The best one can hope to do in venturing into 2019 post-America

Again, it's time to revisit the argument that things aren't all that bad, that a nation that has lived through the Civil War, a depression, two world wars, the cultural upheaval of the 1960s and Watergate is resilient enough to withstand the present circumstance. It has its compelling aspects. Those who so posit are not wrong that the United States and the West generally still enjoy unrivaled abundance, convenience, comfort and safety. Anyone reading this has probably had as many square meals a day as he or she has desired for the past year, if not his or her entire lifetime.

But it's an argument based on willful ignorance. Consider these numbers:

Take, for example, race relations. By Gallup poll data, just 45 percent of Americans were worried about race relations either a “great deal” or a “fair amount” in March of 2008. But by March 2015, that number had risen to 55 percent; by March 2016, the number was 62 percent. This was before Trump’s election. Today, the number stands at 64 percent.

On religion, similar numbers emerge. America has become significantly less religious over time; accorsing to ABC News/Washington Post polls, as of 2003, 50 percent of Americans identified themselves as members of a Protestant faith, but by 2017, that number was just 36 percent. The share of Christians overall dropped from 83 percent in 2003 to 72 percent in 2017. The number of religious adults now stands at 21 percent, up from 12 percent in 2003.

How about politically? The seething partisan hatred we’ve now come to expect from American politics didn’t emerge from nowhere thanks to President Trump. Already in 2017, some 64 percent of Democrats tell a Pew Research Survey they have only a few or no Republican friends; 55 percent of Republicans say the same. What’s more, according to data cited by Marc Hetherington and Jonathan Weiler in their book on political division, Prius or Pickup?, partisan hatred for the other party has increased steadily over time among Democrats since 2000, followed by an uptick in hatred from Republicans over time. In 2000, only about 20 percent of both Republicans and Democrats hated the other party; by 2016, those numbers were closer to 50 percent.

Then there's the tone of our discourse. I realize that social media, let alone the more narrow confines of Twitter, are only so reflective of who we are as a people, but in what kind of country does one find tweets like this one about Bre Payton, the Federalist writer who died quite suddenly of swine flu the other day:

No she was cruel and evil, and as a result her death is funny

Or this one:

if you devote your life to gleefully stepping on the necks of marginalized people and then die in a somewhat comical fashion, some people are gonna chuckle at it. sorry that's just the way it goes unfortunately

Then there's Kurt Schlichter's tweet from yesterday:

Kurt Schlichter, a Townhall writer who has appeared on both Fox News and C-SPAN, reacted to the news Saturday night, tweeting, “I don’t care” above a CBS News report on the boy who died Friday.

I don’t care https://t.co/h0PmKAtdff

— Kurt Schlichter (@KurtSchlichter) December 30, 2018

According to a press release from the Council on American-Islamic Relations, young Abdullah Hassan was brought to the U.S. by father Ali Hassan earlier this year to be treated for a worsening degenerative brain condition. While the two are American citizens, the child’s mother, