https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/leonard-pitts-jr-the-social-covenant-has-shattered/ar-AARkgok
I occasionally glance at syndicated editorials. Pitts is
sometimes interesting and thoughtful and other times less so. This one struck
me because it's something I've been talking about for years. Pitts barely
scratches the surface but it was still refreshing to read. At least someone is
thinking about these issues.
Pitts is correct when he says the social covenant has been
shattered. It's an important development and even a milestone and history also
tells us this is a warning. Rome went through a similar phase during the late
Republic, resulting in civil war, and dictatorship. Other nations and empires
don't survive this phase. Those that do emerge, do so as different entities.
Some of the lessons from WWI's fallout and The Great Depression also come to
mind.
Pitts cites the breakdown of authority and he's right to do
so. When law enforcement and government officials dispense with the law and
disregard it, when they openly break it – this sends a signal to the population
at large. Trust is broken, and cynicism takes on a life of its own. The fabric
is torn and society begins to break. And as it turns out, that fabric is
usually far more delicate and fragile than people imagined.
New Testament Christians are called to be on the outside, on
the fringes of society as it were. As strangers and pilgrims we're removed from
the social currents, the fads, and manias which grip the populace – or we're
supposed to be. Unbiblical theology and the wolves in sheep's clothing that
promote it have led the Church to a very different place and now it would seem
the Church is probably one of the more culturally susceptible and malleable
groups out there.
Trump (and perhaps just as important, the context for his
rise to power) played a large role in creating these conditions. While this
author will be the first to admit the electoral system and the political system
in general is highly corrupt – its wanton shattering by the likes of Trump is
nevertheless dangerous. Why? Because there's nothing to replace it. It's one
thing if a small group on the edge of society dismisses the order but if the
order begins to collapse it will send a shockwave across the whole of society.
And like it or not we live in this society and will have to deal with the
fallout of its collapse.
Trump's attitude and disregard for not only convention but
basic decency has produced a palpable effect on society at large. There has
certainly been a decline in basic manners and crude speech and conduct have
become more normalised. Trump set the tone that has produced a mass proliferation
of reckless narcissism, and consequently death in the age of Covid. The
defiance, selfishness, and abandonment of norms necessary for society to
function are rooted in the ethos he projected. At one time people would have
been ashamed and called out for blatantly disregarding rules or signs posted on
a business. Now, this is done with defiance, impunity, and without remorse. And
increasingly large numbers cannot even seem to understand why anyone would take
issue with them or dare to even question them.*
American society saw a similar collapse in the 1920's and
1930's. Wealth produced decadence and ostentatious display and behaviour. The First
World War produced a cynicism which changed how people lived and treated one
another – and then the stock market crashed. People lost faith in the system altogether
and in basic decency as they saw how paper-thin the walls of the order really
were. Bandits and outlaws became heroes. Law was flaunted throughout the 1920's
and early 1930's – the era of Prohibition. Even authority figures participated
in the subversion of the law (Prohibition was a stupid and misguided law, we
must admit) but the fact that law-breaking and disregard for norms and limits
proved cancerous to society. Crime flourished and the rise of the mafia would
play out in American life for decades to come.
We are once again living in such a time.
Not only has Trump made a mockery of the law and the
foundations of society, he has many collaborators. Some view themselves as
patriots but the ethics of previous generations would view them as opportunistic
and self-serving and in not a few cases as treasonous. But thus far they suffer
no consequence. This is even though some of them were involved in the riotous
coup-attempt on January 6th.
This feeds the defiance found within certain classes of
society as evidenced by the 'F--- Biden' flags I drive past every day and we
find in Church circles the same attitude restrained only slightly. 'Let's Go
Brandon' has appeared on many Christian Facebook pages and the like and while
childish, it's no less an obscene and sinful thing. The leaders of the
Christian Right are blind guides and their capitulations over the past decade
have demonstrated their short-sightedness, shallow foundations, and utter lack
of discernment. They have led the sheep to the wolves and they are being
devoured – won over to the camp of Satan and increasingly they pursue Satan's agenda
and embrace his deeds.
