I was talking with a friend years ago, just after the Arab Spring uprising. I mentioned that I thought it could happen in America. The memory is clear to me as I was struck as his quick, with just a touch of terse, response that this could never happen in the United States. This dismissal was inconsistent with his otherwise creative and highly intellectual thought process. Looking back, I think it may have been that he presumed my comment as referring to the potential for revolt by African Americans in the United States, and just didn’t want to go there. Can’t blame him for that…. It has only recently struck me that our Arab spring equivalent may be happening, albeit in slow motion and in a different flavor, with the Trump movement.
Allow me to quickly say that I am not saying I am for or against anything to do with Trump. Only those closest to me know how I feel about this. I elect to keep it that way.
Realizing this possibility, That the Trump movement is an Arab Spring like event, scared me. It made me more aware that we may only be at the beginning of a new age, that America as we know it might just be wrapping it up. The belief of Trump supporters is more like a religion than a philosophy. How can one stop such a thing? Where does it end? What if this is the new norm. What if we are to be nothing more than an astute observation, one made as America wasted away?
What if the United States Divides? What if Texas, California, The Northwest Americas, The Midwestern States of America, New England, Miami (a city state), and The Confederate States of America are countries to be carved from America?
Could it be that the social wiring of humanity frays when accelerated by technology? Does not the social construct of democracy seems to be at a breaking point as everyone configures their personal echo chambers?
Maybe it just is. Maybe it just is what it is, and we need accept it.
Dystopian ramblings, to be sure… but I fear I’m onto something.