The Temptations of Quietism

I know I have not been as active on this site as usual. I got derailed on my Richard Thompson project (which will be revived) due to the level of work at my new job. That's made it hard to find time and energy to write, which I have mostly been saving for the more involved writing I do on my Substack. There are some things I do need to get off of my chest and out of my head, and now that I am on break I can actually process them. 

Even before the election, I found myself attracted to quietism as a response to the current political situation, what some in Germany referred to as "inner migration" in response to the onset of fascism. I used to think of that as a weak cop-out, but now I have been tempted to think that discretion is the better part of valor. In my dark moments I think that nationalist populism is here to stay as the dominant force in American politics, in no small part because the oligarchs have swung their support to it. That, along with the rise of AI, have made me think that anyone trying to tell the truth in public is on a fool's errand. 

All things must end, and I think that anything resembling what we used to think of as a functioning public sphere in American life is dead. Of course there are still newspapers, news networks, blogs, etc., but they do not in any way allow for a common understanding of reality. The people who own them decided, in their own corporate or ideological interests, to have it this way. Bezos and others killed endorsements for Harris, Musk bought Twitter and turned it into a right wing propaganda outlet, and Zuckerberg has let the wolves run wild on his platforms. TikTok, YouTube, and others are set up in ways that drive people towards fascist and anti-vax material. The old system wasn't optimal, but wouldn't you rather have Walter Cronkite than Joe Rogan?

This is a country in the grips of a crippling disease of the heart. Most people buy into the nihilism of late capitalism and care about nothing more than their own personal desires, which are so whipped into a frenzy by consumerism that they cannot be fully met. This leads to frustration and resentment that can be easily channeled by rightwing populists. Voices that once would have tempered this nihilism have bought into it. Religious leaders decry moral decline but don't dare call out this most fundamental moral decline in their flock, or they just accept it themselves. Just look at the dominance of prosperity gospel preachers. The Left ought to be a powerful voice against the late capitalist Moloch, but it too has been captured by its logic. The people who call themselves "the Left" mostly live online, not in the real world. They spend their days stewing in resentment and contrarianism, harvesting clicks and likes, living their lives according to the same consumerist logic as the rest of society. They accomplish nothing, but at the end of the day, they get to feel good about themselves, which is the only thing that matters in this society. 

At times it seems like the only way to win is to just not play. As a child I had a weird obsession with the monks of the early middle ages. In the aftermath of societal collapse, they maintained learning and literacy, all while removed from the day to day world. I fantasized about being a monk, since at that age the thought of spending most of my days reading and writing in isolation was my idea of heaven. At my darker moments I view our current situation not as a blip, but the harbinger of decades or even centuries of decline. More and more it feels like there is no hope for a better and more just society in my ever-shortening lifetime. Things will change at some point, of course, but it will be too late for me. 

Instead of wallowing in despair or going out in the public sphere I have been tempted to stay in my own version of a monk's cell, preserving the cultural life being snuffed out elsewhere. In an increasingly illiterate society, I will read books and spend as little time on social media as I can. (I do the former well, the latter not so much.) In the midst of the consumer frenzy, I will buy as little as possible. I will save my money for live theater and live music, places where artists directly connect with people without the mediation of screens or the trickery of AI. I will not withdraw from political life, but focus my efforts on the local level to preserve small flames that may one day turn into a cleansing fire. With any luck this kind of thing will be of assistance to the people left to clear up the wreckage far after my own life is done. 

A Republic of Consumers

There's been a lot of talk lately about Biden's falling approval numbers corresponding with increases in gas prices and the general freakout over inflation. Some have expressed bewilderment, considering how much the economy is growing, wages are rising and jobless claims are shrinking. 

It might be confusing, unless you understand a simple fact: we live in a republic of consumers (apologies to Lizabeth Cohen.) 

Once upon a time the social contract may have revolved around a social safety net or human rights but those things are pretty immaterial to most Americans. What makes a successful polity in their eyes is maintaining the flow of cheap consumer goods and services. For at least the past forty years this has been at the heart of everything.Workers' wages have been stagnant, postindustrial and farming communities are falling apart, but you can still get almost anything you want for cheap at the local Wal-Mart. You might not have much, but you can still afford to go to a fast food restaurant and afford a hot meal made by others who have to serve you. The rise of globalization and consumer credit that accompanied the onset of neo-liberalism have made it possible for massive wealth and income inequalities to not lead to revolutionary change. 

Those on the left might find this to be a rather paltry reward, but talk to most workers and they've basically given up on any idea of solidarity. (Notice the recent, high profile failures to start unions at Amazon.) Things like universal basic incomes and free college are ephemeral, cheap gas and enough workers at the local Mickey Ds to keep the dining room open are not. 

In a lot of ways we have failed to understand what the last four decades and counting of neoliberalism have done to our mental geographies. Most people still hold fast to its basic tenet that there is no such thing as society. Billionaires like Elon Musk are treated like superhuman heroes. When the New York Times reported on the Build Back Better bill it only listed the price-tag in the headline, never bother to enumerate the bill's many benefits. 

