Demoralization Isn't The End. It's The Beginning.

Hence the anxiety on the part of so many who believe America is on the verge of cataclysmic upheaval, one that’ll usher in a reign of terror, under our unique version of communism or fascism.

The German American Bund sometime in the 1930s. Fascism didn’t catch on then in America. But what about today?

There’s a tweet making the rounds by someone named Robert Sterling. It seems to have struck a chord with a lot of people, even though I personally don’t see anything there that I haven’t read anywhere else. Nonetheless, it’s getting around and there’s a lot he says that’s worth thinking about.

It’s long by tweeting standards, but it’s not an essay either, so I hope you’ll take time to read it. Here’s the complete tweet:

I’m telling you guys: There is something deeply unwell in our society right now. You’re not going to see it if you’re a member of the select, far right-hand side of the bell curve.

If you and your peer group are educated, financially successful, and healthy, our society probably feels better than ever.

But, travel outside that bubble that most of us here—myself included—inhabit, and you’ll notice a pervasive sense that something just isn’t right.

I don’t know what it is. It’s more than economic. It’s more than physical health, or anything material (though it certainly creates ripple effects across all those domains).

It’s nothing less than metaphysical. For lack of a better term, it’s a vibe shift.

It’s a sense of apathy that you feel emanating from far too many people—especially from the young, who should have all the hope in the world. It’s a lack of aspiration, of seeking a better life and better conditions for oneself.

It’s dead eyes. Pop music and cinema that just feel lifeless. Teenagers not caring enough to get their drivers licenses anymore (or even to sneak a couple beers with friends). A world where too few of us feel like we have a purpose, and too many of us are finding nothing but despair on 6” phone screens.

I don’t know what the causes are. I’m sure social media, economic malaise, Covid lockdowns, fentanyl, and every other reason we hear about factor into it.

All of those reasons, though, in aggregate, still feel insufficient. They might be symptoms that compound the underlying disease, but they are not, in and of themselves, the root cause.

I also don’t know what the solution is. I wish I did. I’m one small person just trying to spread positive vibes on social media and trying to raise my kids right.

But I am 100% certain that something is wrong. And I hate seeing it, and I wish there were anything I could do about it.

I would caution you not to read too much into this tweet. Not only is this just one person’s observations, there’s little there we haven’t heard before. I know it because I’ve lived it. I can guarantee you we were thinking similar thoughts 10, even 20 years ago.

Remember the lyrics to the song “Mad World” by the British band Tears for Fears?

All around me are familiar faces

Worn-out places, worn-out faces

Bright and early for their daily races

Going nowhere, going nowhere

And their tears are filling up their glasses

No expression, no expression

Hide my head, I want to drown my sorrow

No tomorrow, no tomorrow

Do you know what year “Mad World” was released? 1982. If Sterling’s observations of the world are correct, then things have been that way our entire lives. It sure seems the more things change, the more things stay the same.

Some of you may also be surprised to not only learn that it’s been almost 20 years since the majority of Americans felt good about our country’s prospects, but that 30 years ago, dissatisfaction rates were as low as they are today:

Source

If you’re a Millennial like me, you likely remember the 1990s as a wonderful time and in many ways it was. But much of what we remember of the ‘90s isn’t just selective memory, it’s also rooted primarily in what took place during the second half of the decade. Older Americans likely have a different take on the ‘90s and recall how tumultuous the first half of the decade was. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times” rings true here.

Does that mean everything’s normal right now? Does that mean there’s nothing to what Robert Sterling says? Not at all. For one, I’m troubled by the fact most Americans have been dissatisfied with the state of the country for almost 20 years and how the baseline sentiment is as low as it’s become. February 2020 was as high as it’s been during that time and we all know what came right after.

A recent Gallup poll revealed young Americans are uniformly not proud to be Americans, most strikingly among Democrats and Independents:

Young Americans have generally been less proud to be American than their elders throughout history, but these are stunningly low numbers. When you see the numbers aren’t that great among older Democrats and Independents either, there’s no reason to expect things to get any better as today’s 18-to-34s age. Given that national pride correlates with the overall mood of the country, I’d say Sterling has a point: Americans, especially young Americans, are a demoralized group and what’s causing our malaise today isn’t the same as what caused our malaise in times past.

