We will start by saying that over the years Gil Smart has become one of the best columnists in the country, worthy to write for the New York Times. He has an ‘agitated mind’, constantly probing and questioning the major issues of the day.
Smart apparently lives the espoused values of Conservatives and shares the stated compassions of Liberals.
In “Where liberty equals libertinism, expect a backlash”, Smart suggests a parallel between Western civilization and the Weimar Republic that immediately preceded the rise of Nazis Germany.
“There was a feeling of great discontent, as if the best days lay in the past and the future offered only decline. The economy stumbled, and millions felt cheated, dismayed that the old social contract that rewarded hard work had been torn up and replaced by something more profitable — for the few.
“Faith in governing institutions evaporated; faith in God was increasingly seen as pointless and irrelevant. Society appeared to be breaking down. Traditions were eroding, in some cases gleefully rent asunder by those who held that the mores of the past had created injustice and oppression.
“Now the shackles were off. Individual fulfillment and happiness constituted the highest good. The rule was: Do what you like, for anything goes — and nothing matters.”
Perhaps it is because we are nearly two generations older and have lived through half as much history (more on this as a post script), our sense is that today’s community bonds and family commitments for the US population are stronger than perhaps, except for that unusual generation forged by the Great Depressionand the World War II, over the course of American history.
Too often we think of the ‘Greatest Generation’ and the societal cohesiveness of World War II and its immediate aftermath as having been the norm for our nation, when in fact is was atypica. Even during the Revolutionary War, almost half of the population was sympathetic to the British. (Washington had to divide his scant troops among colonial urban centers to avoid local insurrections.)
Even after the end of slavery, there was a shameful delay assimilating Blacks into American society for almost a century and a half. Lack of African American males opportunities for work and a generous dole for families without fathers undermined what had been a society otherwise devoted to family and religion.
The Vietnam War tore our country apart. It was not perceived as a great moral struggle worth serving in the armed forces for years, let alonedying for.
Radical changes involving civil rights, women’s liberation, job relocations, television, and how a better educated population perceived religion all were additional discordant societal influences. There was also the threat of nuclear annihilation.
What we can see from our long years is that as a nation we have largely come to terms with the whirlwind of changes.
Our current major problem is the cultural evolutionary predisposition of humans to either be Conservative or Liberal in their outlooks, a force that most fail to recognize and few seek to offset
We assert that today’s society is more cohesive (although in different ways) and as moral as any time in the past. Becoming the Weimar Republic is not our problem.
Marriage is on the upswing. And if we factor in committed relationships, more popular than decades ago and we suspect more pleasant.
American still are members of religious congregations. But most have a broader view of what they mean by ‘God’. They attend churches, mosques and synagogues, but they use them as much as a means for community as for contemplation of an after life.
We have long opined the real parallel in history is the 125 years starting with the Gracchi brothers and leading up to the fall of the Roman Republic and the outset of the imperial Roman Empire. The same sort of political fanaticism and disrespect as we now are experiencing escalated to trashing legislative comity, to physical abuse, to assassinations, to civil wars and finally to the murder of Julius Caesar in an unsuccessful attempt to preserve the Republic.
No, we don’t believe that France will become an Islamic state. But what it will need to do is come to terms and accomodations with its Muslim population as the USA did with African Americans. What they need are the Muslim equivalent of our Civil Rights leaders, not terrorists.
Yes, come 2022, but more likely 2032 or 2042, there may be an Islamic president of France. But if so, his / her religion will have no more to do with his / her policies than Barack Obamas being half African American has had to do with his.
As was President Obamas’ election, such an event would likely be a turning point in relationships between Islamic and Western culture.
P. S. We encouraged our niece from Mexico to read a history of the USA. She reported that she has now read through World War II and we suggested to her that she must be near the end of the book. She told us she was only read a little more than half way!
