The Death Drive in our Political Life

On boredom, stupidity, and madness

I don’t write much because it’s hard to know what to say these days.

So many pundits (of which I’m not one; I’m a middle-aged, middle-class, Midwestern mom who cares about democracy) have had a lot to say, most of it disconnected from reality (Simon Rosenberg: If we all just work harder we can make up for the feckless idiocy or willful collaboration of Democratic leaders! Joyce Vance: the rule of law still matters! Heather Cox Richardson: Biden is/was practically perfect in every way! Anne Applebaum: it’s the fascism!) and therefore flat wrong (We can’t; the rule of law has always applied more to some than others and relied on those in power to enforce it (i.e., use force or the threat of force to make it happen) which Republicans won’t against the rich and their own; while Biden had some great policies, he was willing to collude in genocide and did not sacrifice for his country when it would have mattered. His failure to get his message across is already causing untold suffering and death (1); “fascism” gives them too much credit: fascists are loyal to a nation-state, the current regime is a mafia of billionaire kleptocrats whose only loyalty is to their own wealth) (2) .

If there’s a historical analogy to be had here, it’s not Rachel Maddow’s “prequel” in the ‘30s in the US or the actual outbreak of fascism in the 20s in Germany (though there are features of that), but 1914 in Europe. No one has ever quite been able to explain the Great War (which became known as World War I when the second phase of it broke out as World War II, after a pause to re-arm (3)). Many historians have proposed theories, but mostly, it’s a head scratcher: it didn’t really have to happen; there were no compelling geopolitical or material interests that drove it that couldn’t have been gotten around without a bit of diplomatic attention and thought. It seemed to be an outbreak of madness, in the sense of completely irrational, harmful behavior. 22 million people died in the first phase; at least 100 million people all together if you include the second.

That’s what this feels like: an outbreak of madness that didn’t have to happen. At any point in the past thirty years, responsible leaders could have realized that neoliberalism is World War IV (as the Zapatistas say), and taken steps to stop it, and to prevent it from turning from a cold to a hot war(4).

It would even have been better for them if they’d done do, since what they’re doing is ultimately suicidal: despite their delusions of escape, the very soil on Mars is poisonous to humans. We are inextricably creatures of this Earth; there’s nowhere else to go, and likely never will be. Despite this, they are working hard to make even more of the earth poisonous.

This is the depth of the idiocy of the billionaires, and the height of their madness (5). In his latest book, Douglas Rushkoff recounts a story something like this: he was asked to meet with some of the billionaires at Davos or Sun Valley or wherever; they wanted to talk to him about how to ensure their former IDF security details would remain loyal after they, the billionaires, completely destroy society and money isn’t worth anything (6).He stared at them. “Well, you should probably, like, be in community with them now. Make sure they have decent lives. That they can pay for their kids’ bar and bat mitzvahs. Be humans with them together.”

The billionaires stared back. “No, but really, how should we ensure their loyalty after we destroy society and money isn’t worth anything?”

The billionaires are crazy: disconnected from reality and behavior that would benefit them and their children. And what’s so infuriating is that they’ve been this crazy before, and we (the 99%) managed to wrest a bit of sanity from them. Just during and after the Great Wars, human beings everywhere had been saying, for 9 years (since the 1905 Russian Revolution), or 25 years (since the Haymarket martyrs), or 40 years (since the Paris Commune), or 60 years (since the 1848 uprisings all over Europe), or 124 years, (since the largest-so-far successful slave revolt, in Haiti in 1790), or 240 years (since the Pueblo Revolt), or 260 years (since the 1650 Ranters and Diggers and Quakers), or 389 years (since the 1525 German peasant revolt, or 533 years (since Wat Tyler’s Rebellion in 1381) — “hey, might be an idea if we didn’t let the 1% steal most everything from us and kill our children.”

And the 1% was so terrified by the Russian Revolutions and the labor movement in the US and Europe that they said, “Okay, okay. Help us fight this giant war and in return we’ll give at least some of you, those we are willing to call White, anyway, some rights and some job security and some money and the ability to have less fear and hope for a better life for your kids.”

And that went along okay until the colonies and the people of color in America and the women managed to wrest some money and peace and self-determination too. And the rich thought, “You know, having more than enough just isn’t enough; we need again to have WAY more than enough, let’s use the fact that when humans have the experience of no longer having more than other people, they feel like something has been taken from them, and let’s see use that to see if we can get them to help us become FILTHY rich again.”

