There is a pivotal scene in Paul Thomas Anderson’s “The Master” where Lancaster Dodd (Philip Seymour Hoffman), leader of a cult loosely based on scientology, presents his followers with a new book, further outlining his “religion” and Helen Sullivan (Laura Dern), a devout follower and benefactor, questions the inconsistencies between the new text and everything that came before. Dodd loses his temper and lashes out, annoyed that anyone would question his authority. He also comes across as bereft of ideas, more attached to his privileged role than the demands of continuing to produce new work that brings in new followers. That scene reminds me of our current, late empire moment. The new administration has reached the stage where it’s more of a cult than anything resembling a political movement. Public allegiance and fawning ass kissing are no longer enough. Everyone must now accept the lies as truth. The only difference between Lancaster Dodd and this administration is that nobody can ever question when positions change, when reason fails to connect with a discernible reality. Followers must eat whatever is on the menu that day then gladly ask for more.
They must now accept that oligarchs are not only an integral part of their white, heteronormative, “populist” movement, but necessary. There was a time when a large swath of right wing media was fixated on the prospect of elites and omnipotent billionaires playing an outsize role in politics. The fear was coded in anti big government language: elites wanted big government in service of their narrow interests. Of course there was never any substance to the argument. The right has never been particularly interested in open markets or a transparent government. They used to go to great lengths to hide their economic agenda behind the rose colored glasses of trickle down economics. Now they’re not hiding that there is no plan for a private sector that is anything but loyal to a single leader in return for consolidated power and industry. It’s not hard to see the chilling effects of suspended due process and legally dubious attacks on non-loyal businesses as the opening salvo in a fight for oligarchy. And the barbarians who’ve accumulated boundless wealth are excited to finally storm the gates.
Global power used to be something projected through story. America was an idea, a flawed and sometimes in progress idea, but always nothing more than an idea. That idea needed to be cultivated in schools, celebrated on holidays, beamed across the world in movies and music, and shouted across the hinterlands of far flung nations. America was a beacon, a siren, that other countries aspired to emulate, their people dreamed of visiting. The idea always masked a sometimes harsh reality, and could only be preserved through a substantial investment in maintaining the fiction. The only way to lose that thread was to turn inward and look at the world as nothing more than a zero-sum object of exploitation. We used to have bi-partisan consensus that the story was worth maintaining and advantageous to our standard of living. Now we have a combative regime that looks across the world and sees only enemies. The idea of America has changed and many of the people who extolled its virtues and defended its ideals in real battle have lost their voice and cheered the new reality.
Michelle Obama had the audacity to advocate for healthy school lunches. She planted a vegetable garden at the White House to educate people about the value of nutritious foods and ill effects of a bloated processed food industry. The right attacked her relentlessly. Americans wanted to be free to be unhealthy and obese. It was a badge of honor, a libertarian-fueled birthright to do nothing and die young, and free (?) I suppose. There are two untouchable interests on the right – de-regulation and big business. A de-regulated business climate allows “foods” with little or no nutritional value to make wild claims, target children, and become household staples. Big business does well when food becomes more entertainment and amusement than sustenance. Then a crackpot with a minor political following cashed in his meager capital and become part of the right wing tribe, and everyone fell in line with a one hundred and eighty degree turn on everything they used to think about food. So while they now value nutritious food, they also need to question efficacy of vaccines. The past is lost in the rearview mirror, confined to the dustbin of dubious political ideologies, in favor a nihilistic adoration for one deeply flawed and incapable person.
“Drill baby drill” is the kind of thing an illiterate moron believes is a policy position. Our domestic oil production is at a record high, while we’re impacted by worsening storms and damage from global warming. Yet we still have a chorus of cheerleaders and flamethrowers from the right beating the drill drum. Peak oil isn’t enough. Opening up more land and leases to drilling is a pet policy of the right and the oligarchy. That position became awkward when the same people were forced to defend the business interests of their favorite oligarch. Tesla is wildly overvalued by any metric other than broflation – the irrational confidence of mostly young men who hang on a leader’s every promise even after they’ve failed, in most cases, to materialize. Its stock price started to come back to reality when rational people came to realize that a leader can’t both alienate their core customers and still be successful in selling them a product they can get other places. Suddenly the people who decried every clean energy initiative and industry found themselves touting the quality of a very specific brand of electric vehicles. I’m surprised there isn’t a whiplash pandemic to go with the outbreaks of measles because the Tesla advocate of today is the same person who thinks “drill baby drill” makes them feel free and sound cool.
The stock market used to be an objective arbiter of the state of the economy. At least that’s what the right wanted us to believe whenever they thought it was in their interest. Now that we’re heading towards an entirely avoidable recession it has stopped mattering. But you can sense the unease among the Wall Street class, sadly one-step removed from the inner circle oligarchy. They aren’t sure what to think anymore, while the rank and file never cared much about the stock market to begin with. On this topic nobody is sure what to believe. It’s probably the best case for understanding this stage in post-reality. Trump doesn’t have a sellable position, and people are left to grasp at rationalizations. The people long past saving think he’s playing four dimensional chess. Anyone with eyes and half a brain can see he couldn’t win a game of checkers without cheating. the party line will be whatever the administration says it is, and nobody will be allowed to question when it ceases to make sense in light of what came before.
I’ve said before that we live in post-reality. The call and response of the right creates and reinforces an invented reality. Words have lost meaning and now core followers are reacting to whatever their leader says is important even when it can’t be reconciled with something they thought they believed. We see this playing out before our eyes with the Signal scandal. Security is important until not, words like “war” means a state of armed conflict until it doesn’t. Decency and respect for norms and the rule of law are important until they’re not. Justice is politicized when applied to someone else. Reality is negotiable, subject to the whims of unstable people and their fans who call back.
