Speed Kills
Speed kills, especially speed of social and technological change, and no more so than the speed of change in terms of White males born in the 20s, 30s, 40s and 1950s. During the last quarter century their world of White male privilege has been turned upside down. Lower middleclass, non college graduate males have witnessed black and brown folks, those that during their youth lived and worked in the shadows of America, have suddenly become availed the opportunity to go off the best Ivy League colleges and graduate schools so that they may go forth as doctors, lawyers, corporate CEOs and even as president of the United States.
Indeed, speed of social change for those Whites that grew up in a very different world from that of today it can be exceedingly unnerving for them — as the human ego hates change, and as it hates a loss of comparative status even more. For White males of multiple generations back, a time when just being White entitled one of even minimum ability and ambition a decent paying job — that has evaporated. A world of gay marriage and equal rights, increasing science and fading religion, and a world of high-tech systems that seems beyond their comprehension has made them feel useless — obsolete.
Ruthless shysters — for all these frustrated White males, some women and even a few young men — have found highly profitable means for exploitation for their grievances, which unfortunately has poisoned the nation’s soul. Yes, for the nation’s fallen behind men and women there is a thriving media and political industry that caters to their frustration. We call this world of Fox News, the modern GOP and conservative talk radio — Trumpism. But Donald Trump and the GOP are not the real behind the scenes creators and directors of this gaggle of lies, conspiracy theories and projected hatred.
The man at the center of amplifying the destructive fiction of the nation’s rapid change was not even American born. In February 1996, international newspaper mogul Rupert Murdoch called upon Republican political strategist Roger Ailes to start up Fox News. For many years the GOP had been dog whistling America’s political malcontent that radically altered the party’s base. It was a marriage of media and politics made in America’s hellish social underbelly. Almost before they knew what had hit them true conservative and moderate Republicans were being squeezed (primaried) out of the party. And then of course Donald Trump came along to become the party’s cult leader, and the rest is history.
But make no mistake about it, though the Donald is a big mouth, flamboyant news hound, it is Murdock though his massive media empire that calls the shots for Trump and the entire GOP, mostly on behalf of his own economic self interest (yes, spewing hate and lies really is an extremely lucrative business) and in support of corporate allies, mostly cheaters and polluter types.
As long as Murdock and his henchmen remain a dominant political force in America, it is hard to see how the country’s vicious political divide can ever be nit back together. Speed of change kills, but Murdock turns swift change into all out political slaughter.
