It is odd to begin with a reflection on the upcoming 41st anniversary of Jimmy Carter's July 15th "Crisis of Confidence" speech, yet we are beginning to enter a pivotal ethos very reminiscent of the late 70s. The speech concerned the state of America in the wake of stagflation, oil shortages, and cultural unrest. "I will do my best, but I will not do it alone. Let your voice be heard. Whenever you have a chance, say something good about our country. With God’s help and for the sake of our nation, it is time for us to join hands in America. Let us commit ourselves together to a rebirth of the American spirit. Working together with our common faith we cannot fail." Besides the token "Thank you and good night", these were the parting words President Carter spoke at the conclusion of a historically profound speech calling for a renewal of hope in an America that had lost its way. In the same vein of FDR's famous "the only things we have to fear is fear itself" line, Carter invokes this idea that in order to change our physical circumstances, we must first overcome the enemy of emotion; the hopelessness and pessimism that lies within us. Jimmy Carter was absolutely correct. He then resoundingly lost the presidential election the following year to Ronald Reagan.

I myself, am not a writer of "what should be" in the world. I do not hold myself to any notion of justness or righteousness in my writings nor do I acknowledge the absolutism of partisan ideology. I seek only to understand the meaning of politics and the nature of humanity. Yet despite this, I for the first time feel compelled by perhaps a sense of discomfort, perhaps by anger at our state of being, or perhaps from a lingering love that still remains for the American project, to write publicly on the spirit of reform we have taken.

Almost 4 years ago on the night of that fateful election in November, I believe that regardless of party affiliation there was a palpable shift felt in the atmosphere of America. There was a distinct moment in time that night when sentiments became reality and affects became acceptance. It is hard to remember just hours before that moment how different the discourse of our future was. There is a part of me that wishes Donald Trump was and is conscious of a contradictory good to his actions that he has created. For the sake of democracy and the notion we are capable of governing ourselves, I wish there has been a rational mind behind the chaos that has ensued. With this continuing wish I thank the past 4 years for what they have brought from the nether reaches of the American psyche and the tests for transformation they offer for the years to come. Although, if the wish was more than just a wish, I wouldn't be compelled to write.

The underbelly of America and perhaps humanity and civilization in general has once again been unearthed. Class disparities, racial injustices, public security; the flaws and deficiencies of our nation have the light shed on them once again against the polarizing magnet that is our president. When I speak of a shift discourse in America, not just in politics but in our media, in our day to day conversations, in the affects and emotions that govern our thoughts, I speak of the infectious and easy truth that Trump perpetrates in dialogue; that he embodies in his aura of personality. It is both the rational idea and emotional sentiment that we are a product of our circumstances. The words can almost be placed on Trump's lips: "look around and see who we are!" It is the acceptance of our flaws as truths; whether systemic or systematic, that individuals can be described in nature by the ecology of their system. It is the "this is who we are" versus the sentiment used in previous president Barack Obama's rhetoric: "this is who we can be". Given a matter of identity we are then met with an existential threat. The stasis of our definition of self is responded to with anger, desperation, hopelessness. There are no vested stakes to negotiate with. We are nothing and must fight to be something, for the world predisposes us to our fate, the favor of fortune, our only god.

There is a certain power of oration that is not lost upon those willing to listen. Jimmy Carter called people into action as they were, set to battle uphill in a world against them. I said of this "identity by ecology" that it is an "easy truth". Indeed, a speaker need not have any extraordinary strength to make the argument. A listener need not have any particular insight to accept it as truth. The communication of ideas through speech is unique to the human species alone. Truth is not an individual phenomenon but that of sociality. Nothing is true unless it is spoken, unless it is heard. The chair I am sitting on does not have a voice. My neighborhood does not talk. The floor does not speak to me and the walls have no ears. I hold no belief that we are defined by our circumstances; that what comes through the eyes can defeat the human will. We shape the world around us to our designs and mold the clay of our lives not into the image we are given but to the image we want. The power of the speaker is to make us something greater than our circumstance, something of intrinsically human created meaning, something that we perhaps could not realize on our own.

The current rhetoric of reform comes from no place of power, no place of security, no place of stability. It is unfortunate to say that it comes from a need, an existential need. There was an attempted slogan not too long ago from Michelle and Barack Obama: "when they go low, you go high!" While this attitude crashed and burned in the wake of the election, the point of the phrase is one and the same as the point of this piece of writing. It is not simply to have a progressive approach by having more noble morals; it is to remind yourself that you are better and stronger than the forces of circumstance that limit the discourse of the human spirit. We are above the forces of discrimination, poverty, and injustice. A rhetoric of reform based in necessity, based on absolutism in the individual, can only result in conflict, winners and losers, metaphorical bloodshed. We are entering an era where what we hold to be "America" will be redefined. Anger, frustration, and hate hold no place in nation-building.

1980 was not a fight against the cruel injustices of humanity; it was "Morning in America". Ronald Reagan beat Jimmy Carter in the 1980 presidential election not with a call for an attack on evil, but for an assertion of our natural goodness (I do however acknowledge that while the spirit was in the right place, Reagan furthered many of the inequalities that led us to the present day). Strength of morals does not come from seizing it, it comes from having it, it comes from knowing it never left. I find it laughable, that as we are in the early stages of a revolution in artificial intelligence, medical technology, and space travel, we cannot see through the petty ploy of the last of those of an old generation attempting to drag us down into squabbles that are beneath us. As early as Aristotle, it has been taught that a democracy cannot function on raw passions. If I were to paraphrase Rousseau, democracy is the realization of human wills, not thoughts based on existential threat nor a lurking fear of death, the contents of democracy is what is innately human, what we create out of our vision of the world beyond any anger, fear, doubt, or contempt. Trusting in human ability, trusting that goodness will succeed in the world, show only love and pity to thy enemy, for that is all they need. The righteous need only to show the justness of their cause by turning the other cheek.

I hope you enjoyed the read. I don't mean to say there is any objective truth in this, or this is the most effective way to facilitate change. It is just something I wanted myself to hear. I hope you got something out of it too.