The brand of literary fire and the warnings of the prophet James Baldwin echo today. His eloquence in dealing with American promises and their contradictions remains unparalleled in recent discourse. In a 1965 discussion with prominent conservative William F. Buckley, Baldwin declared, “We cannot change everything that we face, but we cannot change anything until we face it.” An acknowledgment of historical truth is a prerequisite for progress. Baldwin says, “Accepting your past – history is not the same as own death. It’s learning how to use it.”
We are very disorientated and the further confusion is the same. From 9/11 to January 6th and from Trump’s second election, each crisis has blunted our response to: We face unknown disasters every day. This emotional decline creates shock once again, just as it has produced people seeking extreme experiences. They chase conspiracy, UFO landings, psychedelic vision, telepathic abilities, AI idiosyncraticity, age reversal, and digital consciousness. What’s strange is the latest fashion. Illegal forces find fertile ground in this climate and the climate of excitement.
Donald Trump presents the truth about American politics and reminds me of another truth. First, he reminds me that he represents a more positive form of illegal leadership. This rejects core principles of liberal democracy, such as individual rights, pluralism and constitutional constraints, than previous presidents. Second, this leadership reflects the longstanding illegal traditions of the United States.
This distinction is particularly important when American rights drift towards authoritarianism. As historian Stephen Hearn explains Non-abuse AmericaAmerican Iliberalism is a philosophy that is not merely a response to the dominant tradition of freedom and individual rights, but a prominent philosophy. Our illegal traditions include slavery, indigenous ethnic cleansing, anti-Catholicism, anti-Semitism, anti-Mormonism, and Jim Crow.
“What I think is the most repulsive thing in America is not the extreme freedom there,” writes Tockeybill. He pointed out that the community “incorporating justice in its own hands,” warning that “a plain citizen association can compose a powerful body that is very rich, influential.” Tockville believed that if Americans gave up on the Republican government, “they would rapidly enter into tyranny and “restrict the realm of political rights and take away some of them to a man.”
The history of Iliberalism is American history. Trump is as American as Martin Luther King Jr. Maga’s exclusive concept of “real Americans,” and denies the reality of American diversity. Now, to deny the correct, authentic Americanism is to reverse the same error.
American history is not an inevitable progress, but a temporary victory over the power that tears us apart. Such a struggle can make a story from Lincoln’s “The Birth of a New Freedom” and the grand but incomplete project of the New Deal’s grand and imperfect economic reform, the victory of the civil rights movement, and the second establishment in which today’s grassroots growth protests against the naturalism of resurrectism and the denial of bullying.
Creating national myths has proven essential to creating nation-states. The danger of the stories we tell ourselves is that they can embody our nostalgia for a past that has been misdetermined to us and seduce us to sacrifice our future to that illusion. Democracy wasn’t as good as it used to be, but it was never the case. America can’t do great again. It can only be held at a higher standard that is not yet met.
Democracy did not arise from consensus. The hostilities that gave birth to it cannot be overcome. It is inconsistent with the division that made it an answer to authoritarianism. It’s never finished, but it’s always on the way.
Our legacy reveals that despite Amido’s declarations of the chaos and absurdities that engulf us today, the “end of liberal democracy” and “breaking of our way of life,” we are not finished after the bloodshed and tumultuous changes that have defined our history since the country’s founding. Our darkest memories are our brightest hopeful nursery. We stand on the shoulders of a giant.
James Baldwin argued that our flaws and follies can inspire courage, hope and perseverance when faced with honesty. Baldwin told his nephew, “It’ll be difficult,” but “Don’t be afraid”: “Great people will do great things here and do it again.
Notes and reading
James Baldwin – A note from a native son (1955)next Tuesday (1963); “Talking with the teacher” – Reprint Ticket prices were collected non-fiction from 1948 to 1985. (1985); Letter to Ne – published in Medium (August 2019). A quote from Baldwin’s 1965 discussion with William F. Buckley Atlantic Ocean (December 2019). An hour of discussion is available on YouTube.
Iliberal America: History – Stephen Hearn (2024). – Also, “The history of Iliberalism is American history.” from Hearn, “The deep, entangled roots of American Iliberalism.” New York Times (May 4, 2024). Hahn is a highly acclaimed historian whose work is included. The country under our feetPulitzer Prize and Bancroft Prize recipient, and professor of history at New York University.
Big obstacles: National myths and the battle of America – Richard Slotkin (2024). Slotkin is Professor Emeritus of American Studies at Wesleyan University. The cultural critic and historian writes extensively about the role of myth-making in shaping American politics and national identity.
Rebellion: How Anti-Liberalism is torn apart America – Robert Kagan (2024). Kagan is a senior fellow at Brookings Institution; Washington Post
Alexis de Tockville – The quote will be displayed in American democracyVolume 1, Chapter 7. These statements balance his rave reviews for localism.
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Tip #194 – Noise of silence
Approx. 2 + 2 = 5
Source: 2 + 2 = 5 – williamgreen.substack.com
