By Sylvester Brown, Jr.
Originally posted Jan. 1, 2020 / Medium.com
We’re entering a new decade of the 21st century. Historians, I predict, will define this first 20 years as a pivotal point in American history. Where we go in 2020 and beyond is anybody’s guess. Candidly examining our trajectory so far, may help us right our seemingly wayward and chaotic course.
In the early 2000s, the Internet came into its full powerful force. Like a two-edged sword, it changed how the world communicated, giving anyone and everyone the power to decipher, define and disseminate “news.” Mainstream media suffered a massive blow. Its lifeblood, advertising revenue, was now siphoned off to “alternative news” sources. The Internet empowered a whole segment of the populace, some who share dangerous, outdated, xenophobic and paranoid beliefs. Suddenly, a horde of uneducated, uninformed readers, viewers and voters had well-financed media platforms to validate and normalize their darkest and dumbest beliefs.
In short, ignorance had gone mainstream.
This throng was ripe for exploitation after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. World leaders expressed sympathy for a relatively baby country that found itself vulnerable to deadly, strategized aggression. Countries the US considered “hostile” like North Korea, Cuba, Iran and Libya condemned the attacks and expressed sympathy for the loss of thousands of American lives. Fearing that Muslims around the world would become alienated and victimized, allies and adversaries alike cautioned against pursuing an indiscriminate, disproportionate, deadly course of military hostility.
The George W. Bush Administration instead launched a dumbed down, simplistic rationale for war: Our enemies simply “hate us for our freedoms.” This sophomoric, open-ended “good vs. evil” cliché expanded the definition of “enemy.” Illogical interpretations from religious leaders like Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson claimed the terrorist’s attacks were “a punishment from God.” “Pagans, abortionists, feminists, gays and lesbians” were all complicit in the horrific attacks on America, they said.
Stunned Americans, comforted by the illusion of military and economic superiority, were primed for unfettered, John Wayne-style vengeance. The president and willing politicians capitalized on the nation’s nativist fears, misunderstandings and growing hatred of anyone deemed “foreign.” In the newly revised media landscape, a war based on lies, greed and deceit was propagandized. Under the cloud of mass hysteria, a new, private, corporatized army was employed to help guarantee the capitalist’s desires to control oil-rich countries.
The terrorist’s attacks led to a decaying of our constitutional and democratic principles. Warrantless domestic wiretapping and the torturing of our enemies became legally and socially acceptable. After 9/11, immigration enforcement became synonymous with the “war on terrorism.” New government policies betrayed the words etched on the Statue of Liberty that, for centuries, welcomed the tired, the poor and the “huddled masses” yearning for freedom.
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Two underfunded, ongoing wars, mounting deaths of American soldiers, a harsh recession brought on by the reckless actions of big banks and mortgage lenders and a ballooning deficit had many voters itching for “change.” It came in the form of a likable, compelling orator and Illinois Senator by the name of Barack Obama. The 2008 election of America’s first black president was falsely heralded as the “post-racial” era. In fact, the opposite became obvious.
By 2010, polls and studies substantiated a growing anxiety among whites who felt they had lost their place and stature in America. FOX News and other right-leaning news organizations fed this fanaticism with exaggerated stories of lost liberties, uncontrolled immigrant invasions, black contempt for police and orchestrated liberal attacks against traditional “American values.” The uninformed, prejudiced and paranoid bought into media hype that questioned the birthplace and legitimacy of President Obama. The loudest mouthpiece of this racist, misleading campaign, Donald J. Trump, incredulously wound up winning the 2016 presidential contest.
With Trump’s presidency, a whole slew of political, religious and social norms has been upended. Amazingly, a narcissist, a conman with a documented crooked background, an uninformed, self-admitted philanderer has been dubbed God’s messenger and savior of the free world.
Trump has been impeached and now faces removal from office. It’s doubtful that this will happen. But even if it did, Trump’s ouster is akin to removing a polyp from a malignant, cancerous, spreading tumor. The people, politicians and the press that elected him, codify him, excused, enabled, empowered and are protecting him will still be very much in power.
Trump is but a mere reflection of our collective hypocrisy, arrogance, selfishness and ignorance. We boast of “democracy and justice” while more than 2,000 children, without their parents, are locked in cages by the US Border Patrol. Trump has normalized a strange relationship with our long-standing enemy, Russia. We now have the president and his republican allies regurgitating Putin’s talking points while downplaying our own national security agencies’ warnings.
Religious leaders loyal to Trump have blurred the lines between “immoral and moral” conduct. Our government is cutting aid for the poor while increasing the wealth for the wealthiest Americans. Prodded on by competing media outlets, Americans are more misinformed and more divided than ever.
Do the first two decades of this century represent a new normal or a normal necessity? Sometimes extreme circumstances spur collective, corrective action. American history is replete with dumb, dangerous ideas, policies and people. Slavery, prohibition, the bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, McCarthyism, internment camps, Cointelpro and the “War on Drugs” are but a few pertinent examples.
We enter 2020 at a bizarre point in American history. But, as a naïve optimist, I cling to the notion that enough of us have had enough of the chaos, inhumanity, hypocrisy, greed and mind-manipulating propaganda. The fact that there are millions of young people ready to vote, take to the streets, tweet, post and challenge wrong-headed adults also give me a sense of calm.
Today, we start a new decade. We have a new year and another chance to chart a new course. Take heart. Have faith in our collective and individual potential. Let us remember the words of anthropologist, Margaret Mead:
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
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Sylvester Brown Jr. is a former columnist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the founder of the Sweet Potato Projecd and the author of “When We Listen: Recognizing the Potential of Urban Youth.”
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