I have served in both state and federal government. Breaking news: it is not always pretty. Most of the time, politics is just like any other business: Elected officials and the people who work for them know that information is their most important currency. People peddle secrets because it gives them credibility and, most importantly, power. If you think this type of behavior doesn’t pervade your local institutions, you should read some more Jim Kenyon.
What is perhaps making us so nervous in this period of infatuation and saturation is that all the secrets are being released to the general public. We don’t even need to wait; they just appear: on Twitter, on TV, in print, in the man’s own words anytime he has a microphone in his face. Think what would happen at your work if every shred of gossip was on the front page of this newspaper, if every rumored staff change was being discussed in coffee shops, if the entire Upper Valley community was speculating on how spectacularly your company was going to explode. You would never want to get out of bed for fear of what was coming next.
Welcome to the U.S.A. in 2017.
Maybe the best course of action is to wade into the madness, turn onto our backs and float away on the tidal wave of suspicious-sounding vocabulary: emoluments, sources and methods, fake, downward spiral, Kremlin, preexisting conditions, oath, crisis, espionage, the 25th Amendment, LEAKERS, border fence, McMaster, impeachment, collusion, Mexico, sad!, Flynn-quiry, mental competence.
Better to float than to struggle because we have already lost, haven’t we? Today’s world is the most toxic, divided, uncertain, and dispiriting of all time.
Except, of course, if we have the guts and the honesty to recall, well, everything else in human history leading up to today.
Boy, humanity does have a wonderful ability to forget difficult times. If you are generally happy in your life as you read this, your selective amnesia is working beautifully. Unless you are a mental miracle, you have had periods in your life where negative thoughts dominated your existence. Death, acne, divorce, the rumor mill, professional snafus, a case of mumps, poor putting, bankruptcy, lousy publicity, the middle seat in coach — anything can consume our minds if we are not careful. If you think about it, many of us suffer at the micro level much more than we do at the macro one. Yet we soldier on, somehow getting past rejection letters (“Their loss!”), bad high school dances, and the haunting if-only-I-could-take-back-that-stupid-remark moments of our day-to-day existence.
We are not immune to conflict and controversy in the Upper Valley, of course. Over the years, our communities have had plenty to chew on and debate. From the serious (shanty towns on the Dartmouth Green, student behavior at Hanover-Lebanon sporting events, the closing of Everything But Anchovies) to the silly (concrete balls on the Ledyard Bridge, the number of showers available at the new public safety building in Norwich), we cannot avoid the catnip of a good story.
Of course, we also obsess about events on the world stage. Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright recently claimed that “pretty much everything” keeps her awake at night these days. If former diplomats are going sleepless, it is generally a sign that today’s challenges are indeed worrisome.
Again, though, when haven’t they been?
I do not want to waste your time making tired comparisons between current events and Deep Throat, “I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky,” or Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001. Those experiences serve as a general reminder of how wildly dramatic and tragic human life can be. They rattled our collective American consciousness and forced us to confront some of the most hideous skeletons in our cultural closet.
As a civilization, we are nearly always consumed by current events. Americans, especially, thrive on water cooler talk. Remember when Terri Schiavo dominated our discourse for weeks? Or when the name Elian Gonzalez was on the tip of every tongue? I still marvel that we survived Roseanne Barr’s crotch-grab national anthem, the Nancy Kerrigan-Tonya Harding feud, or the supposed pubic hair on Clarence Thomas’ Coke.
Nearly always, there was someone reminding us that the stakes had never been higher, that these individual events were destined to transform us permanently as a people. With hindsight, though, I would argue that these events — and hundreds of others — merely distract and entertain us. As a certain former president could attest, it can be easier to believe in change than to see it materialize.
Remembering the turmoil of yesteryear is difficult, but when life is spinning just a bit too fast, it can be worthwhile to pick through some of the drama of the past. There are many lessons there, including a truth that, even in our worst times, consciously or not, we seem to grasp onto an optimism for the future. If Red Sox fans can recover from Aaron Boone’s home run, anything is possible. So, as we hurtle through the latest news cycles, let us remember to take a deep breath. After all, just like disco, the hysteria about same-sex marriage, and the Y2K calamity, this, too, shall pass.
Right?
Mark Lilienthal lives in Norwich. He can be reached a mlilient@gmail.com.