Volunteerism was down at our state fair this year. Two teachers hired last spring haven’t shown up at the Haines School. Word is our runners are quitting the cross-country team, one of the town’s most popular and successful sports programs in recent years.
Folks are having a hard time committing. Is it any wonder? The fate of the nation hangs in the balance and hangs over us like a thunderhead, threatening to unleash unknowable havoc.
We do not like uncertainty. The human animal is bad at being unsettled. That’s why our species tends to huddle together and form settlements and use rules and laws to settle matters that become unsettled.
We like to know where we’ll be sleeping tonight and that we’ll have food and water and safety there and that tomorrow will be not unlike today. That’s who we are. That’s why thousands of years ago we quit our jobs as wandering hunters and gatherers and moved into town. Settled life is safer and easier – and longer.
The man with the orange hair and skin says forget about that. We can ditch the rules, drain the swamp of those pesky rule-keepers and we’ll make up new rules as we go. That sounds good if you’re not doing well, if the system in place has left you unsettled and you want quick relief. And that’s understandable, except for the quick relief.
There are some pills that offer quick relief and some institutions like the lottery that can fix a bad situation overnight, but government must work slowly. Many voices must be heard. Many hands must be held. Many votes must be taken.
In politics, quick relief creates chaos and we do not like chaos. That’s what the orange man likes and he’s trying to sell it to us. You’ll feel better and do better, he assures us, not unlike the pill-pushers who sold us oxycontin and the other miracle drugs.
So the people in the nation who understand history and human nature are worried, a lot. They have invested everything into their homes and families and they see the orange clouds overhead and they fear the storm that might come.
Worried people, people who begin to lose faith in the future or become fearful of it, make weak citizens. By nature they draw back into themselves, taking stock of their options and drawing plans for the worst-case scenarios they prudently imagine. If society goes mad – or appears ready to – its wisest members quit the group and break off commitment to group endeavors. For survival.
It’s where we’re at and why the orange man needs to lose in November. He must lose by monstrous margins so fretful citizens are reassured that rules and laws and norms and government are important and will endure.
We are living amid a great uncertainty. It’s an uncomfortable place. And we won’t be out of it until Nov. 5 at the soonest. And only then if we’re smart and we vote that way.