Tuesday October 12, 2021; 1:48 PM EDT
- A classmate from the old days posted this potent quotation from a new book by Jelani Cobb and David Remnick.#
- “We are controlled here by our confusion, far more than we know, and the American dream has therefore become something much more closely resembling a nightmare, on the private, domestic, and international levels. Privately, we cannot stand our lives and dare not examine them; domestically, we take no responsibility for (and no pride in) what goes on in our country; and, internationally, for many millions of people, we are an unmitigated disaster.”#
- When they got to the idea that we Americans don't dare look at our own lives very closely, I thought for a moment that Cobb and Remnick had been reading James Baldwin, who talked about that notion roughly sixty years ago. #
- But when I checked out their book I saw that Cobb and Remnick weren't influenced by Baldwin, and they weren't quoting him, not in the usual sense. Their book, The Matter of Black Lives, is an anthology of pieces The New Yorker magazine published over the years about race. The passage is from near the end of his longer essay, which they reprinted in full, that went on to form the bulk of his great little book The Fire Next Time.#
- Baldwin's diagnosis seems as true today as it was in 1962. It's hard to get our leaders to say true and meaningful things, and it's hard for the rest of us as citizens to be strong and bold enough to get those leaders to pay attention, to get serious, to turn this massive ship toward a proper port. Seems unlikely the leaders will stay focused unless we force the issue somehow. Because most of us are not skillful as active citizens, it's probably not going to happen. So much for saving our dignity, or the country, or the planet.#
- PS. Regan says about her father, King Lear: “He hath ever but slenderly known himself,” and you may remember how that turns out. #