An Experiment
I have long said that The United States of America is an experiment, that democracy itself is an experiment. There is no guarantee this is going to last. There is no guarantee this is going to work. I often ask myself why we stay together as a nation when everyone hates each other as much as we do.
Buford Lister (personal communication)
I remember hearing about The Great Melting Pot when I was in grade school. We all said our Pledge of Allegiance every morning; then we learned about how different America is because we mix all races and creeds to form one nation. I have been thinking a lot about that recently.
Is The United States a melting pot? Ask that to the people in Little Italy, or Chinatown, or a Slavic Village; the kinds of places you find in any big city. Then stumble through that city’s neighborhoods and let me know how many have a melting pot character. I doubt you will find many. I sometimes wonder if the vast majority of people prefer others that look like them and think like them. Just because I enjoy interacting with people from differing backgrounds doesn’t mean that other people do.
I have come to view the melting pot theory of America as false. Indeed, it is easier to argue for its veracity on the coasts, but middle America doesn’t seem too interested in such things. In fact, they seem to embrace the opposite.
What does this say about the experiment that is The United States? I think the false melting pot idea can tell us a lot. I also believe that a little history can inform this discussion.
A long time ago, a very long time ago, I was an archaeologist. Archaeologists have a different perspective on lots of things. Many (if not most, or all) of the great civilizations we studied reached their apex long before the idea of The United States was conjured up. As we explored the rubble left behind (because that is all that was left behind), it wasn’t that big a leap to imagine what might happen in the future. It seems likely that any world power will have its run and then will be surpassed. When you broaden your time perspective, that is simply the way of the world.
Anyone objecting yet? Do you agree with that assessment? We only have to look back a couple of decades to see the collapse of The Soviet Union. One day they were there, fighting a cold war with the West, and then they were gone, dissolved, a mere figment of a troubled experiment.
Author’s Note: I will never forget what happened one day in a seminar I was taking at Harvard. The course, on the relationship between technology and utopian ideals, was taught in the History of Science department. We were meeting when The Soviet Union officially fell. The professor, a man of deeply held convictions, cried in the classroom as he talked about the collapse. He was tremendously disappointed; he viewed capitalism with disdain, disliking the advantage those with power had over the others. His position was well thought out; Harvard University is not the kind of place where people run around shouting slogans without having the substance to back up their claims. He was an interesting man, and yes, he most certainly was a Marxist.
So, what of our democratic experiment? As you know, the tone of discourse in the USA today is not polite and intelligent. From what I can tell, you are either a hawk or a dove, a conservative or a liberal, or a Republican or a Democrat. We are fighting an Uncivil War with the definition of what it means to be American at the heart of the battle.
People are fundamentally a Republican, a Democrat, or an Independent. I believe that very few people are identifying as generic Americans. Politicians are indeed guilty of this. Often, the people on the other side of an issue are viewed as un-American or worse. Perhaps most disturbing is that anyone who disagrees with you is an idiot, a blubbering idiot, or a fascist. There is no room for nuance; there is only emotion. Such are the products of an Uncivil War.
The more I think about it, the more I am convinced that The United States of America could easily break apart. I am not sure what binds the educated professional living in a big city on one of the coasts with the uneducated people populating the middle. Of course, I realize this is a broad generalization, but you know exactly what I mean; look at a Red and Blue map of any recent Presidential election. I would argue that a lot more separates those that identify as Red from those who consider themselves Blue than unites them. I don’t see where the idea of America and its phantom melting pot meet.
Suppose we are to dissolve the union in my lifetime. In that case, I think that abortion might be the single topic that pushes individual states over the edge. Everything is in place; there is a strong chance that Roe will be overturned. I am reasonably sure the case for the Supreme Court is already in place. If (or when) that happens, the relationship between the Red and the Blue states will become even more fractured.
Suppose the abortion issue does not literally split us apart. In that case, I think there are several more topics we need to consider. These have to do with an educated electorate, the inevitable coming of intelligent robots, and growing income inequality.
I have a friend living in California. He doesn’t make a lot of money, so the California health care system charges him around $20 a month for full coverage. He is originally from Texas. I asked him if Texas succeeded from the USA if he would go back home or stay in California. He didn’t even hesitate; he said he would move back to Texas, too many liberals with their socialist policies in California for his tastes. I didn’t ask him how much he was willing to pay for health care to “live free.” I assure you it would be more than $20 a month, almost certainly more than $20 a day for what might be inadequate health insurance.
