Uncertainty #13: Out of Service

After our conversation with Peter Turchin, Vanessa reflects on our culture of selfishness and concludes: we're doomed.

Lavender fields near Avignon, France

Bon jour, Uncertainteurs! Adaam and I have returned from our European vacation, yet the heavenly scent of lavender still lingers in my mind.

The memory of writing newsletters, alas, is far fainter. So as I recalibrate, a quick reminder of what this newsletter is all about: each Uncertainty Adaam or I (we take turns) reflect on the last episode we aired, muse on whatever’s our minds, and tease the next episode.

In my last newsletter, inspired by our conversation with William Deresiewicz, I penned some thoughts on the dialectical relationship between solitude and friendship. Today, for our follow-up with Peter Turchin, I’m bringing you a short rumination on America’s selfish culture — the very thing that, if Turchin’s research is to be believed and my interpretation holds true,  could bring our Western world crashing down.

New Deal, Same Problem

Turchin’s new book, End Times: Elites, Counter-Elites, and the Path of Political Disintegration, is a great read but also a doomy affair. He states quite plainly that we’re in a state of crisis (to understand why, check out of our first conversation with Peter). Most societies that get to the point where we are end up with elites’ heads on pitchforks (societies generally collapse soon after). BUT, he is also keen to point out a not-so-long-ago example of when America was on the brink — and managed to get herself back on solid ground: the New Deal. 

Nowadays, the utterance of these three little words can make a lefty misty-eyed and weak at the knees. Ah, the good old days, when liberals got things done. I, too, generally think about the New Deal as a landmark piece of policy, one which helped change the economic fates and psychological landscapes of many Americans for the better. That said, I would love to have a scholar on the podcast to talk about this era of our history¹ (suggestions welcome). Judging only by the sheer breadth of the New Deal, I can only imagine it could not have been solely positive — I’m sure it was both good and bad, changing our economy in ways that impacted different swathes of Americans differently. ²

But, this caveat aside, Peter sees the New Deal as pivotal because it put in place economic reforms that, broadly speaking, re-directed the flow of wealth away from elites back to the majority of Americans. 

Why did these political elites pass a reform that went against their own self-interest for the betterment of their working class countrymen? Peter points out that, for one, they were scared. These elites had lived through race riots, violent labor strikes, the Bolshevik revolution in Russia. They could see the glimmer of pitchforks reflected in their champagne flutes. 

But beyond this fear for their heads, these elites likely also feared for their country. These were men who believed in the American experiment, who had been taught to put country first.

And so, in our conversation with Peter, we ended up circling around this question again and again: We can have all the data in the world, all the information telling us exactly what will happen if we don’t act, all the evidence that we must reform our economic system immediately — and yet, if we don’t have a culture among our elites that incentivizes them to act for the greater good above their own self-interest, why would they do anything differently? 

I think about this cultural atrophy often. Growing up in suburban America, I was often creeped out by the showy nationalism of the pledge of allegiance. Perhaps because I don’t think nationalism is expressed in words, but in acts of service. And in many parts of this country, the cache of service has diminished — and our culture has diminished for it. It’s why I think a mandatory volunteer service for youth, like a Peace Corps-esque (or heck New Deal-esque) deployment of youth across our country, could be transformational for our country’s culture. In a nutshell, I long for the day when Americans can stop being so damned selfish. And, having read Peter’s book, the stakes of that evolution may be higher than I ever thought.

In Case You Missed It

Keen listeners and fans of The Wire may have noticed that during our Turchin conversation I threw out a quick reference to the sixth episode of season five “The Dickensian Aspect.” Adaam is a longtime fan of the show, and I just finished the series for the first time, and, yeah, I get what all the hype was about. That episode came out fifteen years ago, and it’s as relevant now as it was then. David Simon/Ed Burns, if you’re reading, let’s talk.

Things Worth Your Time - The France Edition

Sunflowers, Lavender fields, and ochre mountains in the south of France

What We’re Working On ⏭

If you got to the end of our conversation with Eli Lake about art and offense, you may remember that we tip-toed briefly into a conversation about sexuality, gender, and the word “queer.” I defended the use of the word, as well as the embrace of non-binary genders (which I see as a natural evolution, given our loosening social mores); Eli disagreed, and suggested we reach out to his friend Jamie Kirchick if we really wanted to get into the nuances of why the queer movement has been pernicious to gays and lesbians. Well, we did. And we did indeed have a very spicy debate. To prepare to listen to that conversation, I highly recommend you read Jamie’s article “From Queer to Gay to Queer.” If you’re not ready to commit to the Liberties paywall (although, if you’re an Uncertain Things fan, you really shouldn’t hesitate), then you can find a truncated version of the argument in his article for The Atlantic, “The Struggle for Gay Rights Is Over.”

One Last Certain Thing…

Don’t Drive Trucks (in Paris).

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1. Including FDR, who somehow has not only escaped being cancelled, but remains weirdly beloved on the left (I guess because of the New Deal?) — despite literally trodding violently on the civil rights of thousands of Japanese Americans.

2. Adaam’s take: I can see a reading of history that invalidates the project of the New Deal completely. At the very least I think the good parts of the narrative around the New Deal are overblown.