"I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States of America,,,one nation...individuals, with liberty and justice for all."
That ain't right.
"...one nation, inderisibles..."
Inderisibles? Independents who've become risible? That isn't even a word.
That ain't right, either.
"...one nation, indivisible..." Yes, those are the words, but, unfortunately, at present, thanks in no small part to our homegrown Little Caeser, America est omnes divisa in partes duo.
So let's return to the first example whose incorrect wording captures the American spirit much more succinctly: individuals.
America is without a doubt the land of individualism. It started early. Transplanted from a nation which prized the individual much more than other countries, Jefferson famously wrote in the Constitution of 'the inalienable rights'...'of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness;' --no mention of inalienable duties.
Individualism unbalanced by a sense of the collective is a cult. It is our cult.
The poem, Invictus, by William Ernest Henley, is a well-known (to many readers) poem that celebrates individualism. Many Americans would agree with its content; I quote the poem now in its entirety:
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud,
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul.
True, this solid poem was written by an Englishman who died in 1903, yet it is very applicable to current ideas of toxic individualism. (This aberration, like a virus, has spread to many countries and not only affects and infects America. The poem has the distinction of being a largely unknown, a hymn-like modern Internationale which nevertheless expresses how many people feel today. We will concern ourselves here with its classic manifestation: American Individualism).
An example of the attraction of this poem to hyper-individualistic minds is the fact that Timothy McVeigh, the domestic terrorist responsible for the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, wrote out this poem on the eve of his execution in 2001. It obviously represented his philosophy. He simply wrote out the poem in longhand, without signing it with either his own or the author's name. A comic event occurred the next day. The now-disgraced announcer, Matt Lauer, discussed the execution on Good Morning America, a TV program which he co-hosted at the time. He mentioned the poem and commented that it was a badly written amateur poem. He thought McVeigh had followed in the footsteps of Chidiock Tichborne, who wrote a deservedly famous poem on the eve of his execution in 1586. The sexual predator and illiterate Lauer thought McVeigh had written the poem himself!
A hallmark of unbalanced individualism is an intense dislike of all things associated with government except for the military. I would dare say that the majority of Republicans would agree with Reagan's notorious dictum, spoken during his Inaugural Address in 1981: "Government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem." The citizens of all other democracies respect their government and to a large degree identify with it. Only in America does a large swath of the population dislike, even hate, their own government. Why? Because government, in their minds, is there to limit their freedom as individuals. Some anti-Semitic 'patriots' once referred to the U.S. Government as Zog, (Zionist Occupied Government), a ridiculous designation which, thank goodness! has lost currency; but the view of government as something alien, worthy of hate and even violent opposition, unfortunately, remains.
These 'patriots' view government as a bunch of alien elites who want to impinge on their creed of rugged individualism. Don't tread on me me me; nobody is going to tell me what to do; this is the creed of me's in various states of ignorance. What happened to the plural of the first person, the we, the us?
Henley was definitely a poet, but the content of the poem is bosh. All one needs to do is change the workings of a self-sufficient consciousness by the administration of the right drugs, and that mind can become, depending on what is administered, confused, paranoid, depressed, etc. Yes, a so-called unconquerable soul can be conquered. A branch on a beautiful bonzai tree can be inexplicably majestic, and even usher in enlightenment in an enlightenment-primed beholder, it can, however, also be broken easily.
An image has remained in my mind from an old movie about the Chinese invasion of Tibet. Enlightened monks, harboring no hatred, painstakingly created an elaborate sand painting to welcome the invaders. Chinese troops proceeded to step on the painting, ruining it without a shred of remorse, as if it had been nothing but dirt. Similarly, viruses can step on our souls, as it were, turning our brains into mush.
Examples of toxic individualism abound in our culture. For instance, The I-I-I governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, recently said that the Land of the Free is heading toward a "Faucian dystopia"--Aye Yai Yai! The relationship between toxic individualism and science is proving to be, well, toxic.
Hatred of government also very much includes hatred of public health, As a retired pediatrician, I am amazed that vaccines, which have saved countless lives, have become the center of such bitter controversy. When I worked in public health, those who refused vaccines tended to be poor individuals whose chaotic lives obviated having a sense that vaccines were important. Once the requirement of certain vaccines were mandated for school entry, the population largely fell in line.
Those mandates are still in effect. Still, this being America, a so-called religious exemption is allowed. Yet very few--at least in Baltimore--utilize the religious exemption. Very very few refuse the law requiring drivers and passengers to buckle up. Why is the Covid-19 vaccination treated so differently?
I listened to a reporter on Fox News who claimed that vaccination should be between the doctor and the patient and government should keep out of the sacred doctor-patient relationship. In other words, the recommendations of top-notch government scientists, like Dr. Fauci, should be ignored. In this view, the government scientists are cheer leaders of creeping socialism; a bunch of fancy-schmancy urban elites trying to put ballet shoes, as it were, on the feet of true-blooded rugged individuals. Scientists like Dr. Fauci should be counted as among our greatest heroes; instead they receive death threats.
Toxic individuals seem to be saying, We are good and they are bad; not thinking makes it so. Next thing they'll try to do is take away our guns. (In the case of A-15s, one can only hope.)
The Faucian bargain is well worth the price. But you have to be humble; you have to be nice.
Increasingly, both sentiments are in very short supply.
Who's to blame for everything? Them, never us; and them is another word for government. Drivel does not turn into wisdom when amplified by brainless tweets and twitters, no matter how many. The pernicious role that social media play in all this is well documented.
Life is hard for us all, especially for members of the so-called lower class. There might be comfort and safety in numbers, but not necessarily wisdom. The countless tweets of countless uncritical thinkers result in a solipsistic cacophony; harmony has nothing to do with it.
Recently, I gave a two-hour Zoom lecture--in German, no less--about Bertolt Brecht. As I said in the lecture, I think Brecht is just the artist America needs at the moment. According to Brecht, everyone is formed by society; in his world, the real world, an individual doesn't emerge fully formed as the mythical Athena was said to emerge from Zeus's head. The individual is largely formed by the milieu in which he is raised. (The inner milieu, developed by outer circumstance and the workings of genetics was neglected by Brecht, but no matter; it is merely another factor in the impersonal determination of personality.)
For Brecht, the fostering of a more just society is what is most important. The sacrifice of an individual to make the world better is a frequent Brechtian theme. He might have emphasized the collective over the individual a bit too much, but for present-day America, which worships the me and ignores the we, Brecht provides a much-needed alternative. The times are certainly out of joint; a balance between love of others and love of self would provide a much needed relief from the damage caused by the idol of toxic individualism.
As Delmore Schwarz once wrote, in dreams begin responsibilities. An unbalanced stress of the needs of the individual over the needs of society will turn, without a doubt, the American dream into a nightmare.
A government of the people, by the people and for the people shall not perish from the earth? Immortal words, Mr. Lincoln, but immortal words do not heal a festering wound. If toxic individualism, which is fueling the toxic divisions of our nation, gets any worse, the American experiment just might end with a bang or a whimper, for toxic individualism can destroy what has been built faster than termites.
A house divided against itself can not stand, Mr. Lincoln? You and Jesus of Nazareth were certainly right about that.
