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Rod Marvin's avatar

Rich, you have stated succinctly the essence of the problem, especially notable in sociology, that it is far easier to destroy and devolve rather than to build and evolve. The loud and constant appeal to greed, tribalistic identity, and winner-take-all unscrupulous politics is, as you eloquently demonstrate, effecting changes to our social behaviors and expectations, activating or reactivating previously suppressed traits and expressions in a manner that provides cover, if not acceptance for both proponents and adherents alike.

Despite past progress, and even after any contemporary successes against this societal cancer, the threat will always be with us - hard wired, only awaiting the stimulus that triggers its resurgence. The systemic error is complacency - a failure to "consolidate the objective" as the military says - illustrated in one instance and form by the ridiculous (or tragically premature at best) proclamation of the "end of history" a few decades ago. How naive!

Despair and its cousin, cynicism, are not the answer, however, nor are they justified in any respect by history, even in own time (the past 6-7 decades). But reestablishing social virtue today is greatly complicated by the capture of evangelicals and other religious traditions who appear to have taken Satan's third offer - power - despite the opposite lesson taught by their revered, but obviously unread and unheeded, holy book. Despite their voluntary defection, however, achieving virtue in society is possible without them. Universal values, common among both religious and humanist traditions, point the way forward. It is not an easy path, but one to which a previous generation dedicated their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor. We can do no less.

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Kate Fall's avatar

Wow, this is an amazing essay. The thing is, the people who ruin community spaces, what we'd call Trumpism today, have always been there. There's always been a contingent of parents in youth sports who won't admit to losing, a very small percentage of men who use community meetings to find women and children to sexually assault, and conspiracy theorists like the man who spent a Little League game telling me about chemtrails. They can spoil almost any community event. When I think about what happened to the Lions, Knights of Columbus, bowling leagues, and school board meetings, I think that the organization probably defended their bad actors instead of thinking of the rest of us, and that drove decent people away. You'd think organizations would've learned from the Catholic Church priest scandal, but nope, everyone seems to be doubling down on defending their sex offenders while whining about rainbow flags. When places aren't safe for decency, moral people leave. Nowhere in Trump's orbit is safe for decency or decent people.

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