Tag: Doomsday Clock

End-Stage America

Recently, The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists reset the Doomsday Clock. It is now 89 seconds until midnight. We are, in the opinion of these scientists, closer than ever to the end of human civilization.

It’s not just nuclear weapons that determine this estimate—climate change, bioterrorism and artificial intelligence play major roles as well. Suffice it to say the future does not look bright.

The Doomsday Clock. Source: the bulletin.org.
The Doomsday Clock. Source: the bulletin.org.

Science and scientists are not in vogue in today’s dumbed-down and duplicitous America, but that hardly matters. Nothing lasts forever, and the United States certainly won’t.

America’s unwinding has been visible for a long time now. George Packer’s The Unwinding was published in 2013, and there were many warning signs prior to that. Over the last 12 years, the country’s disintegration has accelerated rapidly. Donald Trump has been elected twice.

Today’s U.S. citizens are more widely divergent in their beliefs and their acuity than ever. Half of all households, maybe somewhat more, own no books. The American educational system has been in serious decline for years, as have students’ reading abilities.

Red states are growing much faster than blue states, and they are rich in resentment and vindictiveness toward the blue elites (i.e., ordinary people who have a college education and a conscience). Now the far right has assumed power.

“Assumed” is the right word, because Trump & Co. are not limiting themselves to constitutionally authorized authority. Elon Musk, the adolescent genius elected by no one, has assembled a callow wrecking crew to dismantle entire U.S. government agencies, and as of now no one is stopping him.

The Democratic Party, as has been widely noted, doesn’t have a clue. Their attempts to protect the crumbling, fumbling Biden were disastrous, and their attempts to organize and communicate have failed as well. Even if, against the odds, they managed to retake the White House in four years, it wouldn’t matter. The country’s divide is not going away and the far right has seized, and will retain, the upper hand.

If you want to keep the best of America, and American Democracy, then try to do so. Do whatever you can. But keep your eyes wide open, and watch your back. Things are not likely to get better.

An Enemy of the People

As we arrive at Trump’s 100-day landmark, there is an astonishingly wide array of catastrophic decisions to examine (the Korean peninsula, which is bubbling in the red zone as I write this, may turn out to be the most catastrophic of all).

Trump: Appalling ignorance and a dangerous tone
Trump: Appalling ignorance and a dangerous tone. Photo: Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images.

Of the many abominable actions and statements we have had from this president and Congress since January, I think their hostility toward a free American press is among the most alarming. Trump’s characterization of the press as an “enemy of the American people” is straight out of Orwell. Not coincidentally, this governmental animosity is reflected in the 2017 World Press Freedom Index compiled by the non-profit, non-governmental group Reporters Without Borders (Reporters Sans Frontières). The U.S. slipped two places, to rank 43rd out of 180 countries surveyed. The United Kingdom also slipped two places, largely due to laws permitting generalized surveillance and a proposal for a new espionage act that could result in journalists and whistle-blowers being prosecuted as spies. Even so, at number 40, the UK still ranks ahead of America.

If you’ve heard of (or remember) COINTELPRO, the FBI’s “counterintelligence program” of some 50 years back which involved massive amounts of illegal surveillance, then having the president refer to the press as an “enemy of the people” should be especially chilling. The FBI of the 50s, 60s and 70s was not even close to today’s NSA in terms of surveillance capabilities. No wonder major news organizations like the New York Times go to great lengths to try to provide confidential access to members of the public who would like to submit tips. We’re way beyond Watergate days, when a reporter could safely meet an anonymous source in an underground parking garage.

Still, the First Amendment remains on the books. The Times can publish stories showing how deeply compromised the Trump administration is, and I can publish this humble blog. But—and it’s a big “but”—things can change very quickly.

Trump and his cronies are setting a very dangerous tone where press freedom is concerned. Already, a very large proportion of U.S. adults have been convinced that mainstream media is corrupt and untruthful. Already, U.S. education has been undermined (quite deliberately) to the point where today’s young people need to be taught how to distinguish truth from falsehood—the ability doesn’t come naturally any longer.

Ignorance is extremely dangerous. That’s why, upon Trump’s election, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ “Doomsday Clock” was moved forward by 30 seconds. We’re now at two and a half minutes to midnight. Let’s hope that the “major, major conflict” with North Korea which Trump is threatening doesn’t bring us any closer. Let’s also hope that a free American press keeps shining a light on this disastrous administration, for those are are still able and willing to see.