WHERE DID IT ALL GO WRONG

Where did it all go wrong? I was watching this morning on YouTube, an interview, from CNN, between Jake Tapper and Stephen Miller the White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy. Mr Miller was giving his explanation about the executive order to freeze federal aid. The legality of the order was not discussed, but during the course of the interview it became clear that the main reason behind the policy was to ‘stop federal funds being diverted to left wing projects’ or words to that effect, adding, that the current civil servants who have some say in the expenditure of federal funds are left wing and supporters of Kamala Harris; also,  Joe Biden’s previous polices were a waste of public funds for left wing projects and that the civil servants in question had to be fired and completely replaced by new people, in order to enable  government to regain control. It was not intended (although it did) to stop funding Medicaid or other social support for the elderly like meals on wheels or child care programs etc.

In effect, what is intended, is a complete dismissal of all federal government employees who do not agree with Trump & Co.  and replace them with their own people, to enable complete control of public funds and all the power that goes with it. Mr Miller spoke of ‘the left’ as if it was a position that had no right to even exist, especially in the United States. He also went on about getting rid of ‘undocumented criminal immigrants’ in the same tone, as if the only criminals in the United States were undocumented illegal immigrants. The promotion of division and fear was his entire message, his entire policy. It is the continuous refrain of Trumpism. It is now another ism.

Sadly, it dawns on me now, that my generation must have a lot to do with what is going on. We were born during and just before the second world war. The world had come out of a deep depression, particularly in Germany, and the resentments of prior disputes boiled over into the rise of nationalism in Europe and around the world. The antagonisms that developed, and the fear mongering and scapegoating that took place led to that world war. Afterwards, our parents returned to work in earnest to try and make their world a better place in a variety of ways espousing, as normal, the different political points of view that go into making up the social order of things and the governance that goes with it. But, they did so in the firm belief that they would not let their children suffer the horrors of the war they had just survived.

Those that were able, did everything they could to protect their children. The work and education ethic were very strong and for a while, during the 1950’s and early 1960’s, most things, in the western world at least, were good.  I was one of those children. We had a great time growing up. Our parents were mainly protective and consequently a bit conservative (not necessarily politically) and reluctantly allowed us a degree of social freedom so that we might grow up to be better people. We, in the course of growing up, rejecting some of the more staid views of our parents and rejected certain attitudes to form our own.  

Given the particular events prompted out of the cold war (Korea, Vietnam etc..) a world-wide social movement developed into the flower power generation. It was all about peace and love, flowers in your hair, jaw jaw instead of war war, and ‘getting it together’. It was all about inclusion and getting on with each other. We all went to Woodstock, one way or another. Even Ronald Reagan in a farewell speech (which I had previously posted, but here it is again) spoke of inclusion and the state of what it was to be an American.

The modus vivendi now seems to be exclusion, division and a refusal to listen to another point of view. We are back to the entrenchment of resentment, the fearmongering and blaming of ‘outsiders’ for our troubles. Differences of religion no longer conform to their espoused adherence to charity, but have evolved into outright hatred, violence and carnage. So again, I ask myself, once a 1960’s hippy, where did we go wrong? Why are our children so full of hatred and division? Why are they so disparaging of others? Why do they seek to wield knives and guns and rampage? Why are our politicians so utterly divisive and seeking to so control their nations into zombies of ordered and over controlled citizens? Why have free thinking citizens elected these people to be our representatives? Why have we acquiesced to put them in such high authority? What is this attraction towards the dictator? Why are we repeating the mistakes of our ancestors?

We have all been here before and the protest songs and folk songs we sang together seem to echo is some distant world. Recently Rolling Stone Magazine published a list of the hundred greatest protest songs. Oddly a great many were composed in the 1980’s, 1990’s, and in the last 25 years of the 21^st century. Sadly, they have had as much effect as those from the 1930’s through to the 1970’s

In any event, the generations that have come after us seem to have completely lost the way. As much as there are people who want to save the planet, protect the environment, ensure the survival of humanity, protect and preserve existing welfare programs (NHS, income support, social security, care homes, meals on wheels, child care etc..) freedoms of expression, religion, education, employment and movement, there are people who want to abolish state funding all together and control these freedoms with an iron hand of conformity and dictatorial powers. The divisions could not be more stark. The refusal and denial of climate change and genuine democracy is apparent to all. The evidence is expressed in our daily lives.

There is the joke about the elderly person who asks God why he hasn’t warned him about approaching death. God suggests, look in the mirror, what do you see? How much warning do you need?  We can all say, look at the weather, look at the devastating floods, hurricanes, typhoons, drought and fires. How much warning do you need? Listen to the likes of Trump, Putin, Le Pen, Netanyahu, Sinwar,  Al-Masri, etc. How much warning do you need?

Can we not get it back together?