Too Much Faith in Crazy
/I’m reading a book called “Big White Ghetto,” by Kevin D. Williamson. The book is a travelogue of sorts, written by Williamson as he travels throughout America observing homeless ghettoes, communities ravaged by opioid addiction, gambling casinos, the legal marijuana business in Colorado, a convention of flat-Earth believers, and more silly American distractions.
I should note, the full title of the book is “Big White Ghetto: Dead Broke, Stone-Cold Stupid, and High on Rage in the Dank Woolly Wilds of the “Real America.” I should also note that Williamson doesn’t pull any punches. He’s a conservative-leaning writer for the National Review, but that doesn’t make him a blind supporter of all the things that “red state” people do. Williamson’s theme is that a lot of Americans employ the “Liberty” that they enjoy to engage in behaviors that are wasteful and destructive.
In a section of the book about a political rally in Texas, Williamson described the menagerie of people around him:
. . . .self-described free speech activists, that inevitable dude with the mullet waving the Confederate flag, guys in homemade riot gear slapped together from dusty hunting and motorcycle equipment, acres of sad, dreary desert-camo cargo pants over coyote-tan boots from the army surplus store, Communists, anarchists, extravagant beards, TV cameras, dreadlocks, ponytails, banana magazines protruding from matte-black Kalashnikov knock-offs, Antifa and Antifa wannabes, party organizers, cotton-candy vendors, and at least three kinds of police.
In short, Williamson describes a mass of people, each of whom is trying to look sillier than the rest. This made me think about why people who get out in public to support, or oppose, a politician or a political cause almost always ramp up the goofy when they engage in free speech or political action.
Source: Elyssa Fahndrich
In January 2017, the day after Donald Trump took office, there was a Women’s March in Washington. Somewhere between 200,000 and 400,000 people attended. And many of the women wore pink caps they had knitted specially for the occasion.
I’m not expressing any opinion here about the Women’s March or any of the various issues they marched for on that occasion. I’m just pointing out that the caps were a big part of the occasion — a big enough part that even several years later stock photo services display pictures of those pink caps when you search for pictures related to the Women’s March.
(OK, I will express an opinion about the March. I support the idea, generally, and many — but not all — of the causes that were espoused that day. I’m strongly supportive of workers’ rights to fair wages and of women’s rights to respect and equal pay.)
You know what would have been just as impressive? The same massive crowd of people, dressed normally. I know someone who attended that march and she said that it absolutely overtook the streets of downtown Washington that day. There was no way that a crowd that size could fail to send the message that people care about respect and fairness — even without the hats and signs and flags and chants.
America’s civic affairs and governmental processes need serious reconsideration. The country can’t run on auto-pilot any longer. The discussion about what needs to change ought to involve most people, or at least the honest and faithful representatives of every group. (And I’m not talking about members of Congress or any other elected official. They are all sworn to maintain the status quo.)
The natural impulse of citizens to go outside and get noisy and silly about the issues doesn’t help. There’s no harm in wearing a funny hat. But for millions of Americans, protesting and demonstrating is the limit of their activism.
Citizens need to recognize that marches and protests are only the beginning of change. The Boston Tea Party happened five full years before the Declaration of Independence was signed. And nobody who took part in the BTP was later involved in the real changes from 1776 onward.
The big decisions about America’s future are going to be made as they always have been, by small groups of privileged people sitting is quiet, isolated rooms. Whoever wants to to make a real difference needs to figure out how get invited into those rooms.