Why am I bringing this up? I came across Sterling’s tweet by way of a recent Substack entry by Rod Dreher. He was talking about how he was watching a documentary about Nazism on YouTube explaining its spiritual roots and how it’s far more than a political ideology. Again, Dreher is one of the most important commentators of our time and I hope you’ll consider subscribing to his work, but I still want to share this passage from that entry:

What was particularly alarming to me was the way the film discussed the culture and society from which Nazism emerged, and to which it appealed with its pseudo-religious rituals and fantasy myths. We all know the story about how postwar Germany was a wreck, both economically and culturally. World War I had shattered Germany, and left people badly broken and confused. The old hierarchies had been largely destroyed. The churches were a spent force. Masses of people were poor and desperate. Sexual decadence ruled the day, for traditional restraints had largely withered.

And:

Watching the movie last night, I realized that we today are ripe for this sort of thing. The filmmaker ends in the present day, by warning viewers that there is something in the human psyche that cannot be satisfied with full refrigerators and material comforts. It is a warning.

Out of respect for Rod’s labor, I’m going to refrain from sharing any more. But I think there’s enough there in the above passage. What he’s doing is drawing a link between our current moment and the era - specifically, Weimar Germany - that preceded the election of Adolf Hitler and the rise of the Nazi regime. I don’t want to turn this into a history lesson, so I’ll just say that while I don’t believe we’re living under “Weimerica” at the moment (Weimar came after Germany collapsed as a global power, which hasn’t happened to America yet), I get what Rod is saying.

A couple of entries ago, I spoke briefly about how our politics aren’t just becoming more radical, but that a radical right-wing backlash is going to come within our lifetimes. It’s a thesis I’m still working through in my head, but I’m fairly comfortable saying now that while it’ll be a departure from the norm and will likely frighten many Americans initially, it’s still likely to be a good ways off from Nazism and fascism in general. These ideologies are products of their environment and their times, so a right-wing backlash in America is going to appear a lot different from that of 1930s Germany. The Internet’s most popular historian, Whatifalthist, who has no shortage of great YouTube videos, had such one on family structure, which explains why countries like Germany were so susceptible to fascism:

Going back to what Rod said, you can’t talk about Nazism only as a political philosophy. It was a truly “total” ideology in ways even communism, the ultimate in totalitarianism, wasn’t, in that it included a spiritual component. Communism, by contrast, lacked a spiritual component, hence the adage about religion being the “opiate of the masses.” It’s been spoken about at length by Rod and others about how moving away from religion has the effect of making society vulnerable to totalitarianism, since someone out there always believes something and they are always more driven and more motivated than those who don’t possess strong beliefs. In that sense, there’s no such thing as an atheistic or even secular society. There are only societies in transition between belief systems or run by non-traditional belief systems.

So the question is this: Americans, particularly young Americans, are increasingly irreligious/secular, if not atheistic, and don’t even believe in this country. What do they believe in, then? Their own personal happiness? Sure, we may still enjoy the highest standard of living in the world, but we’re also more atomized, lonely, and mentally ill than ever. Going back to the last graph in this post, Democrats are least proud to be American despite having it all at the moment: the most left-wing regime under President Joe Biden in power, institutional dominance, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) as the de facto creed of the land, a left-leaning electorate, and dominance of the elite and professional classes. Yet it seems like they hate America even more than they ever did. If having it all isn’t enough, what would be?

Hence the anxiety on the part of so many who believe America is on the verge of cataclysmic upheaval, one that’ll usher in a reign of terror, under our unique version of communism or fascism. We are, like it or not showing signs of serious vulnerability, the kind that makes us susceptible to radical ideologies and even totalitarianism. I’m staying away from saying “it’ll happen” and sticking to “it could happen,” but none of us should ever lie to ourselves that “it’ll never happen.” After all, the Regime reminds us daily our society is full of Nazis and White supremacists and how they’re going to overthrow “our democracy.” Clearly, the people in power think we’re at risk of radical upheaval. Why not you?

Of course, what makes it easier to believe is that the Regime itself is a radical, revolutionary force. It exercises discipline in that it doesn’t permit its most extreme elements from gaining too much power, but there’s nothing “moderate” about the Regime, either. When you look at their stance on everything from rule of law to transgenderism, you see not a fulfillment of the Founders’ vision, but of an unraveling, a deconstruction. When that many on the Left are that exasperated with America despite having it all, the next logical step is the country’s total destruction and rebuilding in a new, undoubtedly more frightening form. Anyone who thinks America’s not a great place to live are going to really hate what it might become next once its days in the sun are over, no matter what sort of regime is next in power.

