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Our Long National Nightmare Continues
Nov. 10th, 2024 10:16 pmI remember, back in 2016, when I learned that Trump had won the election, I posted some comments on my blog (LiveJournal back then), including “To emend Gerald Ford, our long national nightmare is just beginning.” I was right, but I did not foresee that after losing the 2020 presidential election, attempting to conduct an autogolpe, and departing from the White House in disgrace, Donald Trump would be re-elected in 2024.
I have been thinking about a story, “Sam Hall,” written by the great Poul Anderson during the 1950s. After being defeated in war by the Soviet Union, and clawing its way back to strength and then to world domination, the United States is an authoritarian, essentially dictatorial country. One character, an officer in Security, says “The people demanded it at the time.” Another, hearing him, reflects (I’m quoting from memory), “The people never appreciated their birthright until they had lost it. Or is it that, not being trained in thinking, they were unable to visualize the consequences of what they demanded?”
Let us hope that this does not come true in the real world, for Anderson’s grandchildren and the rest of us.
I have been thinking about a story, “Sam Hall,” written by the great Poul Anderson during the 1950s. After being defeated in war by the Soviet Union, and clawing its way back to strength and then to world domination, the United States is an authoritarian, essentially dictatorial country. One character, an officer in Security, says “The people demanded it at the time.” Another, hearing him, reflects (I’m quoting from memory), “The people never appreciated their birthright until they had lost it. Or is it that, not being trained in thinking, they were unable to visualize the consequences of what they demanded?”
Let us hope that this does not come true in the real world, for Anderson’s grandchildren and the rest of us.
