WEBVTT NOTE 18. In Defense of Indifference 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:08.880 In defense of indifference, America returned from Thanksgiving holiday, oblivious that Washington 2 00:00:08.880 --> 00:00:14.280 is still whipped up into a frenzy about the war on terror, the prospects for another attack 3 00:00:14.280 --> 00:00:21.480 on the homeland, the creation of a new Homeland Security Department and the impending war. 4 00:00:21.480 --> 00:00:26.400 What's odd is that these people are convinced that everyone else in the country is as hysterical 5 00:00:26.400 --> 00:00:44.920 My visit to my extended family in Texas has convinced me of what I've suspected for a 6 00:00:44.920 --> 00:00:46.820 long time. 7 00:00:46.820 --> 00:00:51.900 No one outside the Beltway really cares about or even notices much of what consumes the Beltway 8 00:00:51.900 --> 00:00:53.580 people from day to day. 9 00:00:53.580 --> 00:00:57.580 Not even concerning big issues like terrorism and national security. 10 00:00:57.580 --> 00:01:02.700 Okay, some Manhattan residents care because they were hit by terror the last time. 11 00:01:02.700 --> 00:01:08.340 Not that anyone there believes that the Feds are going to be able to prevent the next attack. 12 00:01:08.340 --> 00:01:13.760 As for the rest of the country, using Texas as a proxy, nothing. 13 00:01:13.760 --> 00:01:16.480 Not a word. 14 00:01:16.480 --> 00:01:20.760 In answer to a question about a poll showing plummeting regard for US foreign policy, Bush 15 00:01:20.760 --> 00:01:25.500 Bush said that his terror war is about freedom and doing my obligation to make sure our children 16 00:01:25.500 --> 00:01:28.240 can grow up in a free and safe society. 17 00:01:28.240 --> 00:01:31.940 Now, this is clearly a goal everyone shares. 18 00:01:31.940 --> 00:01:36.260 Every day, parents work to make sure their children are safe and grow up in freedom. 19 00:01:36.260 --> 00:01:40.640 Is there a living soul who actually believes that Bush is playing any role in ensuring 20 00:01:40.640 --> 00:01:43.380 safety and freedom for our children? 21 00:01:43.380 --> 00:01:49.580 If so, wouldn't they constantly be expressing gratitude as versus completely ignoring such 22 00:01:49.580 --> 00:01:50.580 Science. 23 00:01:50.580 --> 00:01:56.260 Instead, the issues dominating the central Texas town in which I spent a week run as 24 00:01:56.260 --> 00:01:57.260 follows. 25 00:01:57.260 --> 00:02:02.540 Too little rainfall, the merits of a new bridge downtown, the prospects for the local high 26 00:02:02.540 --> 00:02:08.700 school football team, the modernizing tendencies of the new pastor of First Baptist, the produce 27 00:02:08.700 --> 00:02:14.060 selection at the new grocery store, the local real estate market, and the upcoming tour 28 00:02:14.060 --> 00:02:16.660 of homes. 29 00:02:16.660 --> 00:02:24.220 In my family, the major issues were the glories of my mom's new Dell computer and her freestanding 30 00:02:24.220 --> 00:02:27.180 turkey roaster success. 31 00:02:27.180 --> 00:02:32.260 My own cloverleaf yeast rolls were a bigger deal than the prospect of war in the Persian 32 00:02:32.260 --> 00:02:33.260 Gulf. 33 00:02:33.260 --> 00:02:40.160 In fact, not once, not once, in seven days of visiting with friends and relatives in 34 00:02:40.160 --> 00:02:45.020 all directions, and these are politically-minded people, well-educated and unusually attentive 35 00:02:45.020 --> 00:02:52.140 to Public Affairs, did anyone provide an expression of thanks concerning Bush's efforts? 36 00:02:52.140 --> 00:02:55.700 In fact, national politics didn't come up at all. 37 00:02:55.700 --> 00:03:03.220 Once someone mentioned Bush's wife's suits, other than that, nothing. 