It’s Time for Glasnost and Perestroika in America
The Soviet empire’s internal rot was exposed by its failure to advance the standard of living of its citizens (or even to feed them adequately), its overreach in foreign wars and the dissolution of trust in institutions. This is beginning to look a lot like where the United States is.
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it — George Santayana
At the heart of the Soviet failure was a Party culture of sycophancy, corruption and dishonesty that led to the entire society living a Big Lie. It was certainly not the intended outcome of the original Bolsheviks and many discussions have been had about the follies and hazards of communism, centrally planned economies and arms race expenditures that led the Soviet regime to their downfall. But it’s worth noting that the United States is not in a great place right now: on November 3rd, 2020 over 73 million people voted for Donald Trump despite the prior five years of sycophancy, corruption and dishonesty. That was 47.2% of the popular vote.
Let’s say 10 of that 47.2 weren’t really ardent Trump supporters per se but perhaps they voted that way because they
- believe those who make more $400k should not pay more taxes
- believe that a Democrat in the White House would welcome rioting
- are really scared of undocumented immigrants
- are triggered by McCarthyist uses of fear words like “socialism” and “communism”
I don’t agree with any of those beliefs or find their logic compelling. However, I can accept that some people do. If we knock off that 10%, that leaves 37.2% who have really bought into a reality outside of the consensus narrative. They apparently are convinced that
- Washington D.C. is a swamp, its institutions are corrupt and the Deep State is a cabal
- journalists are peddlers of “fake news”, academics and scientists have ulterior agendas
- their standard of living suffers because people-who-aren’t-like-them are getting breaks that they aren’t
- coastal, educated elites are looking down at them and rigging “the system”
We can’t say there’s no truth to any of it, for each of those anecdotes abound. However, they’re not accurate generalizations and their furtherance has led the 37.2ers to the far side of a polarized divide that is deeply hurting American communities. It has led to the ascendancy of beliefs that patriotism means hugging the flag and silencing views of America’s past that aren’t flattering, geopolitical and economic rivalries define “enemies” and “others” (maybe: non-Christian, non-white, non-heterosexual, non-rural) are out to get them. Many of the 37.2ers are on the extreme end of the spectrum, Qanoners who are lost in the rabbit holes of secret signals and skullduggery involving pedophiles, trafficking and pizza parlors. It’s like the Da Vinci Code and National Treasure fan fiction put on crazypants, spun a good tale on message boards and the undertow of fantasy swept them away. A large portion of that 37.2ers seem to accept that civil servants doing their job are the untrustworthy Deep State, the Confederacy was “heritage” that should be honored and that an ad-libbing “outsider” tabloid subject and reality television celebrity named Donal Trump can better represent them. Those conclusions are terribly flawed but that’s not the extent of the ailment. Add a sprinkling of Israeli extremism and Islamophobia. Layer on the arguments around gun rights and limits as well as abortion and theology. Then add a heavy dose of rhetorical drama professionals such as the Fox commentators, Rush Limbaugh, Alex Jones, Mark Levin, Dinesh D’Souza, Dan Bongino and the blogosphere that orbits around them. Many of the 37.2ers are outright racists; White Supremacists have made no secret of their fealty to Trump and he reciprocates by referring to them as “very fine people.” What we end up with is a Cult of Trump that takes comfort inside its echo chamber of disgruntled fear mongers in their own information cocoon. An echo chamber where a tacky narcissistic cross between a silver-spooned Richie Rich and a narrow-minded Archie Bunker can method-act his way to make their grievances his and his theirs.
“Fake news” was originally cited in 2015 and 2016 when internet sites literally circulated click-bait fiction on social media because sensational fiction was more profitable than real journalism. But it was appropriated by Trump and his milieu to call journalism that has peer review (and other professions in science, medicine and academia driven by peer review) to dismiss anything that goes against their favored narrative. This has led to a basic corrosion of trust, a fundamental distrust of ground truth facts and embraces of fiction that charge passions.
How does America retreat from a civil war between Cult members and the 62.8% of us who want to live where truth is something we can trust? A post-Trump America must overcome the confirmation bias and social reinforcement algorithms that drive Facebook and YouTube recommendations (as outlined in The Social Dilemma). Institutions must become more trustworthy. Justice and fairness must be more viewed through a dialectical lens to become more transparent.
The Soviet Union tried to salvage itself from its rot by undertaking policies of Glasnost (openness) and Perestroika (restructuring). The corruption and dishonesty that surrounded the Chernobyl incident response was catalytic but by that time, it was too late for the Soviets; their years of rot had undermined any room for successful reform and the regime collapsed. The United States doesn’t need to lose a Cold War to reckon with its past, present and future; this is something we have an opportunity to do now.
The erosion trust in American institutions needs to shored up. The system is “rigged” but not in the way that Trump and his cult have appropriated the term. Political campaigns have devolved into money games where members of congress spend more time dialing for dollars than legislating and super-PAC’s bring in enormous sums; at least $6,770,101,192 was spent on Federal election campaigns in 2020 ($10.8B in total). Big-spending lobbyists and special interests have eclipsed representative government; taken to its extreme the United States devolves into an entrenched plutocracy. There are many reforms that American democracy would benefit from; much ado has made about how broken the current system of electoral college voting, gerrymandering of congressional districts and the absence of term limits are. But the core structural problem with America’s representative democracy is that the rich have an outsized political voice because money buys speech in the present structure. It’s time for restructuring.
The 1st amendment gives rhetorical drama professionals the right to distort truths and mislead their audiences. It would be a great disservice to the public if the innovation of social media venues was subject to policing. However, without incentivizing exposure to counternarratives and critical thinking, the wedges of division will continue driving deeper. Our challenge is to be caring, creative, accepting of discomfort and putting the focus on the ties that bind cross cutting communities over the differences within them. It’s time for openness.
The foundation of the United States is strong due to a robust and diversified economy, a blend of cultures that is generative of fresh ideas and entrepreneurial freedoms that incentivizes innovation. The United States is not on the precipice of collapse. However , without a concerted focus on truth, on openness and restructuring, Trumpism will continue and lead America down the path of the post-Soviet states and the Balkans of the 1990’s; towards lawlessness and civil war. Before it’s too late, it’s time for Glasnost and Perestroika in America.
