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| US Capitol Building |
Most thinkers have noticed that
America is going through a difficult time. My favorite podcaster, Dan Carlin,
tried addressing the issue of extreme politics in 2017 then went silent for
months. His listeners urged him to jump into the fray because, "the stakes
have never been higher". In May he
let loose a podcast, saying his whole political worldview is in crisis, and
that if you walk away from his podcast thinking, "yeah, that is exactly
what I wanted", then you probably didn't need it to begin with.
(Dan is trained in political
science and mostly podcasts with entertaining historical epics, from the Achaemenid
Empire to a 5-part, 24-hour runtime series on World
War I, which comes highly recommended!)
Dan's recent rantings have helped
clarify, for me, the reality of the current political moment. There are a lot
of people pointing out problems that are ultimately symptoms, but what is the
underlying ailment? Everyone seems to have different ideas. Sure, people don't
know how to consult, not enough people vote, money increasingly corrupts power,
social media has fundamentally changed the way people get information, the news
is bonkers, gerrymandering undermines democracy, it goes on and on. But why is
it different now? Why does it feel like we've gone from a contentious debate to
nearly a civil war?
