A Separate Peace: The Blade Runner Century
I sometimes fear that we are witnessing the second fall of Rome, and that chaos will ensue, the new Dark Ages. This will be the "Blade Runner" Century, where people will retreat into their little fortresses in their own separate peace and try to keep anarchy at bay.I don't always think like that, but in dark moments, I do, yes. Looks like I'm not the only one:
A Separate Peace
I think there is an unspoken subtext in our national political culture right now. In fact I think it's a subtext to our society. I think that a lot of people are carrying around in their heads, unarticulated and even in some cases unnoticed, a sense that the wheels are coming off the trolley and the trolley off the tracks. That in some deep and fundamental way things have broken down and can't be fixed, or won't be fixed any time soon. It's beyond, "The president is overwhelmed." The presidency is overwhelmed. The whole government is. And people sense when an institution is overwhelmed. Citizens know. If we had a major terrorist event tomorrow half the country--more than half--would not trust the federal government to do what it has to do, would not trust it to tell the truth, would not trust it, period.
I think those who haven't noticed we're living in a troubling time continue to operate each day with classic and constitutional American optimism intact. I think some of those who have a sense we're in trouble are going through the motions, dealing with their own daily challenges. Our elites. I have a nagging sense, and think I have accurately observed, that many of these people have made a separate peace. That they're living their lives and taking their pleasures and pursuing their agendas; that they're going forward each day with the knowledge, which they hold more securely and with greater reason than nonelites, that the wheels are off the trolley and the trolley's off the tracks, and with a conviction, a certainty, that there is nothing they can do about it. I suspect that history, including great historical novelists of the future, will look back and see that many of our elites simply decided to enjoy their lives while they waited for the next chapter of trouble. And that they consciously, or unconsciously, took grim comfort in this thought: I got mine. Which is what the separate peace comes down to, "I got mine, you get yours." Not all of course. There are two groups. One has made a separate peace, and one is trying to keep the boat afloat. I suspect those in the latter group privately, in a place so private they don't even express it to themselves, wonder if they'll go down with the ship. Or into bad territory with the trolley.
posted by Unknown @ 12:41 AM
4 Comments:
Fjordman, I can understand that feeling sometimes that our leaders and much of our elite have sold out.
There never was a Bladerunner II. Not sure why? The stylistic sets were great.
My husband and I were talking about this a few weeks ago. We decided we don't want to live in the city, but somewhere remote so when the anarchy hits we won't be in the middle of it.
Peggy Noonan (one of President Reagan's favorite speech writers) has a knack for saying things that many people are thinking, but can't or don't put into words. Her story about the girl and the earrings was sad. Her assessment of the parents motivation was right. ("the fear parents have that we're at the end of something, and they want their kids to have good memories.") I think she is right about the elites of this country--that is why people don't trust the government to tell them the truth and act on their behalf in times of crisis. As the recent hurricanes in this country have made abundantly clear, people need to be prepared individually to take care of themselves.
May be the elites behave in that general way, but there a suspicion that some of its member know where they lead us, and it is to a world totalitarian government. I think they promote in some way all the wars and conflicts to prepare psychologically to everybody for that end. Satanism in other words.
I don´t think they will succeed but the possibility is there.
tefta,
Very well stated--you should submit this to the NYTimes letters to the editior and see if they have the nerve to publish it. (Don't hold your breath)
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