Abandon most hope, all ye who enter here…

Consider this, H: at least 45% of the voters are going to vote for Donald J. Trump, a reality television star. A real estate developer who has had so many bankruptcies that US banks will not loan money to him (although there is some evidence that Russian oligarchs close to Putin will). Donald J. Trump a man of such spectacular ignorance that he gives Sarah Palin a run for her money. Donald J. Trump who has built his campaign on white grievance and fear.

This does not suggest that a nation without racism is going to arrive anytime soon. Hopefully we will improve (note the “most hope” above). But it will be a long path.

Consider this as well: humans are intensely tribal. We have a strong propensity for dividing people into “us” and “then”. Anyone different is “them”. I’ll note that white people do not have a monopoly on this, it’s just that for five hundred years or so white people have had more power.

This tendency to divide people into “the other” is the root of racism. Racism only starts to disappear when people find common ground.

Society is better now than it was in the past. But we have far to go. I don’t think that the kind of utopia you wish for will ever arrive. I believe that humanity is fundamentally insane, so there are limits to how far we can go without curing the insanity. And I cannot imagine how we will ever be cured. We are the same people we were 2,500 years ago when Athens and Sparta fought a war that destroyed both power blocks.

History provides perspective. I recommend the book Stalin: in the court of the Red Czar by Simon Sebag Montefiore. The question that this book raises is how did people arrive at a society like Stalin’s Russia? A society where people feared the 3AM knock on the door. A society with a vast gulag that touched most families. The irony is that Soviet Russia was founded on a utopian ideal. Stalin’s Russia is just one example, among many. How does this happen?

As Sinclair Lewis points out in his novel It Can’t Happen Here, the United States is not necessarily immune. I believe that our nation is flirting with fascism (of the Mussolini variety).