Which begs the question: we already know what it might look like under the Left. We’re living in the “test and evaluation” phase of their development pathway to total power. But what will it look like under the Right?

I think Rod Dreher is right to be at least somewhat concerned about the direction of the American Right, to say nothing about the American Left, who’s pretty much shown all their cards at this point. Maybe this was something that was always there and social media merely amplified it, but there’s been a rise of what I like to call “casual Nazism” on the Right. There are more and more people out there who seem to think there was something redeemable about Adolf Hitler and the Nazi ideology, so much so that extremist symbology has come to be flippantly used. Most recently, a video created for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ 2024 presidential campaign featured just such imagery:

See the emblem superimposed over DeSantis’ head, the one all the troops are marching towards? That’s the “Black Sun,” or “Sonnenrad,” in German, and is almost entirely associated with Nazism. The thing is, most people except for the overly-online and those who research such symbols have either never seen it nor know what it is. It’s no swastika, which would be immediately recognized by everyone. If someone displays something like the Black Sun, it’s because they know what it is and what it stands for.

The “casual” aspect of it is rooted in the fact I don’t believe any these people are sworn neo-Nazis or even neo-fascists. And if they are, they’d be among those in for a rude awakening when they realize what life under such a regime is actually like. It’s not your life today, except more “based” and better. But I digress. I think Michael Tracey has a good explanation for what’s behind the casual Nazism you see today:

Source

The bottom line is that they’re doing it for the sake of being provocative and because they know it makes many people uneasy. I’m not a fan of such tactics, but it’s nothing unusual, especially in the zero-sum world of politics. Still, it’s something to be wary of. Imagine if the Left suddenly started displaying the hammer-and-sickle openly - wouldn’t that concern you? The alarm bells would be going off even louder inside my head. The popularity of alt-right personalities like Nick Fuentes, for example, should be looked at closely and we shouldn’t pretend like there’s nothing going on there. I’m really not sure if Fuentes is as influential as he appears on social media, but someone like Fuentes is more likely to hurt than help the cause. Even Hitler needed a fair amount of popular buy-in to stay in power.

I’d be the first to say that our understanding of Hitler and Nazism requires a lot more than just screaming “evil!” and being done with it. Hitler wasn’t the first genocidal dictator and won’t be the last, nor is Nazism the extremist ideology to end them all. In too many ways, our childish, overly-moralistic understanding of both inhibits from having a better understanding of historical events in general and about ourselves. So much of what’s tarred by the Left as “fascist” and “Nazi” hardly is. No matter your stance on abortion, being pro-life in it of itself has nothing to do with either. And being in favor of law and order absolutely doesn’t make someone fascist. If it does, oh well. I guess only fascists deserve nice things!

At the same time, no matter how existential our politics get, we somehow need to be able to navigate these challenges and wage the struggle without going off the cliff ourselves. There’s such a thing as losing our souls, even if you have no religious beliefs. Perhaps we can’t always choose, but I’d like to know that our victory came whist giving our enemies every opportunity to de-escalate or see the light. Still, there’s no question a greater radicalization will need to occur in order to resist the tremendously radical regime currently in power.

And just what will radicalism on the Right look like? Last year in The Bulwark, a historian named Joshua Tait offered his prediction:

Where is this heading? The most likely outcome is not a breakdown of the New Right coalition that has formed over the last few years but rather its transformation into an America First nationalism garbed in superficial Christian symbolism. As a political outlook, illiberalism searches for post-post-modern commitments to ground its attacks on liberalism. In America, it makes sense that one of these commitments would be cultural Christianity—faith in faith—rather than a specific confession.

I think that’s accurate. Christianity, even as it fades completely from public life, is so baked in to this country, it’d take a violent upheaval (and I mean violent) to completely erase it. For one, we still celebrate Christmas. If the country went truly “post-Christian,” would we still celebrate it? Maybe we would, but that’d prove there’s a difference between being “post-Christian” and “anti-Christian.” Like I said a few posts ago, there exists anti-Christian sentiment on the far-right, but at least in America, it’s not prevalent. The Right has always pointed to the Bible as its ultimate authority and I doubt over two to three centuries of history are going to change that in a generation. Like Tait says, however, a radical right-wing regime will likely be skin-deep in its faith, more for show than anything else, while remaining far more devout and faith-based than the radical left, which has clearly become hostile to Christianity, if not the other faiths, who clearly understand their place in the pecking order.