Talk to even affluent moderate liberals in a suburb like mine and they will still bitch about property taxes and unions like they were Republicans. They might have a Black Lives Matter sign on their lawn and a Pride flag hanging in their window, but don't you dare integrate the schools or challenge exclusionary zoning. In a lot of ways, they are basically the same Rockefeller Republicans who lived here fifty years ago, old politics with a new party label on them. 

You may have noticed how the rise in prices (which is there but not as unprecedented as it is made out to be) has registered far more with the collective psyche than the deaths of 800,000 people from COVID. The fact is that a majority of Americans simply DO NOT CARE what happens to people they don't know as long as they are doing fine. If it wasn't someone in your family dying the pandemic might as well not even be happening in the minds of most people. Similarly, if animals are slaughtered inhumanely to make your cheeseburger or children are forced to work for pennies in sweatshops for your Wal-Mart duds it is immaterial. Hell, when the pandemic began prominent Republicans were basically calling on old people to sacrifice themselves to keep this economy the same. The small-r republican consumer is not interested in knowing that fast food workers are making a higher wage, they are mad that the help is not as plentiful as before. 

I am not sure where to go from here, but the assumption on the left that passing popular policies will result in political popularity does not seem to be holding true. I think that's because the most popular policy is the one polling firms never ask about: maintaining cheap consumer goods and services uber alles. To paraphrase Dune: the cheap crap must flow! It is now the job of progressive and leftist politics to figure out how to win in these circumstances, because failure is not an option. 

Being A Parent Makes Me Both Hate And Love Christmas More

After yesterday's consumerist orgy it's time for some preaching by Reverend Billy

One of the biggest cliches in the book is that parenthood changes everything, and it's a cliche because, well, it's true.  In many ways this is obvious.  I usually subsist on six hours of sleep a night, and have cleared the eight hour mark maybe a dozen times in the last three years, usually only when I was too sick to sleep less than eight hours.  Smaller things have changed too, like Christmas.

Through most of my adult life, Christmas was pretty ho-hum. With two three year old girls, that has changed drastically, and Christmas has become a lot more significant in my life.  In many respects, this has meant that I love Christmas the way I loved it when I was a child.  My daughters take such joy in the Christmas season, from the songs to the gifts to the time with family.  It's very difficult for a lot of that not to rub off on me.

At the same time, however, it is extremely difficult for me not to develop great levels of hate and resentment against Christmas.  The Christmas season is perhaps the biggest reminder I have of how much power the broader society has in shaping my daughters and how hard it is for me to instill the values I want to impart.  In the first place, the consumeristic side of Christmas is especially pronounced with children.  I don't know if there has been a change in this since my childhood or what, but every year my children are buried under a tide of toys and trinkets.  I blame the Wal-Martization of America, which was not yet complete when I was a tyke.  It's easy, without thinking, to buy a child a mountain of toys, since they come at dollar store prices.  They also have dollar store quality but never seem to leave the house, forming a giant mass of cheap plastic crap to take up space, be stepped on, and constantly clutter living spaces up while rarely being played with.

The people giving the gifts have great intentions, and I really don't fault them for anything, obviously.  It's more that the Christmas season injects the usual consumerist ethos with steroids. And I guess it would be a real dick move to ask that any money spent on toys just be put into my daughter's college funds.

What's harder to stomach is the enforcement of patriarchal norms.  My daughters love Star Wars and superheroes, but for those who don't know them well, they default to all manner of pink princess stuff.  My daughters practically get buried alive in it.  What is even crazier is that they get non-princess toys, like cars and airplanes and even mini-baseball bats, in special pink, girl forms.  The message is pretty clear: being a girl means having a gussied up, less realistic, less REAL version of what boys have, because deep down cars, and trucks and baseball bats are for them, not girls.

Even if they were getting gifts I liked more, the whole thing would make me uneasy because of the massive waste of it all.  The sheer scale of gifts is frightening in its extremity; so much so that we barely give them anything for Christmas because we know that the deluge is coming.  Seeing the massive pile of presents in our living room right now is actually making me feel sick at the waste and decadence of it all in a world where so many have so little.  It's not because this stuff cost so much, quite the opposite.  It's the thought that this bounty of stuff is the result of exploited labor, both in the factories where it's made and the stores where it's sold.

Beyond all that, Christmas events encourage them to get all dressed up, and what's wrong with that? Those who know me know I like to dress up.  But for my daughters, they are quickly turned into little objects, told they are pretty, etc.  There's nothing wrong with being pretty, but when that's the one thing other people want to notice about them, the patriarchy is lurking.

So now that I am a parent, Christmas is filled with vastly conflicting emotions.  On the one hand, I feel such happiness at the smiles on my daughters' faces, and the cheerfulness they showed when racing down the stairs yesterday morning.  It's great to see them interact with their extended family, especially their cousins.  On the other hand, I feel so trapped and horrified when seeing them buried under mountains of cheap crap produced by exploited labor that reinforces sexist gender roles.  Maybe next year I can develop some counter-programming.