Title: The Age of Illusions
Rating: 3 Stars
This explains how American values have changed from the Cold War era to the post Cold War Era. Bacevich believes that these changes led to the US finding itself lost and it also explains the election of Donald Trump.
He first starts with the Cold War values. These are best summarized by the film The Best Years of our Lives. Filmed in 1946, it is about three WWII veterans coming back to their home town of Boone City and their troubles adjusting to civilian life.
US priorities during this time were to preserve values, fight communism, and consume material goods. What’s meant by values are those typically held by straight, white Christian men. Stable marriage, intact families, love of God, and good honest work is what every real American wanted to strive for.
During the Cold War, there was no questioning the belief that the US was in an existential fight for its survival. At the conclusion of previous wars, there was an immediate draw down of military. Although the military was nowhere near the size that it was while fighting WWII, there was still large numbers of armed forces both here and abroad. Nuclear weapon research continued apace. Even though nominally at peace, few questioned the need for the US to continue to stand aggressively in the face of communism.
During WWII, the US grew to become a manufacturing behemoth. No longer required to produce war materials at such prodigious scale, manufacturing was re-tooled for the production of consumer goods. Material consumption was widely encouraged to keep the manufacturing engine humming.
Once communism fell in 1989, these values were revisited. With communism in ashes, Francis Fukuyama predicted the end of history. The US democratic / capitalist system had proven itself superior and the US, now thought of as the indispensable nation, was the sole remaining superpower.
From that period arose four new US priorities, hopefully leading us to a wonderful Emerald City. These priorities are globalization, the US as the militarized global leader, individual autonomy, and the power of the presidency.
Each of these has, some twenty-five years later, become problematic. Globalization, although it can certainly be argued has led to greater wealth, has led to great inequality and a loss of hope for those that have been left behind.
The US faith in its role as the great military power has led it to become lost in forever wars. Since US is an all volunteer army, its enlistees are invariably from those that have been left behind economically. Since the children of the elite largely do not serve, as long as there are a relatively few number of casualties, there is little incentive in exiting these wars.
The growth of autonomy has led to an embrace of values that are dramatically different than those embraced by Boone City. Gays serving in the military, gay marriage, Black Lives Matter, and a general decline in church attendance are all things that the traditional Christian, straight, white male will look askance at. Others of course see it as society finally widening out its lens to accept a much broader range of behaviors and beliefs. Bacevich, a conservative himself, pretty clearly doesn’t approve of some of these developments, but his point in this context is that this growth of autonomy has led to a wide divergence of beliefs that at one time was fairly monolithic.
As the sole remaining superpower, it was assumed that its head, the President, would lead the world. Bacevich argues that neither Bill Clinton, George W Bush, nor Barack Obama measured up to this task. Clinton with his moral foibles and insistent third way of politics led to small achievements. Bush, wanting to be a different kind of conservative, ended up having his entire presidency hijacked by 9/11 and his response to it. Obama, having to start his presidency by trying to rescue the economy, was never able to truly embark on the change that he was envisioning. Not only that, but having accomplished most via presidential orders, it was a simple matter for Trump to roll much of it back.
With none of the Emerald City promises materializing, the people were ready for a change. That change came in the form of Donald Trump.
Bacevich thinks that, despite the Strum und Drang of the Trump presidency, that really not a lot has changed. Sure, there have been near daily dramatic crises that the media has no doubt hyped (and in so doing leading it to massive profits). Despite that, not much has really changed. Yes, there was a tax cut, but as usual it went primarily to the wealthy elite. Yes there are now more conservative justices on the court, but the rule of law does not appear endangered. Such promises as building a wall, bringing manufacturing back to the US, and making the US a God fearing country again have largely fallen away.
Bacevich wonders how dramatically different a Clinton Presidency actually would have been. He compares Trump and Clinton to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Not by any means central characters, they are simply swept along by events in the play.
In Bacevich’s opinion, the issues that loom largest in the future of the US are the rise of China, the impact of technology on our lives, and the continued effects of climate change.
Taking on these challenges will require us to discard our current set of post Cold War priorities and adopt new ones. Doing so will force us to abolish our current centers of power (ie Wall Street, Silicon Valley, DC lobbyists) that benefit from the current status quo.
Such change does not happen voluntarily and it does not happen from the top down. Could the current protests that we’re seeing result in a generation of Americans willing to take on these challenges?
If so, then maybe we’ll owe a debt to Donald Trump after all.
dorkenstein 