Times of transition are fascinating to ponder. This season’s atypical political machinations
make a perfect example.
No one would seem further apart on most continua than Donald
Trump and Bernie Sanders, yet they are performing a nearly identical task. “The Donald” blusters and expresses his
truths in plain, often clumsy, English.
Bernie rants and waves passionately as he shares his discoveries. They are both pointing up the uncomfortable
logical conclusions of two of our culture’s most popular beliefs: the
importance of political correctness in our discourse, and the sanctity of free
market capitalism.
In effect, both are saying, “The Emperor has no clothes.”
Beyond the heated rhetoric surrounding dubious political claims
and plans, the latent message behind Trump’s pronouncements is that we can’t
continually shrink the body of acceptable discussion simply because a growing
list of topics is proving uncomfortable to someone. The embedded assumption in
his pronouncement is that we must talk about matters of public import even if
they are uncomfortable. If followed to
their logical extreme, politically correct mandates would make virtually all
meaningful discussion off-limits because someone can always take offense at any
discussion. The political correctness
ethos just may be a naked emperor.
Perhaps the most revered concept in American secular culture
is the principle of free market capitalism.
Bernie Sanders becomes impassioned daily when he tries to explain to us
why he sees the economic system as “rigged.”
By his reasoning, if followed to its logical extreme, free market
capitalism would have a diminishing number of individuals holding an increasing
proportion of the world’s wealth. The
game would be over when that number was one.
Bernie contends that we can see enough evidence of that progression now
that we should understand it and stand against its continued rapid
progress. The precepts of free market
capitalism just may be a naked emperor.
Interestingly, Trump’s rhetoric has colored the general
message from many of the GOP candidates, and Bernie has found resonance within a
broad swath of potential voters variously registered.
It’s quite easy to imagine a thoughtful individual,
unencumbered by political dogma, being convinced that each of these
non-traditional candidates has points worthy of consideration.
As these indicators of cultural transition tease us daily,
Hillary Clinton, Jeb Bush, and other more traditional candidates assure us that
the systems that are in place can continue to serve just fine with a bit of
tinkering.
Clad in the heavy armor of cultural and political
familiarity each prepares to sit atop his party and lumber down the campaign green
toward the other with a lance of accusations of past failures and a shield of
party doctrine hoping to be the last one in the saddle.
Announcing this entire event are commentators, trained and
raised on predicting the outcomes of just such jousts. They are providing commentary reflective of a
time without the strange outliers whose import they steadfastly deny. Each week the outliers fail to achieve the
dismal ends predicted for them by our commentators. And each week the commentators give the
outliers a tiny bit more credibility without ever awarding them “real” status.
And we, habituated to hearing and repeating the
prognostications of the commentators, continue to listen as though the
commentators actually understood transitory times.
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