38 00:03:03.220 --> 00:03:07.660 It wasn't quite taboo, it just wasn't on the radar screen. 39 00:03:07.660 --> 00:03:13.100 This is the first time in 20 years that issues of politics and government were completely 40 00:03:13.100 --> 00:03:15.820 be absent from discussion. 41 00:03:15.820 --> 00:03:19.500 My nephew came close to raising a political issue. 42 00:03:19.500 --> 00:03:24.280 He's on a high school debate team, and the subject is what the government ought to do 43 00:03:24.280 --> 00:03:30.020 about providing care for the insane – an idea akin to suggesting that the blind lead 44 00:03:30.020 --> 00:03:32.160 the blind. 45 00:03:32.160 --> 00:03:35.740 But this is a debate that could have taken place in the 19th century, as much as the 46 00:03:35.740 --> 00:03:36.740 21st century. 47 00:03:36.740 --> 00:03:41.860 It has no unique bearing on current-day controversies or realities. 48 00:03:41.860 --> 00:03:45.940 The topic was raised in the same way a boy would discuss his science project. 49 00:03:45.940 --> 00:03:51.940 Now, whether you oppose or support what is going on in Washington, one has to admit it 50 00:03:51.940 --> 00:03:56.560 is important and probably ought to be discussed. 51 00:03:56.560 --> 00:04:01.820 Bush is proposing a state of permanent war. 52 00:04:01.820 --> 00:04:07.540 He has created a fascistic monstrosity in the form of the Department of Homeland Security 53 00:04:07.540 --> 00:04:12.820 that aggressively shreds constitutional safeguards of civil liberties. 54 00:04:12.820 --> 00:04:17.960 The US is preparing to obliterate a poor, defenceless country in the Persian Gulf in 55 00:04:17.960 --> 00:04:23.100 order to grab its oil fields for government-connected corporations. 56 00:04:23.100 --> 00:04:28.740 Columnists on the left and right have raised alarm bells about the Nazification of America, 57 00:04:28.740 --> 00:04:31.220 and no one cares. 58 00:04:31.220 --> 00:04:35.380 Is this a good thing or a bad thing? 59 00:04:35.380 --> 00:04:37.340 It is both. 60 00:04:37.340 --> 00:04:43.820 On the one hand, the indifference of the public is a sign of resistance to our DC masters. 61 00:04:43.820 --> 00:04:49.180 All the nonsense about how 9-11 unified the country, brought everyone together in the 62 00:04:49.180 --> 00:04:56.460 new realization of the importance of civic uplift and the state, is mostly mythical. 63 00:04:56.460 --> 00:05:01.540 There is no gratitude shown towards the political, and in fact, there seems to be less civic 64 00:05:01.540 --> 00:05:05.340 unity and nationalist fervour than ever. 65 00:05:05.340 --> 00:05:09.800 The government has failed to shore up the public image of itself and its power ambitions, 66 00:05:09.800 --> 00:05:12.740 as polls are increasingly showing. 67 00:05:12.740 --> 00:05:18.260 The patriotism in Texas, Bush's home state, is for Texas and for institutions close to 68 00:05:18.260 --> 00:05:19.860 home. 69 00:05:19.860 --> 00:05:24.780 The Texas flag is far more commonly flown than the national flag. 70 00:05:24.780 --> 00:05:28.780 This has always been true, and it is true now. 71 00:05:28.780 --> 00:05:33.680 It seems that the common judgment in this land so far away from Washington, a place 72 00:05:33.680 --> 00:05:39.120 A place where the sense of being on a frontier is still quite intense is that the goings 73 00:05:39.120 --> 00:05:44.560 on in Congress just seem to have no bearing on their lives. 74 00:05:44.560 --> 00:05:48.060 On the downside, does public indifference grant Washington something of a license to 75 00:05:48.060 --> 00:05:54.320 reconstruct the country in ways of which people are unaware when they should be aware? 