Thu 09 April 2026

Content Warning: Discussion of fascism, modern U.S. politics, and a bible quote

Background

Back around 2011, there was a bible verse that was working its way through my cognitive machinery:

Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near of which you will say, I have no pleasure in them;
before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened and the clouds return after the rain,
in the day when the keepers of the house tremble, and the strong men are bent, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those who look through the windows are dimmed,
and the doors on the street are shut, when the sound of the grinding is low, and one rises up at the sound of a bird, and all the daughters of song are brought low
they are afraid also of what is high, and terrors are in the way; the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper drags itself along, and desire fails, because man is going to his eternal home, and the mourners go about the streets
before the silver cord is snapped, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher is shattered at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern,
and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher; all is vanity.
—Ecclesiastes 12:1-8 (English Standard Version), emphasis added

Now, what I missed initially (and realized soon after) was that the entire passage is an analogy for aging: light being darkened, windows dimmed (vision loss), grinders ceasing (tooth loss), etc. And yet, there was an existential dread creeping upon my soul, a gut feeling that the world was heading towards very tumultuous and unpleasant times.

Last night, as I was contemplating the fact that I have now had the dubious honor of living long enough to see the U.S.A. turned into a fascist oligarchy that threatens other nations with genocide* in order to protect its Pyrrhic petroleum empire, I started thinking about the events of the past decade...

* Donald Trump's statement, in verbatim:

A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don't want that to happen, but it probably will. However, now that we have Complete and Total Regime Change, where different, smarter, and less radicalized minds prevail, maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen, WHO KNOWS? We will find out tonight, one of the most important moments in the long and complex history of the World. 47 years of extortion, corruption, and death, will finally end. God Bless the Great People of Iran!
—The President's post from "Truth" Social, via Snopes

The first Flake of the Snowball

Former U.S. Senator Jeff Flake, the moment his soul left him. September 2018

The thing is, a nation does not get into the state we find it in today because of a single act of treachery. It is a long decline marked by the cowardice and moral compromise of those who could have done something.

And thus we get to Jeff Flake. I am neither a Political Philosophy expert, nor a historian, but the Kavanaugh hearings seem to have been a fulcrum in our nation's history. It was a point at which any number of people could have done something, with relatively small repercussions, but chose not to.

Watching the hearings, you could tell that Senator Flake's conscience was rasping him, hard. But he did the bare minimum, and not nearly enough. He could have stopped the madness, stopped the "progress" of the Trump machine, could have blocked the appointment of a Supreme Court justice that so obviously did not have the character of a Justice, but was a creep, an alleged rapist, and a deeply partisan demagogue with vengeful rhetoric.

But he didn't. He tried to slow things down a little bit, tried to test the waters, but ultimately folded like a cheap card table.

I would like to propose a formula that helps define what I'm calling the "Cowardice Snowball," which is what I'm calling this phenomenon:

(the potential positive outcome) ➗ (the potential repercussions)

 
For someone like Jeff Flake, the potential good from standing up to Trump was massive. He could have potentially redirected the political discourse of the entire country by speaking up. The potential repercussions were bad, but not life-threatening. He could have lost his job, but he didn't run for re-election anyway! He could have maybe been hounded by the "deplorables." There would have been an extremely low risk of loss of life or even income, and no risk of incarceration.

Now the snowball has rolled on for nearly eight years. The cowards have all folded. That leaves it up to you and me to stop this madness, somehow. But how? How's the formula looking for you and me?

Potential positive outcome: I might influence someone, probably not someone important. I might somehow contribute a very small amount to the groundswell of resistance against fascism.
Potential repercussions: Extremely high. Violence, persecution, incarceration, even death. There's no telling. The machinery in support for this monster is extensive, and powerful, and the person I talk to while out for a walk could decide to report my anti-fascist words to someone who could come after me. That's increasingly a reality.

So, the longer this goes on, the lower the reward ratio for action becomes (lower positives ÷ higher repercussions). It starts off high, and gets lower and lower, roughly resembling a logarithmic graph:

Mostly made-up/arbitrary example graph, courtesy of Wolfram Alpha

The only reasonably safe way to pursue change, I suppose, is... very carefully, and very slowly.

It did not have to be this way, but here we are.

Category: Philosophy Tagged: Christianity Content Warning Ethics Life Non-technical post Politics Philosophy Polemic