Seattle last summer), the flags would have been different, but I doubt they would have been any baser. The flags, on either side, are not meant to try and convince anyone. They are simply badges of identity; so that any anyone passing by will know the tribe to which they belong.
I really don’t care much for flags; any flags. Too much symbolism is attached to them, so I just leave them alone. Maybe I am like my mother in this respect. Over fifty years ago, I remember a discussion she was having with her brother-in-law, a career Navy man. She left him speechless when she said, “well, it is just a piece of cloth.” My mother’s matter-of-fact literalness about almost everything could take your breath away at times, but I know where she was coming from. Her patriotism was rooted in hearth and home, allegiance to family above all, and then community. She had little time for abstractions about freedom and democracy, or totems like the Pledge and the flag. I wouldn’t always frame things the way she did, but she was more right than wrong, I think.
I enjoy talking with some of my young friends these days who share my almost fatalistic analysis of where we are and where we are going. I part company, however, with some of them who think that the only way to get past this is for our system to crumble as quickly as possible. I object to this nihilism on 4 grounds:
I abhor nihilism. I am a Traditionalist. I hate needless destruction and/or deconstruction. Their approach makes a shambles of structures that have served us and still have some workability. It is better to live in the somewhat shabby shambles than sifting through the ruins.
There may be more life left in our institutions than we think. I believe it was Adam Smith who said, “there is a great deal of ruin in a nation.” The Spanish Empire spent hundreds of years declining. We’ve barely started.
Revolutions are always tragedies. Their course and aftermath cannot be predicted by those who initiate them. In short, nihilists do not know what will emerge from the ruins of our present system. It might not be better at all. In fact, to think so implies that our earnest nihilists believe in Progress, and maybe the tooth fairy.
And as a corollary to #3, whoever is in charge will not be the people who were urging it on. These things take on a life of their own, and you will not be in control.
So, by all means go out and vote and participate in our system of governance, as I plan to continue doing. We can vote for Incompetence, or we can vote for Ineptitude. Let’s just try to do as little damage as possible. Afterwards, turn off the Noise. Roll up the flags. Go do something real. Take a walk. Pay attention to what the birds are up to. Come home and have a glass of wine. And put not your faith in Princes.
Everything may be okay, after a fashion. And if it is not, well, things are pretty much out of our hands anyway.
Peggy and I have talked about this for decades. She is a "believer in the process" (getting more cynical) and my mantra since the 1960's has been "I don't vote, and I don't bitch" because of my cynicism regarding politics (not just American, but as a necessity because of the Fall). I am in awe of how articulately you have expressed my crude, broad, un-nuanced thoughts about politics, the processes, the relationship of it to "God", the religion of Progressivism, the polarization and your 4 Objections. If anyone henceforth asks me what my thoughts are regarding politics I will send them this link. Thank you.
Hi Terry - just thought I'd write a note here. Good post (as always!). We were correspondents many years ago when I blogged under the nom-de-plume "Hilarius." Glad to see you are continuing to travel and to write. In +Xp