76 00:05:54.320 --> 00:05:55.880 Quite possibly. 77 00:05:55.880 --> 00:06:00.200 And yet, from the perspective of the state, an indifferent public can be compared to a 78 00:06:00.200 --> 00:06:06.320 a bear that is neither violent nor tame, but merely asleep. 79 00:06:06.320 --> 00:06:10.360 What about government surveillance powers and the shredding of the Fourth Amendment? 80 00:06:10.360 --> 00:06:13.440 Doesn't anyone care about that? 81 00:06:13.440 --> 00:06:18.320 The typical Texan doesn't believe that the government would ever go after him personally, 82 00:06:18.320 --> 00:06:23.080 or that the national government really has the power to do so should it want to. 83 00:06:23.080 --> 00:06:29.200 All the talk of the impending doom of essential liberties seems like an abstraction. 84 00:06:29.200 --> 00:06:34.720 That thing called the Federal Government is an eternity away, an institution that collects 85 00:06:34.720 --> 00:06:40.560 taxes and other dumb things, but otherwise has little impact on anyone's life. 86 00:06:40.560 --> 00:06:45.260 Even more of an abstraction is concern for the fate of innocents abroad to be killed 87 00:06:45.260 --> 00:06:47.920 by US bombs. 88 00:06:47.920 --> 00:06:54.460 I recall in the early days of my political enlightenment, 1979-ish, the Soviets invaded 89 00:06:54.460 --> 00:07:00.180 with Afghanistan, committing every manner of atrocity on a daily basis. 90 00:07:00.180 --> 00:07:06.460 I remember thinking, how can the Russian people sit by as their sons engage in a massacre 91 00:07:06.460 --> 00:07:09.860 against this innocent country next door? 92 00:07:09.860 --> 00:07:13.420 What must it be like to live daily with the knowledge that one's own government is both 93 00:07:13.420 --> 00:07:18.560 totalitarian at home and militarily imperialistic outside its borders? 94 00:07:18.560 --> 00:07:23.460 Why don't people do something to stop the insanity? 95 00:07:23.460 --> 00:07:25.860 Lie Indeed 96 00:07:25.860 --> 00:07:30.900 Now I think I know the process by which a population comes to tolerate despotic foreign 97 00:07:30.900 --> 00:07:32.340 rule. 98 00:07:32.340 --> 00:07:36.060 It must be a universal process. 99 00:07:36.060 --> 00:07:42.620 First the government establishes precedents in small ways, and steadily tightens the grip. 100 00:07:42.620 --> 00:07:47.860 Second it uses a crisis as a way of dramatically stepping up what used to be the exception 101 00:07:47.860 --> 00:07:50.780 and making it the rule. 102 00:07:50.780 --> 00:07:56.540 The government disempowers the people by foreclosing all opportunities for those who do care to 103 00:07:56.540 --> 00:07:58.540 do anything about the problem. 104 00:07:58.540 --> 00:08:05.620 Eventually, people come to shut out unpleasant information and focus on other things. 105 00:08:05.620 --> 00:08:09.420 What would libertarians have these people do? 106 00:08:09.420 --> 00:08:12.980 Must they become intensely concerned for their future and throw themselves into the 107 00:08:12.980 --> 00:08:15.700 political battle? 108 00:08:15.700 --> 00:08:19.960 Anyone under the age of 60 in Texas who is concerned about liberty is conditioned to 109 00:08:19.960 --> 00:08:24.760 to support the Republicans, the party of low taxes and small government. 110 00:08:24.760 --> 00:08:29.160 But it is the Republicans who are doing this to us. 111 00:08:29.160 --> 00:08:31.920 What is the politically active person supposed to do? 112 00:08:31.920 --> 00:08:34.080 Back more Republicans? 113 00:08:34.080 --> 00:08:38.480 Toil away in the vineyards of the Libertarian Party? 114 00:08:38.480 --> 00:08:43.120 Another traditional option would be to let your President know your views. 