The Empire Strikes Out
Now we stand on the precipice and the conclusion is not absolutely necessary, but it increasingly looks as if this species is headed for disaster. That cataclysm could come through war, but it is most likely going to come from environmental destruction.
Contemporary history begins with the U.S. ascension to the throne of superpower status that was solidified after World War II. The society had a myriad of contradictions during and after the war years, especially with the beginning of the end of trade unions in the 1970s, the lack of an endorsement of women’s and LGBTQ rights in that same decade, and the continuing issue of the lack of equality for people of color. Masses of people were marginalized by the twin forces of globalization and hate. Their treatment is a testament to the fatal flaws in the human heart and mind and the political and economic systems that the elite use to govern.
But there were glimmers of hope in the New Deal, and in the New Frontier and Great Society of John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson. All three epochs of change, however, were degraded by racism and militarism. FDR could not rise above the racism of the day, except with small measures, and Kennedy was molded by the Cold War, as was Lyndon Johnson.
Reading David B. Woolner’s The Last 100 Days: FDR At War And At Peace (2017), while looking out at the current absolute debacle that is the U.S. government and U.S. society in general, is like inhabiting two worlds or dimensions at the same time.
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