Ross Douthat laments the breaking of the established order that formed following the collapse of Communism. The fact of the matter, though, is that no system is sustainable which does not take care of all its people. He notes that for some time, even generations, there was a centrist order which stood against attempts by both the left and right. But the problem is, that it is a system of crony capitalism — where the government and the 1% determined the winners and losers. Certain people are considered disposable.
Like the Pax Americana, the Pax Romana was considered to be eternal. But the fact of the matter was that since certain people, namely, the lower classes, were considered to be disposable, it could not sustain itself in the long run. Inequality became so rampant that people no longer accepted the legitimacy of the central government, a problem which the policy of bread and circuses only put off for a few hundred years. And now, inequality is becoming rampant, posing an existential threat to the established neoliberal order that arose after the collapse of Communism.
Douthat writes:
No new ideological movement, whether radical or reactionary, emerged to offer the alternative to liberalism that fascism and Marxism and throne-and-altar traditionalism once supplied. And no external adversary, whether Putinist or Islamist or Chinese, seemed to offer a better way than ours.
But that is the whole problem. Neoliberalism is being undone by its own hubris, the belief that it is the only true way to govern. In the meantime, Mr. Douthat does not go far enough; cracks in the Neoliberal order have appeared even here in the US, with Puerto Rico about to default on $1 billion worth of debt that it cannot pay.
Just like the barbarian invasions took a toll on the Roman Empire and eventually brought it down, different ideologies are taking a toll on the Pax Americana such as ISIS and Putinism as Mr. Douthat notes. They will likely pass, as he predicts; it would be difficult to imagine ISIS without al-Baghdadi or the Russian oligarchy without Putin, two highly charismatic personalities with the force of will to hole their movements together. Their passings would create a power vacuum that would risk both their disintegration. But other ideologies will rise to take their place.
But while nationalism is on the rise both here and in Europe, Mr. Douthat notes:
Meanwhile, in the American heart of that neoliberal imperium, were it not for Donald Trump the big political story of the year would be the emergence of a new New Left — visible in the continued potency of Black Lives Matter, the turmoil on college campuses, and the appeal of an avowed socialism on the Democratic Party’s campaign trail.
What we need is a real alternative to the Neoliberal order that can sustain itself. The real original settlers of this continent are the Native Americans, not the pilgrims who you read about in school. And while you heard a lot in school about various ancient civilizations like the Egyptians, the Greeks, and the Romans, the Native Americans build societies that lasted over 13,000+ years. Tribes and societies were highly diverse, so it is difficult to generalize too much; however, one thing they all had in common was the belief that the land is not ours to exploit:
"Treat the earth well: it was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children. We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children." --Ancient Indian Proverb "The American Indian is of the soil, whether it be the region of forests, plains, pueblos, or mesas. He fits into the landscape, for the hand that fashioned the continent also fashioned the man for his surroundings. He once grew as naturally as the wild sunflowers, he belongs just as the buffalo belonged..." --Luther Standing Bear "What is this you call property? It cannot be the earth, for the land is our mother, nourishing all her children, beasts, birds, fish and all men. The woods, the streams, everything on it belongs to everybody and is for the use of all. How can one man say it belongs only to him?" -Massasoit "One does not sell the land people walk on." --Crazy Horse "We do not own the freshness of the air or the sparkle of the water. How can you buy them from us?" -Sealth "My reason teaches me that land cannot be sold. The Great Spirit gave it to his children to live upon. So long as they occupy and cultivate it, they have a right to the soil. Nothing can be sold but such things as can be carried away" --Black Hawk "We know our lands have now become more valuable. The white people think we do not know their value; but we know that the land is everlasting, and the few goods we receive for it are soon worn out and gone." -- Canassatego "I love this land and the buffalo and will not part with it…I have heard you intend to settle us on a reservation near the mountains. I don't want to settle. I love to roam over the prairies. There I feel free and happy, but when we settle down we grow pale and die. A long time ago this land belonged to our fathers, but when I go up to the river I see camps of soldiers on its banks. These soldiers cut down my timber, they kill my buffalo and when I see that, my heart feels like bursting." -- Satanta, Kiowa Chief "If we ever owned the land we own it still, for we never sold it. In the treaty councils the commissioners have claimed that our country had been sold to the government. Suppose a white man should come to me and say, Joseph, I like your horses, and I want to buy them. Then he goes to my neighbor and