It’s been a mess for a while (see this other post). The mess has existed for a long time.
Why did it happen? To be clear about what “it” is, why did the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol occur on January 6, 2021 as a joint session of Congress was in the process of certifying the Electoral College votes for President and Vice President of the United States?
Causes
It’s natural and appropriate to look for causes, proximal and root, for significant events. Let’s do some of that looking.
Among the apparent proximal causes:
- Assumption by some in law enforcement that the pro-Trump rally would remain peaceful.
- Consequent lack of planning for much more than a peaceful protest.
- Verbal and visible encouragement of the rally attendants to provocative, if not violent, action by Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani.
- If this item triggers skepticism, I encourage you to watch and listen to the available recordings.
- Trump: “And after this, we’re going to walk down there, and I’ll be there with you, we’re going to walk down… to the Capitol and we are going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women… and we’re probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them. Because you’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength and you have to be strong.“
- Giuliani’s call for “trial by combat”.
The root causes deserve more attention than those which are proximal. It is upon these root causes that this writing will focus. There is neither time nor space here for comprehensive treatment of these topics. This will be a survey. And there may be more root causes than those identified below.
Critical Thinking
There is and has been widespread lack of critical thinking about news sources (see this post). Many if not most do not have the awareness, inclination or wherewithal-via-education to evaluate information as trustworthy or otherwise. News, its counterfeit, and other sources of information are indistinguishable or mislabeled by those not possessing the ability to critically analyze information. How can you hope to reach others with your message without addressing or acknowledging this? How can you convince others to change their minds by simply telling them a truth that they already see as a lie?
Culture
Fact: there is no single American culture. There are legion. There is a cultural problem in America. That is, the culture that sees itself as an original and primary American culture also sees itself as under threat. That culture sees itself as conservative. That culture largely sees itself as Christian. That culture sees itself as right. How does that culture look to those outside of it? It looks white, middle-class, and church-going. Not everyone who belongs to this description feels threatened; these labels could describe me and I feel no threat – I welcome diversity and have zero qualms about being an American minority.
Note: As of this time, I refuse to concede the label of Christian to anyone other than those who purposely follow Jesus Christ. As others attempt to co-opt it, I endeavor to defend it.
At the edges of culture, you find conflict. Though, I believe that conflict can be resolved peacefully.
Race
Within the constructs and context of race and culture, you find things like white supremacy. White supremacy, in all its forms, is repugnant. White supremacy cannot be isolated and treated independent of culture. It uses conservative culture as a safe haven. It lives in the hearts of women and men. It is comorbid with concerns about cultural change, about being on a decline from one’s sense of originality and primacy. Conservative culture rarely seems to take strong and active measures to excise this malignant tumor. As long as the supporting culture feels under threat, it seems to excuse or look the other way when it comes to white supremacy. That culture, when under perceived threat, feels it needs all the support it can get.
Nationalism
Nationalism is different from patriotism or pride-of-place. Views on the full definitions of these terms vary based on the person, group, and culture. I encourage further reading from others on these terms, especially the differences between them.
Sycophancy
Blindly fawning over a person or personality to gain favor is ubiquitous in the United States. Trump has a devoted corps of followers who, as demonstrated on the 6th, will breach the peace at the mildest of encouragement and license. What favor do they hope to gain? Why making America “great” again, of course. Maybe he’ll be their champion and save their culture. Maybe, as is the case for white supremacists, he’ll save their race.
Is everyone who has ever supported Trump a Christian, uncritically-thinking, racist, white supremacist, nationalistic, sycophant? No.
Do “Christian” uncritically-thinking, racist, white supremacist, nationalistic, sycophants support Trump? Yes.
I hope, dear reader, you see the difference.
The Work Ahead
How do we deal with the causes we’ve identified?
Proximal causes are often the easiest and most concretely solved. Apprehend, charge, and prosecute insurrectionists. Provide real consequences to those in positions of power who failed.
The root causes we’ve identified are intermingled and enmeshed. Single root causes are hard to solve. They’ve taken years, if not generations, to develop. There are no quick fixes.
Untangling those root causes requires long, patient (and probably generational) work. It is likely less-productive to call out one root cause to the exclusion of others.
Why is it less-productive? It provides a ready excuse to those who don’t or won’t recognize that one root cause as applying to them. They identify with other root causes. They’ll say, “Well, I’m not a (fill-in-the-blank).”
So, do we say nothing? No.
What we can do is stand for truth. We can communicate and educate. We can make a difference within our spheres. We can seek to expand those spheres, where appropriate. We need both broad-spectrum and laser-focused measures. Lowering the defenses of those even tangentially mentioned above is an important step to the efficacy of any measure we might seek to apply.
Let us reason together.
David A. Larson 