So, partly what I resent about this moment is that it is SO. BORING. Those who know history are condemned to repeat it, apparently, just like those who don’t know it - but with the added punishment that we will be bored silly because we KNOW. HOW. IT. GOES. The bloody violence and bloodless fear by which the 1% oppress us and some of the 99% help them is thoroughly known, nothing new to see here.

But also: WHY? Why, again, this much pain and suffering for everyone? From my point of view, it’s not only boring, it’s terrifying. Who wants this?

And then I found Confronting the Death Drive in Trump’s America by Eric Reinhart and I thought, as the Quakers say, “That friend speaks my mind.” You should really read the whole thing (really. If you have to choose, stop reading this and go read that instead). Basically, he argues that Freud was correct that we are all irrational - individually and as a society:

“Proponents of progressive ideals must . . . take the reality of aggression, racism, and sadomasochism seriously as enduring political feelings, including in their own ranks, that require constructive political redress. To craft an effective liberal or left politics, we must stop vainly demanding that people be more reasonable and own up to the persistent reality of destructive human tendencies that manifest not only around Trump but also in countless contexts throughout history.”

It is in fact the job of politics, he argues, to take the death drive and the will to mass action and channel it into positive civic outcomes. You can take the instinct for war and channel it instead into mass collective building projects, and he argues this is exactly what the Roosevelt administration did in the ‘30s (you knew it would come back to FDR with me, didn’t you?)

“Democrats have done this before. After the Great Depression provoked widespread discontent that could easily have sent the country into a right-wing spiral, as parallel circumstances did in Germany, the American New Deal used large-scale public employment and public arts initiatives that directly connected millions of people with financial opportunities, meaningful roles in which to provide care for their neighbors and communities, and a sense of shared purpose within the Civilian Conservation Corps, Works Progress Administration, Civil Works Administration, and other collective efforts.

“Numbed and disaffected, Americans are desperate to feel something, believe someone, and rally behind a cause.

“Many of the most ambitious and grandest public projects in the nation’s history were undertaken at this time. They supplied much of the physical infrastructure upon which we still rely and, no less importantly, generated a vital boost in morale through inspiring visions of a shared future into which millions of people poured their energy, artistry, belief, and labor.

“At the core of the New Deal’s success was its emphasis on beauty, care for one another, and scale, all of which fueled its mass appeal and subjective effects at a level beyond reason or materiality alone. It was as much a collective aesthetic project — that is, an undertaking to build a shared feeling of community and inventive possibility — as it was an infrastructural or economic program. As a result, the New Deal had the effect of eclipsing a reactionary alternative, which could have instead channeled people’s desire to believe in something and to feel something into mass rancor and hatred.”

I keep waiting for the 99% to ramp up our own collective project of massive, irrational insistence on beauty and caring for each other. And preventing the 1% from having the opportunity to become so stupid and insane. Because there, but for the grace of God . . .

(1) Some people say “don’t be so hard on Democrats,” but this is nonsense. The 1% (at the moment officially the Republicans including defectors from the 99% willing to carry their water) are always trying to kill the rest of us, throughout history. They’re like sharks or Jessica Rabbit: they’re just drawn that way (we would be too if we’d been born billionaires). It’s the job of everyone else to stop them. Democrats are either criminally incompetent or are such a captured opposition they have utterly failed in this task.

(2) Sarah Kendzior convinced me of this. It’s a little hard to get to the meat of what she’s saying through the heavy lyricism, but the Q&A issues of her Substack are a good place to start, followed by Hiding in Plain Sight, her documentation of the public information demonstrating that Trump has been a Russian asset since the 80s, and the critical importance of the way Russia is essentially a petro Mafia (Putin’s People does this in more agonizing detail).

(3) I wish I could remember who called World War I and World War II a single conflict with a pause in the middle to re-arm, but I can’t. If you know, please remind me.

(4) Super aware, here, that I began this diary three years ago because World War IV was becoming hot for me. For the 11% of Americans who live in poverty or the 8% who have no health insurance, and for hundreds of millions more in the precariat of the rust belt or the cotton belt or across town or next door or in the two-thirds world, it’s already been hot for a while.

(5) As feminists have so insightfully pointed out, those with power are always crazy idiots, because when you have enough power to stop considering the viewpoints and needs of others, you become stupid (because people can’t tell you obvious things about reality that contradict your view) and crazy (because you’re so disconnected from reality).

(6) The whole question of what money is “worth” is fascinating; it’s one of my obsessions. It’s clearly a religion, perhaps the only real religion we’ve got going now, this idea that something totally imaginary and made up by humans determines who gets to eat, drink, breathe clean air, live in a house, and go to the doctor, and that some people should have more of it than others. We made it up and we let it control us unto death. It’s so weird.