We are in a moment when the utopian imagination is in full throated roar – the belief that human beings can be ‘fixed’ by the proper mix of social engineering and ‘virtuous thinking’.
In these various propositions of both the left and right, racism will be banished, women will have more babies, crime will vanish because every mother’s son and daughter will be armed, public schools will crank out Christian children, literature will be purged of every ‘harmful’ trait and author, the Republic will once again be your great grandaddy’s America of factory jobs and each group knowing its place. Our innocence will be restored.
The desire for this certainty, that human beings are perfectible, and thus that society is perfectible, is a terrible poison because of what it expects of its adherents. If one person or a group resists the measures intended to make them ‘better’, then whomever is in charge must persuade them to accept those measures. True believers must ensure that all be true in their beliefs.
That means coercion. That means an acceptance of the most virulent type of cancel culture. For many, especially those who are willing to trade conscience for power, that means an application of force. Then it’s just a matter of following the logic. Ultimately that means mass persecutions and even mass murder.
First, Americans have never been innocent. We have done unspeakable things as a nation-state. There has never been a prelapsarian moment in our history, nor for any other nation-state.
Second, when power becomes the sole determinant of what is good, then all kinds of devils are unleashed. Look at what Stalin did. Look at what Jim Crow decreed.
Finally, human beings are a mercurial mess. We can choose good – to become kinder, more courageous, more truthful, but to believe we can be forever purged of our imperfections and vices and stubborn opinions is dangerous nonsense.
