Believe It

If I had a dollar for every time I’ve said, “unbelievable,” over the past decade or so, I’d be so rich I could hire Elon Musk to wash my Prius. The direction the world has taken, the situation in which we find ourselves today, was unimaginable to me for most of my life.

That a huge segment of the population would elevate someone like Trump to the highest office in the land and authoritarian governments would supplant democracy all over the world? Unbelievable.

That an armed mob would stage a post-election coup attempt and it would be led by that president? And that half the people and politicians, even the Supreme Court would defend him and approve of it? Unbelievable.

That even in the wake of the holocaust, anti-semitism would make the USA begin to resemble the Germany of a hundred years ago, and despite decades of struggle and legislation racial prejudice would still run rampant? Unbelievable.

That governments would ignore warmings about climate change for decades and put us on a course to global disaster? Unbelievable.

That social media would run amok and create a populace so at each others’ throats that many would gladly murder someone who dared to say or print something counter to their belief system? Unbelievable.

That our “greatest health care system in the world” would fail in dealing with a pandemic and is not equipped to deal with the next one? Unbelievable. And that otherwise intelligent people refused to take reasonable prevention measures such as getting vaccinated or wearing masks in crowed indoor venues? Unbelievable.

That at the worst time possible, Vlad Putin would need to perk up his flagging testosterone level by starting WWII-redux? Unbelievable.

That in an age when science was supposed to make our lives longer and healthier and usher in a time of plenty for all, Americans’ lifespans are getting shorter and the disparity between the rich and poor is widening. Unbelievable.

I imagine all this is unbelievable to you as well.

Like me, many of you came of age in an era when it appeared the world may have been emerging into a period of enlightenment with the promise of better things to come. We were citizens of the age of Aquarius. “Harmony and understanding, sympathy and love abounding, no more falsehoods or derisions…” Did you believe that would come to pass? If you did, I’d be surprised if you claim to believe so any longer.

Perhaps what drove us as college students to embrace that absurd notion, one that flew in the face of human history and human nature, was a combination of social privilege, education and a lack of awareness of what was going on in the world outside our elite bubble.

I’m sure the majority of my readers have college degrees, have spent their lives around educated people, were raised to question the status quo, to embrace science and to reject superstition and prejudice. We could believe things were changing because, growing up, we were surrounded by like-minded people. We went on to cultivate relationships with the same minuscule enlightened segment of the population. It seemed everyone in the world was like us.

What has dawned on me with age and experience is that there is nothing further from the truth. It should be clear to us by now that the vast majority languish in a state of abject ignorance and have embraced a materialistic culture that allows them to be easily manipulated by con artists, hucksters and demagogues who capitalize on their gullibility and prejudice. More tragically, that prejudice is so firmly rooted, even in many educated people, that if it ever ends, it won’t for a long time to come.

So much about the world is unbelievable, but whether we like it or not, as we look around and are honest with ourselves, we have no choice but to believe it.