Diffusion

It takes a lot for me to be too dismal to write. There was a post-election burst like a death rattle but I really just want to crawl in a hole for the next two years. Before you protest, gentle reader, let me explain. I imagine if anyone out there actually reads this they are thinking "but The Kraken says things that need to be said, he motivates me to try and prove him wrong." Besides being naïve wishful thinking and an incredibly lame straw man begging to be knocked down, it just is not true. There are thousands of bloggers like me, and actual organizers out there working their best to make America better. Who listens to me? Is there one person out there I have persuaded in any way? If I packed up shop right now, if this was my last post, would it make any difference at all?

Let's say, just to keep the numbers neat, that there is one progressive activist for each right-winger and each one is competing for the allegiance of one of the many barely interested Americans out there. Even if it were only two neutrals for each set of partisans, who wins in this battle for souls? Who has the bigger, louder platform? That is pretty obvious, the contest is not even close. Nor is "who has the most money?" And that is the one and only thing. The everlasting battle for the minds of men is fought with money. While there is passion, determination, facts, and simple decency on the left, there is precious little money.

What drives progressives? Surely there are a myriad of reasons, but getting rich or even well compensated for your work is probably not one of them. Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. wrote in The Vital Center almost seventy years ago about the diffusing quality of democracy and it is possibly more true today in the age of social media. I hate to admit it, but all human societies beyond the level of subsistence agriculture are inherently hierarchical. We need someone in charge, American government at the time of the Constitution was revolutionary because it gave the people a role in governing. We get to pick our leaders and either give or withhold our consent to be governed in defiance of most human history. I will return to this concept but social media and the internet has both increased our options and exaggerated our sense of self-importance.

Humans, as Aristotle taught, are political animals. We need attention and competition within our society to feel a sense of worth. Social media has made everyone king or queen of their own little patch of cyberspace. Each of us gets to tweet, status, like, or blog anything that happens to be on our minds and we can broadcast our thoughts to the entire world if we so desire. So Schlesinger wrote about democracy as inherently diffusing, as opposed to concentrating, because it is open with nearly infinite options and paths.

One of those paths is indifference. We have the freedom to not care about who holds the levers of power or what they do with them. This is the second worst option because, as I stated above, someone is going to be in charge. Choosing not to participate means someone who probably does not share your values is going to represent you in government.