In this post-election moment, it’s worth remembering that time is the real battleground. Progress doesn’t unfold in a single, triumphant leap or stumbling block along a tidy, straight line.
Sophia Perennis Lodge No. 139 meets in Bedford and is all about members writing and presenting interesting talks . . . I imagine they would really like this one, as did I!
Except I don't think most people, certainly not the "silent majority" are anywhere near that high-minded. I doubt very much they've really thought through any of their choices, and even the people who are high-minded may not have come to the correct conclusions.
This vote was simple misogyny. America is not ready for a woman President, sadly. People, generally, are acting from fear (and there's a LOT to BE afraid of) and not out of sense or with an eye towards the hard work that needs to be put in.
Last night was the end of America. It will take time to fully dissolve but that was the moment it died. It will be interesting to see if there even will be another empire but that will be after my time. Thankfully I should not need to live through too much of the coming Dark Ages. They probably won't fully set in any earlier than 10-15 years from now and likely more like 20 years from now.
That is the darkest possible view of the future I suppose.
I get it. There’s a lot of uncertainty and fear when we think about the future, especially when politics feel like they’re taking us backwards. But here’s the thing: America isn’t a president, or even a government. It’s the people—messy, diverse, flawed, and resilient. History shows that even in dark times, people adapt, innovate, and push back in unexpected ways.
This moment might feel like an ending, but endings often spark new beginnings. If America has one superpower, it’s reinvention. Empires rise and fall, sure, but culture, ideas, and human connection persist. The same ingenuity that built the light bulb and the internet, that landed humans on the moon, isn’t just going to vanish. It evolves, finds new outlets, and keeps shaping the world.
Even in hard times, hope lies in the everyday actions of people standing up for each other, creating community, and refusing to settle for less. People thought there was something wrong with some aspects of the current direction of things. The path is too long and too wide to say much about that. The road ahead may be bumpy, but it's not the end—it's a recalibration. And sometimes, that's exactly what’s needed for the next breakthrough.
I agree that most endings spark something new. But most endings have to have a fallow period between the end and the next beginning, like fall has winter and then spring. It's just part of the way that cycle works but it's broadly applicable to lots of cycles. I'm saying we're headed towards the winter, probably a dark, stormy one. Yeah, I'm not an optimist. That doesn't mean I want to give up or that people should just give up either. Most of the time when you know you're headed towards winter the intelligent thing to do would be stock up on wood for the fire, make sure you have your jams and jellies made and some potatoes and apples in cold storage. Purchase warm clothes and blankets, etc. I mean, I'm straining the metaphor here but you don't just go, "woe is me, I'll never be warm again....," and then just stop there, because that's not true either. But winter is still winter. If you forget the anti-freeze or salt for your steps or don't have anything put by but a windbreaker shell for a jacket then you're going to experience a hard, possibly deadly time and you won't enjoy it. But maybe if you thought ahead and got a toboggan or a hockey stick you might even manage some fun. Just don't expect to go out in shorts, a t-shirt and flip flops, unless you have managed to vacation in the Caribbean for the winter.
In the context of America ending I suspect there will be large scale economic disruptions, many logistics/shipping/travel nightmares, probably war(s) and likely a vast loss of knowledge/skill over time and increase in disease and maybe a decrease in urbanism, and perhaps a corresponding increase in superstition or cultism. It's the way it's happened before. We already see some of it. Anti-vaxxers are a cult, so was/is Q-Anon. But that doesn't mean nothing good will happen either. I mean the Middle Ages spawned some really beautiful architecture, the whole modern notion of romance, some interesting and occasionally really trippy thought, even some pretty decent science towards the end. Just don't expect it to be pretty or easy for the average Joe. Also, be ready for Huns... I don't know why, but there always seem to be Huns.
For sure, but as my friend George Friedman showed in his book The Next Hundred Years, the best bet, if you have to make a bet on any five year period, is that nothing will significantly change. Nothing will happen that will be dramatically remembered. It's been that way through most of history. That's the one bet that's going to be right almost all the time no matter what the news cycle says.
I don't think I have to hedge that much. I mean, I could be wrong, sure. But this feels like a decisive moment in history to me.
In cooking there are moments when you get the dough just right, or when the edge of the knife is just exactly between the skin of the melon and the delicious fruit inside. In politics there are moments of clarity too. Yes, the news cycle will temporize or spin a narrative or pontificate ad nauseam about meaningless drivel. We may have lost good reporting; decisive, factual reporting with insight and context, but that doesn't mean I can't decide for myself when a moment has happened. I'm not drawing this conclusion from any outside news source, or rather I'm cobbling it together from however long this election cycle coverage has been. This is my clarity. I'm not betting, I'm seeing an inflection point. Yes, maybe I'm wrong, but I still feel this moment.
People think today that because the digital seems instant then iall things now are too. No, they're not. But this is a moment you can stop kneading the dough, the moment you can just let the knife slide through. The pizza won't be baked and served for another 3 hours, the fruit won't get eaten until breakfast is served. But this is still the moment.
This is a great article, well articulated, and something I've been thinking about a lot. Especially in the context of the American election: the way Trump is both villain and saviour, the way Harris is both breakthrough and illegitimate. Two sides, two symbols with two faces. Your note at the end is a very good aspiration: that we'll have a stronger democracy if we can pull ourselves away from overly focusing on the leader as be-all end-all (pure symbol), and get back to shared collective responsibility as citizens and being part of the institutions that hold us up. But human nature wants that story, wants the symbol, wants the hero's journey. It's the core idea of religions around the world, whether it's Jesus or Moses or Glooscap (not sure if that's analogous but you get the idea). It's a subject for another discussion, but as religion has declined in the west, are we not wired as humans to somehow fill that god-shaped void, with celebrity and overly symbolized politics?