115 00:08:43.120 --> 00:08:48.800 But the Bush administration is notoriously aloof to outside opinion. 116 00:08:48.800 --> 00:08:50.480 of the Iraq War. 117 00:08:50.480 --> 00:08:55.880 There is a massive and international anti-war movement alive and growing. 118 00:08:55.880 --> 00:08:59.820 But how does it affect the Bush administration, which has all the guns? 119 00:08:59.820 --> 00:09:04.180 The White House spokesman doesn't even bother to address the arguments of the opposition. 120 00:09:04.180 --> 00:09:08.080 You have to be Brent Scrocroft writing in the Wall Street Journal to merit so much as 121 00:09:08.080 --> 00:09:10.920 a public denunciation. 122 00:09:10.920 --> 00:09:12.760 What else can a person do? 123 00:09:12.760 --> 00:09:16.760 Write a letter to a congressman and get a form letter back? 124 00:09:16.760 --> 00:09:19.600 Whether you're friends and neighbors with your political opinions and cause them to 125 00:09:19.600 --> 00:09:25.760 think of you as a fanatic, oddly interested in irrelevant things, collect petitions, participate 126 00:09:25.760 --> 00:09:33.920 in rallies, sport bumper stickers, none of these options hold out promise of success. 127 00:09:33.920 --> 00:09:38.680 So from the average person's point of view, there is really nothing that can be done about 128 00:09:38.680 --> 00:09:41.520 the current state of affairs. 129 00:09:41.520 --> 00:09:47.300 As Paul Gottfried says, the power elite are running things, and everyone else is disenfranchised 130 00:09:47.300 --> 00:09:53.100 and disempowered, so instead, people just go on with their lives. 131 00:09:53.100 --> 00:09:58.780 Indifference is the only civilised option, or so it would seem, such is the way average 132 00:09:58.780 --> 00:10:04.340 people have come to think about American liberty and the rise of tyranny in our time. 133 00:10:04.340 --> 00:10:10.640 The public doesn't consist of willing executioners, so much as indifferent spectators to the demise 134 00:10:10.640 --> 00:10:23.420 And yet, in a quiet and potentially revolutionary way, these Texans are involved in activities 135 00:10:23.420 --> 00:10:27.060 that constitute a threat to the regime. 136 00:10:27.060 --> 00:10:34.820 They are refusing to believe, refusing to show gratitude, refusing to be drawn in. 137 00:10:34.820 --> 00:10:41.920 Instead, they are raising families, faithfully attending church, passing on solid values 138 00:10:41.920 --> 00:10:47.540 to their children, turning off their televisions and doggedly pursuing normalcy and bourgeois 139 00:10:47.540 --> 00:10:52.500 life rather than becoming part of the frenzy that Washington and the media is demanding 140 00:10:52.500 --> 00:10:55.000 from all of us. 141 00:10:55.000 --> 00:10:59.540 Where DC demands our first loyalties, the loyalties of the Texas middle class are with 142 00:10:59.540 --> 00:11:02.740 family and friends. 143 00:11:02.740 --> 00:11:07.780 Where D.C. demands all authority, the bourgeoisie in Texas is dismissive of such demands as 144 00:11:07.780 --> 00:11:11.140 the ranting of the political class. 145 00:11:11.140 --> 00:11:16.580 Where D.C. insists on the supremacy of the nation-state, most Americans, it would appear, 146 00:11:16.580 --> 00:11:24.540 still believe in the supremacy of the individual, family, kinfolk and faith. 147 00:11:24.540 --> 00:11:29.780 So long as this is the case, the battle to save our freedoms is not won, but neither 148 00:11:29.780 --> 00:11:32.000 has it been lost. 149 00:11:32.000 --> 00:11:38.520 The Bayer is hibernating, and no one knows what it will do if it is poked on to too great 150 00:11:38.520 --> 00:11:40.140 an extent. 151 00:11:40.140 --> 00:11:46.040 The uncertainty alone works as a kind of restraint on power.