says to him; Joseph's horses. I want to buy them, but he refuses to sell. My neighbor answers, Pay me the money and I will sell you Joseph's horses. The white man returns to me, and says, Joseph, I have bought your horses and you must let me have them. If we sold our lands to the government, this is the way they were bought." --Chief Joseph-Nez Perce "They made us many promises, more than I can remember, but they never kept but one: they promised to take our land and they took it. It was not hard to see that the white people coveted every inch of land on which we lived. Greed. Humans wanted the last bit of ground which supported Indian feet. It was land - it has ever been land - for which the White man oppresses the Indian and to gain possession of which he commits any crime. Treaties that have been made are vain attempts to save a little of the fatherland, treaties holy to us by the smoke of the pipe - but nothing is holy to the white man. Little by little, with greed and cruelty unsurpassed by the animal, he has taken all. The loaf is gone and now the white man wants the crumbs." --Luther Standing Bear
Now, I’m not suggesting we abolish all private property or go back to living like it was, say, 1200 AD. But the point is that we have taken the concept of property to such an extreme that certain people have billions and certain people have nothing and only live on $2 or so a day. In Native American society, the land was everyone’s to hunt, to fish, or to grow crops on. Homes frequently housed entire families consisting of dozens of people, not just 2-5 people like we do today. The fact that everybody’s life mattered and the fact that most Native American systems were built to care for the earth and the creation is part of the reason why they were able to live sustainably on this continent for 13,000+ years. There were exceptions — such as the city of Cahokia, which engaged in horrific practices such as mass human sacrifice. But such societies were aberrations, and so unsustainable that they fell apart after about 150 years or so. There are few stories or legends about Cahokia among the Native Americans — its story had to be pieced together by archaeologists operating hundreds of years after the fact.
Compare this to the society we currently live in. Currently, our social structure is controlled by the wealthy 1%, who buy elections, politicians, and laws. While anyone who is a citizen can vote (and even that is in question given laws against “felons” voting, a vestige of Jim Crow), the only people who appear on the general election ballots are usually okayed by the people with the money and power. There is an ethical system undergirding our social structure — those who are rich are the ones who work hardest; those who are not, are lazy. For the 1%, this is the justification for why they deserve to be on top. For the rest of us, there is a life of debt — we have to borrow in order to go to college, buy a car or a house, or cover unexpected expenses. For many who are poor, or Black, or Native American, or Latino, there is the added burden of ever-mounting debts from traffic fines, court costs, and any other fees the Police State sees fit to impose on people. In the eyes of the Police State, that is the surcharge of Driving While Black. And of course, there are laws requiring forced pregnancy — all the better to produce more people the Police State can drive into the debt trap or send off to die in foreign wars or send off to prison to profit the Prison Industrial Complex. The planet, human dignity, or ensuring that everyone has a job and a roof over their heads does not matter in this twisted dystopia; the only thing that matters is the bottom line.
Providing an alternative to the neoliberal order that Mr. Douthat rightly says is starting to crack requires us to take the best of American constitutional values, the left-wing values that Mr. Douthat discusses, and Native American values along with the values of all the other people who make part of our melting pot to put together a society that is much more sustainable than the one we have now. Rather than excessive military spending, we need Basic Income— we can pay out about $30,000 a year or so through progressive taxation, cut our military spending by two thirds, and retain the strongest military in the world — people fight much better when it is for their homes and freedom. Rather than death panels in corporate insurance offices deciding who is fit to be covered and who is not, we need single payer. Instead of death panels in corporate boardrooms deciding who to lay off and who to outsource and how much wage theft they can get away with, we need cooperative businesses who answer to the people who use them as well as the communities they serve. And instead of people wondering where the rent payments are going to come from, we need a $15 minimum wage — which the NY Times Editorial Board just came out in favor of. And since the air, our waterways, and our airwaves are public property, we can, for instance, force people to pay to pollute — giving money back to the people.
Nothing I say should be construed as the final word, but simply the starting point of the conversation. But the one prime directive we all have to follow is that everyone has to benefit if civilization is to evolve, adapt, and survive. Otherwise, we will simply go back to creating the sort of unsustainable societies that crumble and fall. Given the clear and present danger of manmade climate change, we cannot afford to get it wrong this time.