I’m trying real hard not to turn this into a political or philosophical lesson. That’s not what this blog is about. However, understanding who’s in power and who might come in to power next is undoubtedly a big part of the discussion. We may not be preoccupied with politics on a daily basis, but it still plays a big part in our lives, whether we want to admit it or not. Some of us may pride ourselves on not openly declaring partisanship, but in our choices and lifestyles, we do pick sides, whether we know it or not.

What lessons does this have for preparedness? A lot, in fact. As I just said, we’re constantly choosing to be on one side or another, if only at a given moment in time. But there also may come a day when we may need to pick a side more openly and the choice may be for life. I know that sounds dramatic and I strive to keep away from dramatic here, but you see examples throughout history where people made such a choice and even if they didn’t, the choice was made for them. Sometimes, sticking to what you know is a choice. Watch the beginning of this interview with Ben Shapiro on Lex Fridman’s show where Shapiro talks about how none of us are truly as “good” as we think we are:

I think the battle lines in the coming divergence are still yet to be determined. I feel secure in saying they’re not going to be what a lot of folks anticipate. For now, it suffices to say we all need to ask ourselves: if it came down to a choice, which side would we be on? If we elected not to choose, which side would be chosen for us by default? What side do you think most people would side with where you live? I started reading a book titled, The Year of Chaos: Northern Ireland on the Brink of Civil War, 1971-72. The author recalls that in 1969, when the civil unrest became destabilizing, prompting the deployment of the British military to his country, Catholics and Protestants began assessing whether they needed to move to a friendlier neighborhood or whether they were okay to stay put. If they were a minority in a neighborhood, oftentimes, it wasn’t the majority residents who were trying to force them out, but more partisan outsiders. Even in a neighborhood where they felt otherwise comfortable as a minority, they were still worried whether the other majority residents would be willing and able to protect them, if need be.

I sincerely hope these are choices none of us will ever need to make. I don’t believe most of us will, but some of us might have to. I share this not because I think we’re on the verge of balkanization and a bloody civil war - I’ve spent considerable space on this Substack arguing against that - but because the importance of community cannot be understated in both good times and bad. It’s easy to not need to rely on neighbors when things are going well, but when they go bad, you discover how badly you need to rely on others. You already do, you just don’t know it.

The key is to find a community of like-minded people. Yes, you need to have things in common with members of a community you intend to rely on during hard times. I know that goes against everything we’ve been taught, but no matter the lies we tell ourselves, people who have nothing in common will find very few reasons beyond survival to associate with each other. If they won’t stand by you during the good times, it’s less likely they’ll stand by you during the hard times, anyway. So why take the chance?

I realize this sounds like we all need to discriminate. Well yeah, you do. Didn’t your parents ever tell you to pick your friends carefully? Unless you’re a cynical Machiavellian even when it comes to your social life, there’s no reason to associate with people who don’t share your interests or views. Obviously, even the best of friends don’t agree on everything and I’m not saying you should never associate with anyone who isn’t in lock-step with your worldview.

However, there’s a big difference between someone who thinks, for example, certain people should never be allowed to own guns versus someone who supports full-fledged gun control. If you’re a gun owner, the latter seeks your disarmament. We need to put up with all types in this country, but if times got tough, is that someone you’d really want to live close to? Would they want to live close to those diametrically opposed to their views? These are the types of people who’d eye you suspiciously for having so much food stocked up, too many guns, and thinking bad thoughts. They seem nice today, but make no mistake - they’ll betray you when the stuff hits the fan (SHTF).

It’s all sobering to think about, but none of us make it through this world alone. No matter who’s in power, our quality of life is determined first and foremost by those closest to us. No matter what side you’re on, you need people beyond your family you can depend on in hard times. A good community is often the greatest prep and possesses more value than all the guns in the world. The problem is, finding community is about more than just making friends. It’s about finding people willing to put skin in the game for you. I don’t know how we find that during a time when we couldn’t be more atomized and demoralized than we already are.

What about you? Do you have a community you can rely upon? Does Robert Sterling’s tweet resonate with you? How concerned are you with political radicalization and how extreme of a regime do you think could come to power in the U.S.? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

UPDATE: Commenter Brian Villanueva shared his thoughts below and I think they’re worth everyone’s attention:

I subscribe to Rod and like him, but I've felt for a while that the America=Weimar or America-Rome metaphors are wrong. As you said, Weimar only happened in the aftermath of Germany's imperial failure. Rome also collapsed only after an extended period of imperial ambition. America is still on its imperial upswing.