The social breakdown is further exacerbated by the economy.
The US system nearly collapsed in 2008 and while some markets returned to
normal, others have been propped up by the Federal Reserve and its aggressive
purchasing programme – an attempt to get cash and credit flowing. This went
into hyper-drive in the face of the economic seizure brought on by Covid. The
results have been mixed. The wealthy stock-holding class has seen profits soar
and we've entered a new age of Robber Barons and the super-rich. The upper
middle class continues to ride the stock market wave into a degree of riches
hitherto unknown.
But it's built on a foundation of sand as the Wall Street
economy is getting further divorced from the economy on the street. The Fed
doesn't know how to slow down its purchasing. Any hint of doing so leads to
huge plunges in the markets. And so they keep purchasing – effectively printing
money to do so.
Inflation has resulted. It was already under way and then
Covid hit. Now with logistical snarls and other factors real inflation is
starting to hit all sectors of American society. The super-rich have fared
wonderfully as the millionaire and billionaire classes have grown their wealth
exponentially. They don't even notice. The upper Middle Class is also able to
absorb inflationary costs with little difficulty.
But the working class is suffering. They've been suffering
since 2008. Their economy never recovered and wages and hours have continued to
be squeezed. The results are plain enough to see in the hundreds of thousands
of overdose deaths, a testimony to a societal class in meltdown – a generation
and culture that has been destroyed. In their nihilism they turned to Trump,
many with religious devotion. And yet the booming economy never affected them
and it wasn't Trump's doing anyway. The Fed policy began under Obama and it has
continued under Biden.
The still ascendant stock market is due to Trump and not
Biden – so his apologists will argue. In actuality it has little to do with any
of them. Trump rescinded regulations, many of which have simply led to harm –
or damage that cancels out whatever job creation they produced. There was no
industrial boom under Trump. Quite the contrary. He benefitted from a
subsidized stock market – the costs of which are being extracted from the
public and the labour pool.
The price of cars, retail goods, and real estate are
skyrocketing. People making six-figure incomes can adjust, those making low
wages cannot and their situation is increasingly desperate if not impossible.
The Covid pandemic has led some to reconsider and restructure their lives. Many
have realised the child-care in order for
mom to work paradigm didn't work very well and now the numbers don't work
either. Some have access to subsidies, others can rely on family. But others
pay out of pocket and (ethics aside) when the additional vehicular costs and so
forth are factored in – it isn't worth it. Sickness and death have also led
many to re-evaluate their lifestyles. Many people of a certain age have chosen
to quit and retire, no longer willing to deal with the danger of Covid exposure
and the reckless endangering and incoherent policies of a state that seems
first and foremost determined to get people back to work regardless of risk.
This has opened up new opportunities in the industrial sector
along with the ever widening trickles of industry that are returning from
overseas. The old paradigm of large industrial workplaces will not return, nor
will the unions. But some jobs are returning that pay more than the low end of
the retail and service sector. People are seizing the moment and making the
move. These factors have left the low-end wage world destitute of workers and
the reduced hours and bad service along with limited inventory have affected
all of us.
Others have simply had it. They've reached their limit. With
the present inflation, a person making $9 an hour and working 32 hours per week
has little hope of affording rent, the costs of purchasing and maintaining a
vehicle – which in much of the United States is a necessity not a luxury. Floating
schedules make finding a second job (let alone child care) almost impossible.
Some people will work seven days a week and barely break forty hours and others
will have days that they work four hours and others in which (between two jobs)
they're required to work sixteen or eighteen hours. That doesn't work with
child care unless it's a family member.
People point to rising wages – these are only a corrective to
long extant inflation (only recently aggravated). But other wages aren't
rising. These people are getting more and more laid upon them and yet as wages
are stagnant, their pay is effectively being cut on a regular basis.
