The Galli Report: 09.04.20
Ending unending riots, COVID creativity, and political humor
Stop the Riots! -- But How?
As David French points out, it’s not that easy. I’ve been following commentary on this phenomenon, and pundits either demand strong-man tactics “Bring in the National Guard!” or are in denial “Most protests are peaceful!” As French notes:
External critics of city, state, and national governments often treat the challenge as if there’s an on/off switch. Good mayors can turn it off. Bad mayors leave it on. Good presidents stop violence. Bad presidents watch cities burn.
Make no mistake, leadership matters. It truly does. Bad leaders can incite violence. Bad leaders can blunder into chaos. But it’s worth pondering why a city can spiral out of control and why it can be so hard to not just end riots, but restore true stability and peace.
One article that highlights mayors who have recently handled unrest well—or as well as one could hope for—is found here. The careful reader will recognize how they employed both empathy and stubborn insistence on law and order.
It’s hard but not impossible—a conclusion that prompts me to pray for my local mayors. They have a thankless job right now.
If you’re interested in an historical perspective, take a look at this piece that argues,
… war against statues, paintings, books, biographies, etc., has been a defining feature of civilization’s revolutionary enemies, consistent with their chosen identities as alien tribes.
What follows is a glance at the bloody history of this little-known flaw. It is a tale whose cautionary moral Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn best expressed: the line between good and evil runs not between persons—never mind between parties, classes, or races—but down the middle of every human heart. That is central to our civilization.
Biblical Rebellion
The riots and the looting are not to be justified in any way, shape, or form. That being said, a lot of the irrational anger at seemingly everything (!) is evidence that there are many things deeply wrong in our culture, so wrong that a just anger explodes into absurd fury. In this vein, we do well to remember that rebellion against injustice is woven into the Bible from beginning to end—from the exodus story to the battle with the antichrist. If we are true to our faith, it will be woven into our souls as well.
The Devil’s in the COVID Details
I don’t know that I agree with this author’s argument about plastic and reusable bags, but I found the piece an interesting example of how we now pay close attention to what formerly were matters of indifference.
Where There’s a Will …
Among the many ways religions are responding to COVID, I found this one by Muslims to be more interesting than most. How do you honor Hajj, the annual pilgrimage that attracts millions of Muslims, in a way that is, well, sanitary? The solution isn’t perfect, but there is something beautiful—in both efficiency and the visual result--in the way Saudi Arabia has handled the issue. See this video for an explanation, and this video for a visual treat.
Politician with a Sense of Humor
Boy, could we use one. This species of politicians is, in our earnest times, an endangered species. We do well to remember a time and a man who could tell a good joke—not for sheer entertainment but because he knew that humor is one way to keep politics civil. I give you “The Best of Ronald Reagan’s Humor,” as well as a CBS story analyzing his use of humor.
Grace and peace,
Mark Galli
Mark,
Your link to the article Millenarian Mobs by Codevilla at Claremont Review of Books provided thought provoking reading, but disturbingly so. The historical events and the descriptions of popular movements that precipitated them could easily be read as representing some elements of both the hyper radicalism of the current political far left in the U.S., and the hyper conservatism of the current political far right. My overall impression is that Codevilla is here referring primarily to the radical left, especially with his extensive discussion of the currently ongoing iconoclasm, the idea of aggrieved lower social classes being manipulated by a "cultural elite" whose only concern is the capture and maintenance of power and the sympathies expressed by a fairly wide middle tier of people seeking absolution for real and imagined complicity in the entrenched mechanisms of the lower class aggrievement. The confounding factor here seems to be the lack of an explicit millenarianism on the left.
Elements descriptive of the hyper conservative camp are characterized by a very strong millenarian narrative, a dominant central leader whose primary aim is the attainment and maintenance of personal power, while being supported by a certain element of the current religious establishment,and said leader's relentless amplification of the grievances of a mainly lower-to-middle class clan of citizens who feel both personally and culturally threatened. Calculated blame casting is directed toward a widely generalized "they" who include among their ranks specific ethnic scapegoat groups.
The chilling commonalities shared between these two tribes are their seemingly volitional isolation from virtually any reasoned discourse with the other side (thereby dehumanizing and delegitimizing the "opposition"), and the expressed willingness by elements of both sides to shed blood if judged necessary; the necessity of which being based upon dense but very fragile triplines of paranoid ideological criteria. Yesterday I read an article (I apologize for not remembering whose byline it was) the author of which had been at a recent political rally in the upper Midwest. Based upon interviews of the rally attendees, the author reported that, should their candidate lose the upcoming election, a distinctly militant attitude was expressed by the stated willingness by supporters of this candidate, to instigate (implicitly armed) revolt via invocation as precedents our own revolutionary and civil wars. According to the interviewees, they staunchly believe that there is no way that their candidate, who was described by one person as a "Godsend" who can "do no wrong," could lose reelection short of an electoral process that had been manipulated by the other side. (Never mind that there is overwhelming concrete proof of significant attempts at electoral manipulation by forces outside this country in support of this particular candidate and against his rivals). The author is very concerned that this November and December of 2020 could be dangerously unsettled times that put massive strain on our system that is based upon the rule of law as well as to our national cohesiveness, such as it is. I fervently hope and pray that he is wrong.