I know a young woman who does not make much money. She has a job in the restaurant industry. She enthusiastically voted for Trump. Why? Her primary issue was that she wanted abortion to remain safe and legal. If you didn’t catch that, let me repeat her position. She voted for Trump because she wished to keep abortion safe and legal. When I tried to explain to her that she misunderstood his position, she blew me off as an uninformed bumpkin. Sigh…
I know a retired man in his 70s. He also voted for Trump because he is convinced that the Democrats are out to take away everyone’s social security. According to him, they want to stop his payments, money he needs to survive. I also heard this story from an older woman when Obama was running. She insisted that, if elected, Obama was going to take her monthly check. Once again, sigh…
My point is simple; we need an educated electorate for this country to survive. Without this, we will keep electing leaders who do not believe in the value of Science and Mathematics. We will have more leaders who say that pandemics are only liberal conspiracies. Basic scientific facts are merely opinions, no better or worse than the ignorant view of anyone else. The dissolution of The United States awaits us at the end of this path (the one peppered with alternative facts) if we choose to continue to walk down it. There are forks in the road, but I am pessimistic that we will take any of them. It is much easier to remain angry and ignorant than to get educated and admit that views held for a lifetime are flat out wrong.
Author’s Note: I have spent a lot of time around brilliant people and even more time in the company of not so smart people. The town I grew up in (and now live in) consists of non-college-educated people; college graduates make up less than 5 percent of the population. My mom was a coal miner’s daughter, and (after some research) it sure looks like my dad wasn’t only the first person in his family to graduate high school; he was the first even to attend. That means that I have some interesting relatives from the hills. Yes, both sides of my family are composed of “Sons (and Daughters) of the Soil.” When one of them was told I was going to study at Harvard, he replied, “What’s that?” When he learned it was a university, all he could say was, “Dey have a good football team?” Even though a very small percentage of my aunts and uncles graduated from high school, many of my younger relatives have pulled themselves out of the cycle of ignorance. Even though the odds were very much against them, they got a college education and are now contributing to society in ways their ancestors could never have imagined.
With my unusual background in mind, I can tell you that one set of people has very little in common with the other. Of course, it is living as an American that binds them together, right? Actually, I have never seen any evidence of a common thread between the two somewhat naively created groups. I know for certain that my professors at Harvard did not see the world in the same way as some of my uncles. I doubt the sky was even the same color.
So, is there still a chance the experiment can have a positive outcome? I am pessimistic. Rationality seems to have gone missing. Math and Science are viewed with suspicion by a large percentage of the population. The discourse, such as it is, has devolved into nothing but insults and angry slurs. I don’t see a clear path out of this mess. The easiest thing might be to call it a day and let the Red states form a union while the Blue states go their way.
There are a couple of other problems that we need to face. The robots are coming. Not a big deal, you say? Did you ever see the Spongebob episode where Mr. Krabbs fired Spongebob because he realized he would make an extra 5 cents a week if he did the work himself? Businesses in this country are going to do the same. They will quickly replace humans not with Mr. Krabbs but with robots. I don’t think there is much to debate on this issue. And these robots are going to be extraordinary; I suspect they will replace many professionals. Machine Learning algorithms are becoming more sophisticated every day. Even some mathematicians think they might be replaced by computer code.
Perhaps a more immediate problem is the vast differences in income we see in this country. If our current trajectory continues, we will have a nation of 30,000,000 lords and 270,000,000 serfs. This situation will cause even more discord. Will such a split in wealth help or hurt the experiment? I don’t see how it helps. I know it seems that the surfs are cheering the lords on, but I don’t see that continuing. When the top ten percent of the population controls 90 percent of the wealth, such a situation’s sustainability becomes untenable. Does anyone think that it is a good idea to let this happen? I hear people talk about it, but no one is doing anything about it.
Sadly, the only thing that unites most of us as Americans is the historical accident of our birth. In this era of social networking, where any and every crackpot idea is readily on display, the close proximity of our birthplaces will not provide a strong enough tie. As the gulf between the rich and the poor, the educated and the ignorant, and the religious and the secular grow, so will the probability of our demise. The idea to keep in mind is that it might very well be for the best. Is it worth having a country where about 50 percent of the population despises the other half? That is the fundamental question I am asking, Why should we stay together? What is it about being American that will end the hate and discord? What connects and unites us?
Take a close look around you. Listen to what others are saying. If your ears are keen and your mind is clear, you just might come to the conclusion that the correct answer is that there is nothing substantial uniting us. If you must ask if a person is a Republican or a Democrat before you can decide if their behavior is criminal or not, perhaps we are beyond hope. I don’t feel bad writing that; I think that the preponderance of evidence is in my favor. Perhaps, one day, when future archaeologists are pawing through our rubble, they will come to the same conclusion.
