In the Spring of 2020, the world felt very wrong. I found myself wondering if actual violence might erupt in my own small town. “Stay home, stay safe!” “You killed my grandma, and now I’m coming for YOU!” “Your fireworks are scaring my dogs!”
In May, George Floyd was killed. When that happened, it wasn’t particularly obvious how bad things were about to get. At least initially, there was very little to disagree about. People should not die while pinned to the ground, in police custody. Was there any debate to be had? Yet, by the time the rioting and burning started, I nodded my head and said, “well, of course.”
Now, part of what happened is we have a cultural movement in this country that is attempting to foment racial hatred at every turn. The opportunity to turn the death of a black man into a call to arms was too juicy to pass up under any circumstances. It is also easy enough to egg on the “back the blue” folks to respond to the complexity of any tragedy with insensitivity and over-simplification. By the time multiple cities were in flames, many groups (each with decades of grievance) had staked their claim to one side of the fight or the other. But there is more to it than that.
I don’t think the same thing would have happened outside the shitshow that was Spring of 2020. That sense of unease; that sense of impending doom; the feeling that violence was bubbling up in every corner of America – it is no wonder that it found relief in what looked to be an old-fashioned, stand-up fight. Are you for justice or are you for murder? Are you for equality or for white supremacy? One’s blood immediately sets to boiling, especially if it has been already simmering for a good while.
I bring this up today because I’m getting that same sense again. Neighbors seem ever more hostile and rude to each other – even downright threatening. Little neighborhood annoyances that I’d never even thought about are becoming the subject of tirades on the local Facebook groups. It’s much like how we were just before George Floyd’s death. Not exactly, but it’s not hard to imagine we’re one Lambda-variant surge away from falling off another cliff. And, if you get my meaning, it wasn’t George Floyd that set things a burning. Yes, his death was the match but the gasoline-soaked landscape that went up – that was there waiting for his arrival.
Having read a recent article about problems with school children, the psychological aspects of this suddenly have become much clearer to me. The rudeness, the anger, the flare-ups of violent behavior – these are simple manifestations of long term exposure to stress and fear. It’s less a question of what is going so wrong as it is a simple display of human nature. The uncertainty in the face of all of it – the virus, the situation in Afghanistan, the wildfires, plus a couple of big hurricanes – it’s bound to set our teeth on edge. Throw in a media that likes to play up anything into a once-in-a-lifetime crisis and its no wonder we get rude* in the checkout line.
I wanted to make a note of my unease now.
A year and a half ago, I’m sure I was thinking about this stuff but I didn’t write anything down. It is easy enough to say “boy, I saw that coming” when relying only on one’s own recollection of one’s predictive abilities. It’s another thing entirely to refer back to a track record of predictions so as to compare them with the eventuality. While I may be on to something, this might all blow over. Or we’ll go to war with China and forget our internal differences. Or maybe all Trump supporters will be jailed and the rest of us will live happily ever after. Heck, maybe the ‘rona will vanish and never darken humanity with its scourge again. Let’s look back on this post in a few years and see where we ended up.
One particular reason I find myself dwelling on this right here, right now, is the story of Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller. Maybe you don’t know what I’m talking about or maybe you interpret the story very differently than I do. To put us on the same page, I’ll summarize with how I read it.
A career Marine officer posted on social media, apparently from his desk at work, a video rebuke of the chain of command for the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan. He explained that a low-level officer, having screwed up an assignment as obviously as this one was, would be held accountable. Said Screw-Up would be removed from command and, perhaps, face additional consequences for having made avoidable mistakes. Yet where is the accountability for Kabul?
The video was picked up by the right-leaning media and the conservative end of the internet and quickly became well circulated. “An officer is standing up to the corrupt command that is humiliating our soldiers,” the cry went out. In the days that followed, we found out that Scheller was relieved of his command and accused of mental illness. He shortly thereafter resigned his commission and came under disciplinary action from the Marine Corps. The exact cause-and-effect is confusing (“You can’t fire me because I quit?”) but Scheller’s version was laid out in a video filmed from a old school bus in which he appeared to be living in – or at least playing chess in. Among the various themes and threads within the video, some ominous words about “it is only the beginning” suggested that he might have in mind, not just a sense of injustice, but a plan to right the American ship of State.
Certainly that was the meaning taken by many of his brothers in arms. Veterans and (mostly anonymously) current servicemen rose to give him some over-the-internet support. That’s not to neglect the outpouring of support from civilians as well. The official line from the Government was to treat him as a nutcase, maybe even a criminal, but there is support from those in State and Federal legislatures.
My point here is that if Stuart Scheller has a plan (and maybe he does, maybe he doesn’t – I don’t know), there look to be multitudes that are willing to follow it. If his plan is “to arms, to arms” it could actually spark fighting on our home soil. If he plans to run for the U.S. Senate, he’s sure to get a mountain of campaign contributions. If his plan is merely to write strongly-worded letters to the Secretary of Defense while he fights his charges in a court martial, well then folks will likely chip in for his stationary.
When we look back on it years from now, my prediction is Scheller’s story will be a minor footnote. Whatever his plan, whatever the rightness or wrongness of what he has to say, he’ll probably be buried under the legal system and his outburst will be filed away with the QAnon fuss. But his won’t be the only spark set off dangerously close to this great pile of tinder. It is through the lens of his protest, right now in this moment, that I can see the greater landscape of danger.
Anyway, let this stand as a prediction for what might be coming. When I look back a year from now, will I realize I was on to something? Or just way off?
*Personally, I find myself getting angry when I have to deal with someone whose face I cannot see – whose emotions I cannot read. I don’t know if its me and some sort of aspy character flaw or if this something that we’re all experiencing when we encounter masks instead of smiles. Personally, I try to be aware. I try to understand that this discomfort and rage is coming from inside me and not the person whose trying to process my insurance information. I tried to be polite and friendly even if I don’t feel it. Hopefully it works.