Goodbye To All That (and Then Some)

The mass murdering that went on in World War II challenged the whole idea of human progress, as had the insane waste of life in the First World War. Even the victorious European countries among the Allies seemed implicated through a common history of nationalism, imperialism, anti-democracy and belligerence. And then there was us. 

We were thought to be and thought we were different--peaceful, democratic, anti-imperial and proud but not aggressive or arrogant. I probably believed in American exceptionalism as well as any staunch conservative but based on our disposition and how we behaved, and on our political and social environment and some essentially innate qualities nurtured there.

Republicans, however, believe we are special no matter how we behave, a national (and cosmic) version of election, predestination and the prosperity gospel--a racist and arbitrary outlook rooted in circular reasoning and cynicism. They desperately and defensively assert our excellence while proving otherwise, condemning themselves and us with them. 

Anyway, even after World War II it was possible to see the carnage as symptomatic of a curable disease to which immunity had been assured because of the moral clarity of the conflict and its horror. But for America to run off the rails as we have, given our incredible good fortune, means it was never a disease, circumstantial, accidental or inessential.

It means humanity is innately, irreparably flawed and that no matter how good the fortune, beneficent our fate, immense the resource endowment, and literate and supposedly self-aware the populace we will still screw one another unconscionably. That's sad as hell, you say, and defeatist and unnecessarily pessimistic? I plead "Paul Ryan" and leave it at that.