Forum: In Empire of the Self, we get exactly what we deserve

Published 1:30 am Saturday, November 23, 2024

By Dan Hazen / Herald Forum

Here in the Empire of the Self, we have chosen our next Emperor. It seems we prefer our emperors to wear clown shoes, bully the weak, flout the law, and lie to our faces about how great he thinks we are. All Hail Krusty the Clown, our sovereign leader. He promises that we will each be our own emperor.

Our alternative considered herself no less our superior, but at least she had class. She bullies legally and with professionalism. Not enough of us prefer our tyranny served with a smile, high-brow rhetoric and “facts-based” propaganda to warrant a win for the candidate who was crowned before the race began. She promised to be the most benevolent emperor.

The so-called “educated class” has never understood that ordinary Americans would sooner shoot themselves in the foot than vote for someone who makes them feel any shame or promises anything less than everything they want. And ordinary Americans have never understood that corporate shareholders and media elites are their slaves. They only ever respond to the market, and that’s them.

This was never a race about policy, economics, values or identity. This was a race about who will deliver, who will tick every item on our Christmas list, tuck us into the bed of our choosing and tell us the bedtime story we want to hear, never talking about the realities of tomorrow.

The Empire of the Self has grown unimaginably huge. It’s global, soon to be interplanetary. It’s like a mile-long semi-truck barreling up I-5 at 120 mph and about to hit the curve at the Snohomish River bridge. We can’t slow it down. It’s too late. But we stood on the brakes anyway and now we’re jack-knifing wildly across all lanes. At this point, the question of who is in the White House is akin to which side of the bridge we careen over and what color the resultant flames will be.

Ironically, I’ve heard both “winners” and “losers” in this election say, “We have exactly the government we deserve.” Obviously, the emotions behind the statements are different depending on which side you’re on, but does anyone else find it fascinating that they agree on this?

I’m left to conclude that this is only possible because at the end of the day, red and blue, woke and nationalist, Republican and Democrat, fascist and anarchist, striking worker and corporate executive all agree on the same goal: “Get me more of what I want.” Panem et circenses.

If I’m right, then those of us with different goals find ourselves unwittingly cast in the role of Exiles, carried away from home, prisoners in the Empire of the Self. We are along for the ride whether we like it or not, whether we crash through the guard rail on the left or the right, we’re in the truck too. This begs the question, “What do we do? How shall we live?”

There’s some ancient wisdom which offers hope, and it goes something like, “Stay calm. Live your lives simply. Plant gardens and enjoy the produce. Have babies and watch them grow up and have their own babies. Pray for this disastrous Empire; because you’re in it too.”

Maybe I’ll see you out in the garden.

Dan Hazen lives in Marysville and works in Everett.