Chris Jepson: The new nattering nabobs of negativism

Most of us want to feel in control of our lives. We fashion and live our lives as if this were the case. I, for example, look around my backyard and marvel at the structure and control I have fashioned in my own private Eden. I laugh at myself because to a degree it is an illusion. Yet, control is “something” we all undeniably want.

The desire for certainty that we all crave (that control provides) is what is so unsettling about the times in which we live.

If you are a reflective individual, it has occurred to you that certainty is ephemeral. We want to think or believe, for example, that our jobs are safe, our marriage forever, that our children’s futures are promising, that the nation’s economy will always tick-up or that America’s empire is indestructible, etc., etc., etc. Events, experience and maturity suggest otherwise.

Here’s a relatively recent rub. Since the early 1970s, we have come to understand what a pox humanity is upon our planet. We’re unequivocally destroying that which spawned and sustains us. Fools argue otherwise. We have this profound consciousness (understanding) that “how” we live as species is unhealthy not only for us, but for all life on Earth.

Another rub is our awareness of the doings and foibles of our fellow man. Every minute of the day, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year the world is beamed into our heads via TV, radio, satellite, computers, phone and print. We are forever “connected” to the world. We see all. And so much of it is disheartening. The poverty. The beheadings. Endless war and conflict. Horrific migrations. The rising seas. The mass extinctions. Economic uncertainty. We see that America is inextricably linked to the rest of the world, to all of humanity and that what unfortunately happens, say, in the Middle East has undeniable repercussions for the United States. There is no more “splendid” isolation for America.

So, we have the individual desire to control our lives yet we live in incredibly uncertain times. We possess the knowledge that much of what humanity does is antithetical not only to our fellow man but to the environment as well. Progress is now defined by how much we consume. It’s as if Orwell’s “1984” prophetic slogans of, “War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength,” have become the mantras of our times.

Yet, the vast majority of us are inveterate optimists. We just are. It’s in our DNA. We can imagine tomorrow and we can envision it better than today. The will to live and to live well (happy, fulfilled, connected lives) is within us all.

Which brings me to the definitive downer of our times: the Republican Party and its presidential aspirants. Not one of these individuals offers much of anything beyond bombast and infantile, simplistic solutions to the complex challenges confronting America. Whether it is health care, gun control, education, debt, foreign policy, employment, energy, environmental safeguards, civil liberties or reproductive choice, Republicans are “nyet” to meaningful solutions. Republicans do not offer solutions; they offer the tyranny of negativity, of “no.”

They are “nattering nabobs of negativism,” to borrow Spiro Agnew’s now infamous nomenclature.

The ultimate irony is that Republicans have so disgraced and discredited public service (positive, collective action through government) that they are now the problem. Woe to America.

We can do better. But we have to try.