On the Importance of Fabric
Dr. Common Good
Before posting about specific matters, I want to talk about the importance of fabric – in this case, not the textile kind, but the human kind. The global system as we know it, prior to the current administration, was the culmination of a long, slow, sometimes elusive and desultory evolution that began in the 19th century (and arguably before), accelerated after WWI, and was significantly transformed after WWII, expanding through the growth of multilateral organizations, managed trade relationships, human rights conventions, and agreements and treaties encompassing a wide range of issues, large and small. There are many ways to think about this. One can criticize the system for its ineffectiveness in stopping violence, or for its wastefulness, or for its manipulation by national and corporate interests. Those critiques all have their merits. But despite the litany of flaws, there are some very important positives that should be acknowledged, and nurtured. The current global system is a product of both circumstance and intention – the latter most exemplified in the creation of the United Nations and a collectively-stated intent to prevent the re-occurrence of the catastrophic wars of the twentieth century. Importantly, the slow weaving of this global fabric has produced an evolution in global norms and practices that, in itself, acts as a critical underpinning of the system as a whole, or at least did, before the mindless wrecking ball of destruction let loose by the current administration. When, over time, the “community of nations,” as it were, began to adopt these norms and practices – even if for political purposes– they gained currency. Individual nations became concerned that if they were called out as a violator, they would be held to account in some way, including exclusion from beneficial trade agreements, public opprobrium, sanctions, and other such consequences. Within regional contexts, violating these conventions could brand a nation as backward or behind the times compared to other nations in that regional group. That shared discourse of constraint is, in effect, a kind of fabric, a connecting tissue, limiting the excesses of individual nations at least most of the time.
In the U.S., the same analogy can be applied to community, both as in a specific community and as the larger community of people that makeup the nation. When, for example, after years of difficult progress, de jure and de facto racism were rendered illegal and increasingly disapproved, that outcome began to take root as a public norm, a shared code of conduct. Violators or would-be violators were most often deterred. Call it “political correctness,” or call it what you will. Even if insincere some of the time, a protective tissue, albeit vulnerable, grew, and fostered a gradual increase in the public practice of equality – more diverse families, diverse communities, diverse businesses, and diverse representations in the media, along with the shunning of people who openly espoused racist and bigoted views.
When that fabric is shredded in the global arena, the consequences can run from the barely–noticed to the catastrophic. Here is a small example, one that would not typically be linked to the current destruction of global relationships and norms. In October of 2018, China lifted a 25-year-old ban on the import of rhino horns and tiger bones, an action widely viewed as an invitation to poachers and a threat to those endangered animals (and since delayed). Why would China do that? Apart from its stated rationale regarding use of those animals for traditional medicine, I am guessing that the rapid destruction of global norms, and the power they held as a signal of participation in the global system, played a role. China, just possibly, no longer cared as much about what the world might say about such actions. The thin fabric of restraint that had existed disappeared.
When that fabric is disrupted in the American community, to use the example of racism again, the restraining shield on abhorrent discourse and behavior is lifted. Statements previously seen as repugnant and unacceptable proliferate, and from those words come actions – from personal epithets, then small acts of vandalism, perpetration of racist thuggery, violent rallies and the ostentatious display of hate and white supremacy, assaults, shootings and the mailing of bombs. People who managed to work together, send their children to the same schools, and play on teams together, lose the sense of well-being and security that comes from a feeling that those around you include you in the community and have your back.
The wanton and thoughtless destruction of the global and national norms and practices perpetrated by Trump and his supporters, and fueled by Bannon’s disruption fantasies, is the outcome of self-delusion, hubris, self-aggrandizement, ignorance, revanchist racism, and, at a deeper level, a dystopian glorification of the self and the “us,” damn all else. It is a kick in the face to the idea of community and its vital protective fabric. It is a kick in the face to all the work done, and sacrifices made, for so many years, by so many people, who wanted to evolve forward from the ugly, Hobbesian struggle of all against all, no holds barred, that fed into the shocking carnage of WWI, the rise of Nazism and fascism, the Holocaust, the renewed carnage of WWII, the racial violence of the deep South, the cruel persecution and destruction of Native American societies, and generally the bigotry and hatred of the other – whether immigrants, diverse religions, or anything else. And what that destruction has done, globally and domestically, is easy to see. The colossal stupidity of this is hard to fathom. We are allowing the fabric that served us and our global neighbors reasonably well to be destroyed by a self-serving, narcissistic, tawdry tin-pot dictator-hopeful who knows nothing about history (domestic or global), the Constitution, American values, the role of a president, or anything else, and doesn’t care either. There is not a shred of American greatness about this. Not a shred. Not a molecule. Let me be very clear about that.
The philosopher Bertrand Russell wrote that “Social cohesion demands a creed, or a code of behavior, or a prevailing sentiment, or, best, some combination of all three; without something of the kind, a community disintegrates, and becomes subject to a tyrant or a foreign conqueror.” (from Power: A New Social Analysis, 1938, p10).