10/3/2021 07:07

Low-grade Terror

I'm in the midst of a Donna Leon mystery novel. I do not think it is intended to inspire terror in its audience but it does, like all of Donna Leon's novels, articulate the brittleness of civil life, the endemic corruption of government and commerce, and the hopelessness of an individual or a single family overcoming evil.

The book comes at a bad time.

First of all we are in the midst of a pandemic. Pandemics are scary enough in themselves but the current phase of this pandemic is entirely avoidable (at least in the United States) through the use of amazingly effective vaccines. That we have not suppressed the disease in this country, that people are refusing or ignoring the vaccines and other preventative measures, that some are even appearing before goverment bodies to denounce any attempt to limit the spread -- all that is terrifying.

This is the year of the violent insurrection of January 6 from which criminal prosecutions are now in October reaching the stage of trial. Each time I read about the charges, pleas, sentences, denials, excuses for that attempt to debase the fundamental process of governance I am terrified all over again.

The processes of governance are being debased in other ways at the same time.

As the decennial census has been completed, our politicians are actively attempting to create new districts for representation in the various legislatures. Like all people in all situations of life these politicians are motivated by a variety of competing goals: Fairness, ease of administration, support of incumbent officeholders, domination of government by one political party or another, personal aggrandizement whether measured in power or wealth or reputation, and the good opinion of friends and financial contributors all enter consideration. Historically there have been more perfidious motives in the redistricting process and the possibility that representation will again be shaped primarily by race, gender, and wealth is frightening.

This is all the more true as experiments are being conducted in outsourcing governmental functions to private parties.

In one state well funded organizations (or individuals) have been granted the right to bankrupt others through civil process and to collect a share of the forfeit. This effectively creates a ruinous private tax on vulnerable citizens and political opponents. Any private taxation for private purposes is terrifying but perhaps it is even more so when it is deceptively clothed in the guise of normal civil suits.

Meanwhile prisoners have long been used as a revenue source for companies providing communications on behalf of the government; this model is presently being extended from telephony to written mail. The terror of being imprisoned, the greater terror or being falsely imprisoned, is now multiplied with the prospect of being unfairly imprisoned without the means to appeal for help.

Such treacheries as these have existed in the past and have been most famously imposed on carefully defined minorities. The groups terrorized were often non-white, non-wealthy, non-conforming, or non-male. (Black, Jewish, Romany, Protestant, indigenous, Morman, German, addicted, Muslim, or mentally ill are some examples although the categories were often confused.) For people in such defined groups the constant dread has been a familiar aspect of life.

I have long felt a benign sympathy for such people and even some empathy. The actual reality of living with low-grade terror is another matter.


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