The busybodies’ most terrifying dystopia
In our home library, we have the excellent Time-Life series “This Fabulous Century,” which chronicles decade by decade the events from 1870 through 1970.
The last book in the series, 1960-1970, is particularly interesting. As you can imagine, it covered much of the societal upheavals taking place during that tumultuous decade. Among much else, it chronicles the rise of the hippies and the tossing of social norms that characterized the 1950s.
But the volume has one interesting chapter entitled “Middle America: Half a Nation.” It documents the parts of the country NOT embroiled in crazy stuff. Instead, it features life “far removed from the world of hippies, drugs and riots.” It depicts people simply going about their normal lives. Planting and harvesting crops. Sitting on the porch at the general store, passing time. Participating in high school functions. Attending church and church events. Watching a kid’s piano recital. Viewing a parade.
One 33-year-old paper-company executive in Kansas told a Chicago reporter, “I have a deep sense that this kind of life as we know it here is passing. The kind of life in which people have back lawns and front lawns, the kind of life in which it takes me five minutes to get to the office and five minutes after I get home to be out in the country to go hunting. This sort of life has a lot to do with my values.”
The intro to this chapter picks up the man’s words and adds, “It had a lot to do with the values of a great many other Americans, too – at least 100 million of them. [Half of America’s population at the time.] … For much of the decade, these stable, tradition-loving people felt substantially unrepresented. Then, in 1968 they found their voice in presidential nominee Richard M. Nixon, who called on these ‘forgotten Americans’ to help him guide the country back to the values they cherished. While other Americans were vigorously criticizing some of those values, Middle America began to stand up and demand to be counted. Patriotic flag decals appeared on cars, home and store windows and even baby carriages.”
Sound familiar?
As a rural-living bona fide member of “forgotten Americans,” I can testify that life in the nation’s heartland continues at a slower pace and with far more traditional values than people in urban areas can even conceive. It’s a place where patriotism and church attendance is high, crime is low, community events are enthusiastically supported, and values are traditional.
Of course, outside issues press down on these small town and rural areas, too. Drugs have infiltrated the heartland. The local school systems are embroiled in massive battles between parents who want their kids educated, and educators who want kids indoctrinated (homeschooling is a wildly popular option for obvious reasons). But in large part, life goes on – separated and removed from the modern-day version of “hippies, drugs and riots.”
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But this slower-paced world of small towns and rural America is, to some, a terrifying dystopia – literally. Consider a piece in the San Francisco Chronicle by Soleil Ho, who calls herself “an opinion columnist and cultural critic, focusing on gender, race, food policy and life in San Francisco.” She wrote a piece entitled “I took a trip to Trump country. It was more bleak than I could have imagined,” which tells you everything you need to know about how Ms. Ho looks at Middle America.
While attending a county fair in an unspecified location (possibly rural Illinois), she was distressed to see Trump merchandise widely available. “I was just trying to have a chill time looking at show rabbits,” she laments. “But I was bombarded by right-wing politics. … Living in the Bay Area, it’s easy to forget that pockets of deep-red space exist everywhere in the United States.”
Pockets? Has she seen the 2020 U.S. presidential election map by county? Does this look like “pockets” to you?
Ms. Ho blames white supremacy for these “pockets” of patriotism, disregarding the enormous swaths of Asian, Hispanic and black citizens of these areas who are just as patriotic as their white counterparts. She also focuses on the possible presence of fringe extremists (identifiable by Hawaiian shirts?) without considering that those of us in Middle America are just as appalled by extremism on the right as we are with extremism on the left.
She laments how little progressive free speech is “permitted” in America’s heartland, conveniently forgetting what conservatives routinely deal with: Cancel culture, weaponizing of government bodies, de-banking and even proposals to send Trump supporters to re-education camps to fix the “MAGA nightmare.”
Instead, she shudders at the terrifying dystopia of normalcy.
Now let’s make one thing clear. While Ms. Ho was visiting Middle America, she wasn’t targeted in any way. She wasn’t singled out for being female, progressive, Asian, gay, atheist, or any other victimhood quality she might claim. She wasn’t robbed. She wasn’t heckled. She wasn’t harassed, intimidated, or threatened. She wasn’t de-banked. She wasn’t offered re-education. She wasn’t investigated by the FBI. She wasn’t even given the cold shoulder by anyone. Literally the worst thing she experienced was being among crowds of happy, normal, patriotic people who (gasp) thought and believed differently than she did. That’s it. That’s what she found horrifying.
The vast, vast majority of Americans simply want to live their lives free from government persecution and the weaponization of everything from schools to social media to three-letter federal agencies. Trump is the only candidate supporting that wish.
I once saw an eerie quote as follows: “The most terrifying force of death comes from the hands of ‘Men who wanted to be left alone.’ They know that the moment they fight back, the lives as they lived them are over. It is a small form of suicide, as they are literally killing off who they used to be. Which is why, when forced to take up violence, these ‘Men who wanted to be left alone’ will fight with unholy vengeance against those who murdered their former lives. They fight with a raw hate, and a drive that cannot be fathomed by those who play-act at politics and terror. True terror will arrive at the Enemy’s door, and they will scream, cry, and beg for mercy, but it will fall on deaf ears. For these men simply wanted to be left alone.”
Never underestimate people who simply want to be left alone to live normal lives.
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