Vladimir Lenin is famously credited with the stark observation, “Every society is three meals away from chaos.” He’s speaking both of food, but importantly, also to control and subjection of the masses.
As to food, give thought to how dependent we are on our food chain: from farmers to distributors to truckers to stores … each with its own self-interests. That box of Raisin Bran or egg or toast you’re eating – almost everything you consume today will have been made anywhere from a handful to a dozen sources, with a handful to a dozen of stops along the way to your mouth.
Our food chain is fragile, to say the least. Should anything go wrong, you go hungry. Go hungry long enough and civil disobedience and chaos erupts. Bad public water policy. A broken bridge or railway. A pandemic. A strike. These things are all part of our government’s scope and guardrails.
So, let’s consider our stomachs before government granting the “disrupters” power to disrupt this delicate balance that keeps us three meals from chaos …
But Lenin also spoke of disruption of norms and expectations. It doesn’t take much disruption of expected norms until civil society chaotically breaks – with strong controlling powers emerging.
Today, we live in a world of constant change assaulting us at ever-increasing speed. To many this feels like an onslaught of disorder. That the old sensibilities, the old values, the old sense of civic-ness is flying out the window. In some ways, it feels like we’re close to three meals short in our public and political spaces and chaos is ensuing.
I worry about the erosion of civil discourse. While politics has long been a rough-and-tumble business, it seems we’re now locked in a crazy car, without a driver. Sarah Palin famously used gun sight targets on ads against her opponents. Trump mocked everyone, from the healthy to infirm, to the dead, with nasty nicknames, outright lies, and threats aimed at the living. Many mimic Trump’s crazy world, with rioters turned into heroes, suspected sex offenders considered for attorney general, and outright political warfare now openly played by all sides in Washington. Now, millions of (illegal) immigrants are promised a military-style take-down, removing those millions of necessary workers from our fragile food chain and services sector. All that matters is “looking tough and strong” to the base.
But caution: The base has stomachs, too, and overreach is only three meals away …
Meanwhile, we hear, “They’re eating your cats and dogs!” “They’re sending us their rapists and murderers.” “They’re poisoning the blood of our country.” On and on – and certainly not just Donald Trump, but his acolytes and others have absorbed such behavior as “normal” and mimic such behavior in their own spheres.
Meanness, rudeness, volatile and hate speech, threats, and retribution are standard fare in today’s political world. Americans exposed to this breakdown in civil discourse absorb the behavior as “normal.” The meanness, the threats, taunts, and sadly, actions – become part of the new national culture and national personality.
America the crude. America the mean. America, where anything goes if you can get away with it. America, where might makes right and people’s protections and rights are today on the line. We see the bullying and the power plays as “normal in America.” Credit all sides for this erosion of decency. Trump simply brings it more audaciously to the forefront.
The most effective mode of mass public control is to change people’s values. You are your values. Changing values changes decisions and actions without having to directly control each individual. Change values and you change the soul of a nation. And after that, we’ve got an automated takeover of what we once were — to whatever the powerful values-changers want us to be.
We’re all in Biff’s hotel, in “Back to the Future.” Far-fetched?
We live in a country covered with guns, pharmaceutical ads, sports gambling, crypto schemes, drug addiction, mass killings, and assassinations. Does this describe a healthy civic setting?
I’d love to see apolitical civics courses returned to grade school through high school. What it means to be a citizen, and American, how we act to one another and our obligations to our country and neighbors. Good luck on this dream.
In the meantime, let’s tape the Golden Rule to the refrigerator door and glue it to the inside of our minds: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
Or, if you will, follow the great words of Bill and Ted, “Be excellent to each other.”
America is both three meals away from chaos, and years into degrading chaos in our public spaces. Both are real threats to America’s continued viability and leadership.
Being “excellent to each other” is a great start on setting things back to a safe, dependable, reliable civil society — with no breadlines or hunger at all.
Gary Horton’s “Full Speed to Port!” has appeared in The Signal since 2006. The opinions expressed in his column do not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Signal or its editorial board.
