I believe we are the only country in the Covid-19 21st century world that would ever consider allowing social gatherings even close to the magnitude of Sturgis, now officially at 462,182 boneheads in attendance, unless it is absolutely unpreventable, such as crowding in the massive overcrowded developing cities of India, China, etc.
I can think of many reasons why we have reached this state in the evolution, or de-evolution of our American culture and why we are unsuccessfully handling massive challenges today, such as climate change and Covid-19. I believe we last behaved as a cohesive society during WWII. These are just a few of the reasons:
No national Covid-19 plan. As everyone knows, the dysfunctionality of Washington has exceeded our wildest nightmares and certainly broken record books, somewhere. We are not only a leaderless ship but also a crewless one. We, as the name of the great British rock band, would imply, are in Dire Straits. Essentially, we have no Congress, we have a worthless president, a weak cabinet and a badly lopsided, and maybe getting more lopsided with the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Supreme Court;
Individualism has displaced the common good. Since WWII, the common good has melted into history and doesn’t have a snowball’s chance in Hell of being understood today. I think I understand why so many people in the U.S. don’t even know what the phrase, “for the common good,” means, because, as best I can tell, it was never actually mentioned in the Constitution and definitely never married to the currently badly abused First and Second Amendments, unfortunately.
Alexis de Tocqueville, the Frenchman who wrote the classic, “Democracy in America” in 1835, idealistically believed that individualism in America could work because, at that time in our history, we would be able to overcome individual selfish desires, thus resulting in an active and vibrant political and civil society. While he saw egotism and selfishness as vices, he saw individualism as not necessarily a failure of feeling, but as a way of thinking about things which could have either positive consequences such as a willingness to work together, or negative consequences such as isolation.
A working democracy requires moral restraint and respect for the betterment or common good (or welfare) of society. In certain situations, the rights of individuals must step aside in favor of the collective will of a group or community. With the advent of Covid-19, in no way could the Sturgis rally and any of the other anti-lockdown, sick extravaganzas be twisted enough to be considered for the common good. 460,000 jammed idiots into a small South Dakota town relative to 7.8 billion (2020 world pop) is a drop in the bucket but could be an epicenter of disaster as they return to their respective homes around the world.
To attend Sturgis implies you don’t give a shit about the fact you could be perpetuating severe suffering and death, however indirect or unintended. The Sturgis Harley Davidson fanaticism normally is a relatively harmless cult gathering, but not this year. It is tantamount to collective insanity and perceived mass suicide, not unlike the 1978 Jonesville Massacre in Guyana, but with delayed consequences.
Social and physical remoteness from the field of play. If we don’t watch a friend or relative die from Covid-19 or watch an epic hurricane or fire due to climate change wipe out our town, neighborhood or a few friends and family, some of us may be dense enough to not believe the event is real, even believing it is a product of the media. A hoax, in other words. We can fight wars and fire on computers and watch NFL players get battered and broken on TV without emotion. Meanwhile, the actual casualties on any field of play unconsciously become collateral damage for the price of success (especially financial) and progress.
A strong minority has thumbed their noses at civility. The media has made sure that the world sees us as lacking respect for virtually everything that means anything: each other, science, facts, evidence, authority, laws, our Founding Fathers and the American Constitution, and death. The big question, at least in my mind, is why? I see it not unlike the classic question asked of mountaineers: why do you climb mountains? Storybook answer: because they are there, and I can. To be conquered, to be beaten. Thus, throw any self-imposed moral restraints out the window. We can’t do it, as Garrett Hardin said in his classic 1968 paper, Tragedy of the Commons. If given the opportunity, we will always destroy the commons, as I said above, for the sake of the individual.
The Constitution has been forced to become an anachronism. Because of our greed and selfishness to test every conceivable contingency, we have become blinded as to what our Founding Fathers really intended, at least regarding the First and Second Amendments. If the Founding Fathers could see how we have abused and twisted their brilliant document, they would be sad, flabbergasted, and unbelieving. They were smart men but not palm readers. I’m sure they thought they were considering as many contingencies as their free-wheeling brains would allow, but there are limits. Of all the signers, Ben Franklin, being an inventor, might have anticipated automatic weapons and disease vectors that could mutate in seconds, but even Ben would have needed the aid of some serious mega-hallucinogens and Tim O’Leary wasn’t around at that time to help. I don’t have to sit down with Alexander Hamilton or Benjamin Franklin or George Washington or any the other 36 signers of the Constitution to predict their sentiments toward our current sickness.
The upshot of these factors and certainly others seems to point conclusively to this: we have become an undisciplined, ungoverned, uncivil, ignorant, semi-lawless, greedy, selfish, detached and desensitized nation as defined by a minority of our fellow citizens. And this minority is currently leading the rest of us by the noses. Not unlike the Pied Piper. A fragment of this demented minority is even proud of being selfishness (see earlier post on June 28, “American Pride”).
For such undisciplined events as Sturgis to continue could only lead to one end: anarchy. Some might say that we have already arrived. Not unlike the mother of all tipping points for climate change, whenever and whatever that will be, or has been. Anarchy under the conditions of runaway climate and a deadly disease would, in every sense of the word, be Hell, just as some are describing California ablaze.
I’m not a religious person but I am beginning to think we, globally, have painted ourselves into a corner, socially, politically and environmentally for which there is no escape except through Hell and perhaps beyond, whatever that entails. It won’t be “To Hell and Back,” the book and movie about, by and starred in by Audie Murphy in the early 50s. We ain’t coming back from Hell in any time soon.
At this point in history, climate change and an epidemic are causing global destruction. We can change our social and political future, but the environmental future is locked in for years and it is frightening to put it mildly. We need only look at West Coast fires and East Coast flooding for proof.
As I said at the very beginning of Part I, Sturgis is not just another huge gathering of motorcyclists this year as in past years, this year, 2020, it represents the best, or worst, depending on how you view it, example of how far our society has allowed itself to drop in the name of individualism. We will rue the day, if we recognize it when it arrives, when we chose selfishness over the common good. This is a heavy price civilization will have to pay for a long, long time.
Where Is That Damned Free Hugs ‘n Kisses Booth?