I actually feel some sympathy for the Trump fans and their rage at the machine. The ironic thing is that it’s the same rage that fuels the jihadis of ISIS that we have all vowed to exterminate. It’s also the same rage that any environmentalist has felt at least once, if not constantly.
I’m not saying that I sympathize with the barely concealed racial resentments of the Trump mob, or the violence of the jihadis. Or even the self-righteousness of the environmentalists.
But with their rage at the cold, efficient extractions of Western civilization, I have some sympathy. And can even find a bit of a silver lining in all of the ugliness that is emerging. That mote of dreaming for a better way that fuels the extremism is the strip of silver in all the darkness of violence and hate. And it is in danger of being extinguished in the necessary victory of common decencies.
If only all of this anger and energy can find a course to run that is not hateful, but constructive of radical but peaceful alternatives. Towards a caliphate that governs kindly, towards a global economy that is not self-cannibalizing and oligarchic, towards an environmentalism that is self-critical.
I know, that is seriously Pollyanna - naive about the role that American hegemony has played in bringing us to this pass and overly optimistic about human tendencies - but anything else will probably involve lots more mayhem.
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