Societal Brinksmanship

I talked last week about the paradox that resisting asshole behavior sometimes requires it. Those in power have constructed society so that only they (commonly rich, white, men) can get away with being jerks and that doing this allows them to stay in power. This kind of abuse is something that needs to be resisted and, often, at some point you have to fight fire with fire. But I also cautioned against it and today I want to expand on that.

I’ve been listening to the great Mike Duncan and his book The Storm Before the Storm which covers the period right before the fall of the Roman Republic. The short and skinny is that before the final rise of the Caesars, Rome experienced a steady loss of mos maiorum, which in this context refers to the norms of government. Rules of decorum and the rule of law broke down. Tribunes went from defenders of the people to political tools to an almost meaningless title. All because of abuse of power and assholery.

We’ve seen a similar trend in the US over the last thirty years or so.

• Newt Gingrich’s tactics in the 90’s including the government shutdown
• Fox News partisan coverage that pretends to not be
• Impeachment of Bill Clinton
• 2000 Election shenanigans
• Patriot Act
• Lame duck passing of Obamacare
• Removal of the filibuster in the Senate
• Citizens United
• Climate change denial
• Endless hearings related to Hilary Clinton (Benghazi, email server)
• Refusal to hold hearings on Merrick Garland
• Democratic parties manipulation of the 2016 primary to support Hilary Clinton
• Vote on Brett Kavanaugh despite his partisan rant
• Voter suppression efforts accelerating
• Immigration abuses and detentions
• Everything Donald Trump has done

Quite a lot of these things have been done by Republicans. I acknowledge my personal bias and that there are probably things worthy of putting on the list that were done by Democrats. That’s why I made sure to put the lame duck passing of Obama care on the list (emphasis on the lame duck passing as the problem). Feel free to point any out I missed.

All of these things have accelerated an erosion of societal norms.  They’ve been done by assholes in order to get what they want, consequences be damned. That same attitude has led to every other collapse of nations and rise of authoritarian regimes in history.

Let’s think of this in terms of game theory. You have two groups that run a country together. They have to make a decision. Their options are:

Each of the above examples are things where a party has violated the norms and gotten what they wanted. Seeing this only encourages more people to violate norms. Eventually, it’s a downward spiral that leads to violence and worse. The Magabomber and the guy who shot up a synagoue show we’ve already started to take our first steps down the violence spiral.

Now, as I mentioned last week, this is kind of a paradox. If someones an asshole, sometimes the only way to stop that is to be an asshole yourself. The key, though, is to remember that being an asshole is only acceptable to stop asshole behavior. Just like it’s only acceptable to be intolerant of intolerance. Unfortunately, it’s so easy to forget that and to engage in republic ending behavior just to keep the other guy from winning.

An often overlooked but important part of this equation is that relative power levels play a huge role. It’s far easier for those in power to cross the asshole-line. People without power have very few options available to them. If those in power refuse to share or even listen, they’re setting themselves up for problems.

Right now, the assholes are the ones with power. And they are the ones doing everything they can to stay in power. Now is not the time to play nice and continue to let them get away with it. But remember what you’re fighting for. You’re fighting for a government that looks out for all the people. For a society that functions. For a future that doesn’t get lumped together in the history books with Rome and Nazi Germany. You’re not fighting to beat Republicans. You’re not fighting for Democrats to win. You’re fighting for America to survive as a place we all want to live in.