The great political philosopher Hannah Arendt captured the moment’s sentiment brilliantly, with language that resonates eerily today. “Never has our future been more unpredictable,” she declared. “Never have we depended so much on political forces that cannot be trusted to follow the rules of common sense and self-interest— forces that look like sheer insanity, if judged by the standards of other centuries.”
Throughout most of human history and up to 100 years ago — up to 20 years ago, in some parts of the world — a man or woman could lead their entire life snugly within the cocoon of the local tunnel-reality. Today, we all constantly collide with persons living in wildly different tunnel-realities. This creates a great deal of hostility in the more ignorant, vast amounts of metaphysical and ethical confusion in the more sophisticated, and growing disorientation for all — a situation known as our “crisis of values.”
Even the most devout radicals remain circumscribed by their context of the worldwide Crystal Palace, mirroring or parodying, like [Oklahoma City bomber Timothy] McVeigh, their supposed enemies, but at an accelerated rate: they obey the logic of reciprocity and escalating mimetic violence rather than any scriptural imperative.
Let's keep it short today from Hannah Arendt:
"We know today that the greatest danger of tyranny is from the executive."
— Hannah Arendt
And one from her friend, W.H. Auden:
"America can break your heart."
— W.H. Auden
