The rational news media and commentary have apparently gone
full throttle in their dark visions of a Trump presidency. All seem to be puffing a desperate sigh of
resignation. Each signifies a subtext of
helplessness. One could even say they
have yielded to soft irrationality. In
his recent column deconstructing Trump’s musings on foreign policy, Roger Cohen
lamented that such thoughts represent “a real recipe for cataclysm.” And, in fact, I basically agree with Cohen.
But all of this mediated maundering has led me to consider a
different set of circumstances. Perhaps
we reporters and opinionators (especially we opinionators) fail to look beyond
the November election. First, we can all
agree that Trump’s “candidacy” has mustered a considerable number of fellow
travelers. And the pollsters and their
employers have rushed to explain that those numbers certainly and factually do
not represent a sufficient tally to yield an election victory. OK.
Let’s accept that as a probable conclusion. But, second, let’s consider what the
consequences of a Trump defeat might
look like.
Virtually all profiles of Trump’s fellow travelers share a
commonality: They are prima facie evidence of the arrogance of ignorance. What is that?
Ignorance is not necessarily a shortcoming. I, for example, who have a fair level of
intelligence, am fundamentally ignorant of most mathematics beyond simple
calculations (addition. subtraction, multiplication and division). I sort of learned geometry, but algebra remains
a foreboding to me. No. Ignorance is not stupidity. But the arrogance of ignorance is.
The arrogance of ignorance is the attitude that a person
knows he or she is ignorant of something(s) and takes pride in that
ignorance. That person, in fact, feels
superior to those who know something(s).
This feeling often leads to contempt for those who know something(s), a
contempt fostered by their seething feelings of jealousy, envy and, thus,
inadequacy (especially the men). And
when such people have the integrity of their ignorance challenged, they tend to
lash out. U.S. history has experienced
bouts of multitudes seething with the arrogance of ignorance. The most famous was the Know Nothing
movement, formally the American Party, of the mid-1850s, which boasted
nationalism, based in anti-ethnic and anti-immigrant sentiments. Sound familiar?
Now, based on all the reports about Trump’s fellow
travelers, we can see a profile of this arrogance of ignorance. The question for me, reflected in the title
of this post, is what happens when these people have their fervor frustrated by
the democratic process; i.e., how do they react to a Trump defeat at the
polls? The Know Nothings had a great
deal to do with what were known as the “draft riots” in New York City in 1863,
which were long simmering expressions of fear grounded in loss of employment to
immigrants and free blacks. This could become our domestic cataclysm.
The rabble at Trump’s rallies are buoyed by the feeling that
they are witnessing and participating in what they feel is Trump’s best, good
feeling reality TV of 2016. They feel
like something is happening for them
rather than to them, for a
change. They are winning apprentices,
because Trump spouts all the empty truisms that give fleeting substance to their
beliefs.
But how, then, will they respond
when actuality punctures those beliefs?
What happens when the child’s most cherished understandings are
dispelled? Where do these people go to
receive the fantasies that Trump has projected for them? The answers, I think, will be America’s next
most remarkable thing.
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