Sophia Perennis Lodge No. 139 meets in Bedford and is all about members writing and presenting interesting talks . . . I imagine they would really like this one, as did I!
Except I don't think most people, certainly not the "silent majority" are anywhere near that high-minded. I doubt very much they've really thought through any of their choices, and even the people who are high-minded may not have come to the correct conclusions.
This vote was simple misogyny. America is not ready for a woman President, sadly. People, generally, are acting from fear (and there's a LOT to BE afraid of) and not out of sense or with an eye towards the hard work that needs to be put in.
Last night was the end of America. It will take time to fully dissolve but that was the moment it died. It will be interesting to see if there even will be another empire but that will be after my time. Thankfully I should not need to live through too much of the coming Dark Ages. They probably won't fully set in any earlier than 10-15 years from now and likely more like 20 years from now.
That is the darkest possible view of the future I suppose.
I get it. There’s a lot of uncertainty and fear when we think about the future, especially when politics feel like they’re taking us backwards. But here’s the thing: America isn’t a president, or even a government. It’s the people—messy, diverse, flawed, and resilient. History shows that even in dark times, people adapt, innovate, and push back in unexpected ways.
This moment might feel like an ending, but endings often spark new beginnings. If America has one superpower, it’s reinvention. Empires rise and fall, sure, but culture, ideas, and human connection persist. The same ingenuity that built the light bulb and the internet, that landed humans on the moon, isn’t just going to vanish. It evolves, finds new outlets, and keeps shaping the world.
Even in hard times, hope lies in the everyday actions of people standing up for each other, creating community, and refusing to settle for less. People thought there was something wrong with some aspects of the current direction of things. The path is too long and too wide to say much about that. The road ahead may be bumpy, but it's not the end—it's a recalibration. And sometimes, that's exactly what’s needed for the next breakthrough.
I agree that most endings spark something new. But most endings have to have a fallow period between the end and the next beginning, like fall has winter and then spring. It's just part of the way that cycle works but it's broadly applicable to lots of cycles. I'm saying we're headed towards the winter, probably a dark, stormy one. Yeah, I'm not an optimist. That doesn't mean I want to give up or that people should just give up either. Most of the time when you know you're headed towards winter the intelligent thing to do would be stock up on wood for the fire, make sure you have your jams and jellies made and some potatoes and apples in cold storage. Purchase warm clothes and blankets, etc. I mean, I'm straining the metaphor here but you don't just go, "woe is me, I'll never be warm again....," and then just stop there, because that's not true either. But winter is still winter. If you forget the anti-freeze or salt for your steps or don't have anything put by but a windbreaker shell for a jacket then you're going to experience a hard, possibly deadly time and you won't enjoy it. But maybe if you thought ahead and got a toboggan or a hockey stick you might even manage some fun. Just don't expect to go out in shorts, a t-shirt and flip flops, unless you have managed to vacation in the Caribbean for the winter.
In the context of America ending I suspect there will be large scale economic disruptions, many logistics/shipping/travel nightmares, probably war(s) and likely a vast loss of knowledge/skill over time and increase in disease and maybe a decrease in urbanism, and perhaps a corresponding increase in superstition or cultism. It's the way it's happened before. We already see some of it. Anti-vaxxers are a cult, so was/is Q-Anon. But that doesn't mean nothing good will happen either. I mean the Middle Ages spawned some really beautiful architecture, the whole modern notion of romance, some interesting and occasionally really trippy thought, even some pretty decent science towards the end. Just don't expect it to be pretty or easy for the average Joe. Also, be ready for Huns... I don't know why, but there always seem to be Huns.
For sure, but as my friend George Friedman showed in his book The Next Hundred Years, the best bet, if you have to make a bet on any five year period, is that nothing will significantly change. Nothing will happen that will be dramatically remembered. It's been that way through most of history. That's the one bet that's going to be right almost all the time no matter what the news cycle says.
I don't think I have to hedge that much. I mean, I could be wrong, sure. But this feels like a decisive moment in history to me.
In cooking there are moments when you get the dough just right, or when the edge of the knife is just exactly between the skin of the melon and the delicious fruit inside. In politics there are moments of clarity too. Yes, the news cycle will temporize or spin a narrative or pontificate ad nauseam about meaningless drivel. We may have lost good reporting; decisive, factual reporting with insight and context, but that doesn't mean I can't decide for myself when a moment has happened. I'm not drawing this conclusion from any outside news source, or rather I'm cobbling it together from however long this election cycle coverage has been. This is my clarity. I'm not betting, I'm seeing an inflection point. Yes, maybe I'm wrong, but I still feel this moment.
People think today that because the digital seems instant then iall things now are too. No, they're not. But this is a moment you can stop kneading the dough, the moment you can just let the knife slide through. The pizza won't be baked and served for another 3 hours, the fruit won't get eaten until breakfast is served. But this is still the moment.
This is a great article, well articulated, and something I've been thinking about a lot. Especially in the context of the American election: the way Trump is both villain and saviour, the way Harris is both breakthrough and illegitimate. Two sides, two symbols with two faces. Your note at the end is a very good aspiration: that we'll have a stronger democracy if we can pull ourselves away from overly focusing on the leader as be-all end-all (pure symbol), and get back to shared collective responsibility as citizens and being part of the institutions that hold us up. But human nature wants that story, wants the symbol, wants the hero's journey. It's the core idea of religions around the world, whether it's Jesus or Moses or Glooscap (not sure if that's analogous but you get the idea). It's a subject for another discussion, but as religion has declined in the west, are we not wired as humans to somehow fill that god-shaped void, with celebrity and overly symbolized politics?
Yes. For sure. You are right on all this. Thanks for the feedback.