You see the despair in the dollar stores. Under-staffed (by
design in some cases) the low-paid workers are overwhelmed and clearly don't care
anymore. If they lost that 23-hour a week, $8.50 an hour job, they'll just go
find another. It makes no difference. They'll never get caught up on their in-store
work, and never get anywhere. It's an irritating experience for the store
patron but on another level I understand their frustration. You'll find that
many of them are more than happy to talk about it. Many also come from broken
families and have done a great deal to destroy their own lives. Some of the
responsibility is theirs to be sure – but the monied class, the system of
empire is not off the hook when it comes to responsibility and moral
culpability.
With no hope of ever digging their way out, no hope of a
better life – yes, there are those who turn to drugs. And others are turning to
crime or turn to petty crime as a result of drugs and desperation.
The Right casts this as the Democrat's fault. If it is, the
Republicans are just as much to blame. Both are parties of Wall Street and the
Empire. Is the recent spike in crime really because of an attempted curtailment
of the archaic and exploitative bail-bond system – a devastating and costly
travesty for the lower class? Is it because police departments have been
defunded?
If these measures are playing a role, they are minor ones.
These are convenient distractions utilised by the Right to obscure the profound
systemic problems deeply ingrained in the capitalist order that is American
society. Further, the Right-wing media has done its part to inaccurately
portray the country as being in a state of utter chaos – of permanent riots and
massive waves of crime. The country is indeed in trouble but this is a gross
exaggeration and a politically motivated deception. The conditions were much
worse in the 1960's and 1970's. Violent crime was worse, robbery was worse,
arson was rampant as was domestic terrorism. Urban centres were imploding. We
see the results today and while American society is certainly in trouble and is
unsustainable if it continues on its present trajectory – the truth is the
Right is being completely disingenuous when it comes to reporting on crime and
civil unrest.
That said, we should look to the socio-economic lessons of
the 1970's and the legal and moral lessons of the 1930's and learn something
from them. The stakes are higher. The US population is much higher than it was
in the 1960's and 1970's – in fact almost double what it was in 1960, and the contemporary
economy is much different. Resources and housing are not as readily available
and the entire order has reached a state of fragility. Additionally the US is
heavily invested internationally and in its military. This was true in the
1970's but the geopolitics were different. And today, the dollar is under
threat. The US is still the basis for the global economy but that may change
soon and when that reality hits – American society may enter a new chapter of
unprecedented turmoil.
The social consensus has been broken. Trust has evaporated
and self-serving leaders are pouring fuel on the fire. Things are going to get
a lot worse. We can put our trust in corrupt politicians and their lying
ecclesiastical mouthpieces or we can open our eyes, prepare, and think in
different terms about 'The American Dream', and our place as Christians in this
social order.
----
*I am continually amazed at the number of church leaders who
say they hate these debates over Covid
and wish everyone would just respect everyone else's rights and opinions. If
you want to mask and get vaccinated that's fine but don't judge those who don't.
This isn't an ethical high ground or some kind of wise
neutrality. This is to embrace the position of those rejecting the protocols.
This is to make an ethical statement about our responsibility as individuals
and more specifically as Christian individuals to not just fellow Church
members but to society at large. It's a call to selfishness and
self-affirmation and not respect. It's a rejection of New Testament teaching
and the imperative to put the interests of others above ourselves – the simple
but profound concept of love – which by the way is incompatible with
self-oriented thinking. We all know what happens when two self-focused people
are put into a marriage context. It doesn't last long and usually explodes once
children enter the picture.
Instead of New Testament doctrines such as mortification and self-abasing
other-oriented ethics, these church leaders are proffering the ethics of
libertarian filth wrapped up in cheap Christian packaging and in reality, it's
an attempt by these so-called shepherds to dodge the issue entirely. It's
disgusting and a case of clear abdication.
And it does nothing to turn this into a teaching moment. This moment is one of those times where the proverbial rubber meets the road. Your true colours will show and what we've found is that most of the Church is unfamiliar with New Testament ethics and have instead replaced them with the flesh-indulgence of Enlightenment libertarianism and market capitalism. There are indeed extremes to be avoided in the response to Covid but very few people seem to even understand what the issues are. The necessary discussion never took place and was instead cast in terms of politics, legal quibblings, and ethical chaos.