How Will History Remember Us?

Dear Friends,

This blog is delayed because Monday was a holiday, I think. Monday seems like it happened more than three days ago, so my memory isn’t super clear on this. Anyway, I had a bunch of topics in mind but I got distracted today by the verdict in the Trump case. Guilty on 34 counts. If you have been following the case as closely as I have, you probably weren’t that surprised either. The speed at which it came was a little surprising. That’s a lot of counts to get through in under two days.

There is a sense, if you’ve been anti-Trump at any point in the past forty years, that this is just desserts. His lawlessness and corrupt dealings finally caught up with him. Some people might even feel like celebrating the fact that he’s finally been held accountable by someone, and in this case, a jury of his peers.

My reaction, and probably why the prosecution team was muted in its response, is that this is actually sad. It’s sad that we elected a man as President who, at the time he was elected, we knew to be a disgusting misogynist. We also knew that he was a bad businessman and suspected that his business practices were mafia-like. Not only has our country tolerated his corruption, racism, and authoritarianism, he continues to have a lock on the support of at least 30% of Americans. It’s sad that this conviction is unlikely to make this country evaluate how we got to this place and how we move forward in a more sane direction.

Sure, our justice system works, but just barely. Trump has gotten away with business practices like these since his daddy gave him his first property. A lot of other people do too. Trump probably isn’t wrong that he wouldn’t have been prosecuted if his profile hadn’t been raised by his presidential campaigns. That doesn’t mean he shouldn’t have been prosecuted; it means that more white-collar crime should be prosecuted.

When we look back at this day from the future, will we see it as the beginning of a period of accountability for Trump and for other millionaires whose illegal business practices ensure they accrue wealth and power? Or will it be another step on the road to a total fracture of our country?

On a lighter note, I also wonder what archaeologists of the future will believe our religions to have been. I was thinking about this today because the novel I am writing concerns (in part) how belief systems are created and because Charlamagne tha God was quoted in the NY Times. I thought, what if future historians think Charlamagne tha God WAS our god? I think that they will deduce that we were a polytheistic civilization that had coexisting pantheons of demigods. The god circles are Star Wars, Marvel Cinematic Universe, and football, (both American and the other one). They have all the markers of religion: origin stories and myths, superpowers/miracles, days dedicated to their celebration, moral codes or rules of conduct, and offerings/sacrifice. With of course the Father/Force/Zeus overlord Charlamagne tha God.

None of us have any way of knowing if I’m right or not.

I’m going to go back to refreshing the news sites and procrastinating on my regular work now. Have a great rest of the week.