Pondering a white supremacy that is so deeply embedded in the organization of US society in 2024 that it’s just become a kind of invisible foundational bias that allows us to think of ourselves as “civilized” when, on a daily basis, large sectors of our economy engage in war profiteering.
The majority of the US barely register the violence that resonates from the origins of the nation. From our own violent settler colonialism hundreds of years ago to slavery and to the present day violence that reinforces inequality in every possible layer of our society. From our economics to our political process, policing through education, white supremacy and patriarchy, is still the dominant organization of the US.
But, in general, we’re not a culture that actively engages in any kind of sustained, large scale discussion of our internal organization. That takes a kind of will and desire that we do not muster. We engage in a kind of willful ignorance, we allow ourselves to be distracted by the entertainments provided by those in power and in so doing forget our own collective power.
We go along with the idea that we are individuals not capable of change. A sort of easy, convenient self-delusion because the alternative of collective action is frightening. It’s an inconvenience and potentially dangerous. So we put our heads down and keep going.
A desperate march into increasing instability and madness.