I’m still working the thoughts through my head. But I’ve never agreed with the characterization of the U.S. as an empire. A superpower? Absolutely? A revolutionary state? Without question. But an empire? I supposed the country proper occupies enough geographic territory to be considered one, but, for now, the U.S. is a federated union that happens to be massive. Until we start expanding again and attempting to impose dominion over foreign lands, I’d reject the notion.

It’s accurate to say, however, that America is an administrative empire in that a central authority in Washington, D.C. imposes its will on a large geographic era, much of which would benefit more from local governance. So perhaps there’s potential for a collapse there, but not only is the federal leviathan too powerful, its collapse would arguably lead to a collapse of the union itself. See the former Soviet Union.

For now, all I’m saying is that the U.S. is probably not in its late-stage imperial cycle, because we were never an empire in the first place. We are, however, probably in our late-stage superpower cycle, but no matter the tumult superpower collapse brings, I believe the impact it’ll ultimately have is a strengthening of existing authority, the federal government in particular, akin to the Great Depression. In times of crisis, people are willing to give more, not less, power to the authorities.

More from Villanueva:

The left seems to think it's 1933 and there are brownshirt mobs waiting to seize power. (That's why they need anti-fascist mobs to counter them.) The Right seems to think it's AD 476 and the whole society is about to collapse. But what if they're both wrong?

What if it's really AD 50. What if what's coming over the hill isn't a Visigoth invasion but Caesar's army? I think those waiting for a collapse of America may be quite early. As Adam Smith said, “there's a great deal of ruin in a nation.” Especially a superpower. We may not remain a republic, but we will almost certainly remain for a long time to come.

There were a many generations that made great lives for themselves by staying small in a community with a shared culture and keeping their heads down... all while Rome collapsed around them. We can learn from them.

Again, I share Brian’s views. I’ve said before that so much of the doomerism on both Left and Right are the product of wishful thinking. For the Left, their goal is now to stay in power and gain more power. To do that, you need to convince your subjects that the alternative is unthinkable. Few things seem to scare more Americans than the prospect of an American Hitler, even as Hitler’s rise remains among the most poorly-understood of historical events. It’s so tiring to have to hear the Left throw around Hitler’s name along with associated terms like “Nazi” and “fascism,” but the unfortunate fact is, these terms are abused as they are because the tactic generally works. It makes the approach of some elements of the U.S. radical right - people like Nick Fuentes, specifically - all the more baffling, but I digress.

For the Right, collapse is a coping mechanism - a way of assuring oneself that bad times don’t last forever and that a chance to start over will come. The problem is that these are hardly “bad times.” Yes, we have problems, yes, our society is in all sorts of trouble. So imagine how much worse things would be if people couldn’t eat, for one. The fact our daily needs are met and then some is no small matter. As heated as the rhetoric can get, politics are still not an existential matter in the U.S. and our personal well-being doesn’t change drastically depending on which party is in power. I believe that’s going to change in our lifetimes, but again, we’re not there yet. There’s a lot of history to unfold in the next couple generations, much of which we’ll hopefully be around to see, but I doubt collapse is one of them. It’s too early in the timeline for that.

If both sides have anything in common, it’s the belief that if they can’t have the country on their terms, then nobody should be allowed to have it. This is more a sentiment than anything else. Maybe one day, we’ll get to a point where our differences can only be resolved through violence, but right now, I see nobody who’s willing to cross that red line. If they did, they’d not only find themselves alone and isolated, it’d end badly for them.

And that’s just it, isn’t it? We have no control over history, even as social media makes us feel like we’re characters in some grand narrative. The problem is that you can lose sight of your top priority: caring for yourself and your loved ones. If you end up alone, isolated, and prosecuted by the state, what have you accomplished? Are you going to be there for those you care about, to help them prepare for the hard times to come, and enjoy what’s ultimately a temporary existence?

Maybe the greatest lesson of history is this: come what may, our predecessors chose to keep living. Nothing we talk about is ever truly going to matter unless we’re around to see it. When the shine fades, all that matters is who’s still living and who isn’t. The dead can no longer speak, after all.

Max Remington writes about armed conflict and prepping. Follow him on Twitter at @AgentMax90.

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