The American way of life is rooted in self-reliance. Most everything we do is oriented towards creating means and opportunity for individuals to be on their own. Job programs create income opportunities. Housing programs improve affordability for independent living. Our primary schooling system – the idea that everyone should be instructed in tools for living – is oriented to enabling the individual. Persons may join in marriage or other living arrangements for economic benefit. Some go into communal living. For the vast majority, we expect them to become self-sustaining.
When we believe are successful at being self-sustaining, it becomes easy to believe that the affairs of the world, the nation, the state, the city have little impact on our lives. Nonsense from government comes and goes, politicians postulate and obfuscate, laws change, but for the most part the self-reliant individual believes they are not affected. Prices may go up and down, availability of services may come and go, but the average citizen is more concerned with their own family, educating their children, potholes in the street, and reliability of utilities. For most everything else the average citizen believes they will take care of themselves.
This of course is untrue, as we rely on interconnected society to provide all the means of our life. Even for folk who live disconnected and off the grid, the machinery to do so comes from somewhere.
With peaceful conditions, it is easy to believe that individuals can ignore and withdraw from political affairs. Folks tend to keep their heads down and go about their own self-reliance business. They may still vote, but since our votes are often binary choices, there’s still little that really impacts many.
Is this a reasonable way to live? Let those who are concerned set the directions and solve the problems, I will adapt. Would that that was true.
We have today stark examples of what happens when citizens do not take responsibility. The suffering in Gaza can be blamed on Hamas, or on Israel, and with all the stories of horror it is easy to condemn either, or both. But it is a clear example of how the ordinary folk pay the price for the misbehavior of their government. Hamas conducted unspeakable terrorist acts on October 7. The severe response from Israel was expected and likely welcomed by Hamas leadership. But who suffers? According to the United Nations, 1.9 million persons have been displaced in Gaza, many multiple times. Along with the Gazans, the Israelis killed, injured or taken hostage and the state of Israel as a whole has suffered. And alas, although Hamas is severely impacted, it still exists and shows strength.
Who pays the price for political leaders’ aberrations? Germans looked away during the rise of Nazi Germany. Japanese followed the myth of their emperor. Both countries and civilian populations consequently suffered death and destruction previously conceived as unbelievable. Neither of these populations conceived of what the cost would be for blindly following their “leaders”.
This is not victim blaming. Hamas is more like a criminal terrorist group that victimized the population, but who suffers their behavior? It was of course not easy for individuals to speak out against Hamas, and that is an understatement, given the culture of assassination. Rather, the population allowed Hamas to distract with hatred for Israel.
Right now, the same thing is happening in Rwanda, the Congo and Ethiopia. Ukraine, Syria, Lebanon, the West Bank, are in similar situations, indeed even our southern border is in the same situation to some extent. And who suffers? The self-reliant, politically agnostic individual takes the hit. When suspicion and hatred and vengeance are mixed in, a cycle begins that is virtually impossible to break.
The lesson is that not engaging with our political system is to give it over to groups that will impose their will, with others suffering the consequences. Since we live in an interconnected society we are all impacted by those we select as leaders. If left ignored, leaders will inevitably go bad: as Lord Acton stated in the 19th Century,
“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority….”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dalberg-Acton,_1st_Baron_Acton
We are learning this lesson anew in this country today. The demise of the past Democratic administration clearly demonstrated how good can go bad. The door has been opened for an authoritative oligarchy which is already pressing the levers of presidential power to stress and strain our established institutions. Firing Inspectors General? Firing federal prosecutors who are not aligned with the adminstration’s political goals? Were not these positions non-partisan? If they behaved in partisan activities, then truly they should be brought to heel. Sweeping removals are however more intended to destroy the institutions rather than reform them. Trust in the institutions is all too easily undermined just by these vacuous threats.
James Baldwin pointed out that “Your institutions will not save you”. If we love America, we must continually reform our institutions. If we just destroy them, as the “Appeal to Heaven’ movement would have, the individual is most likely to be punished.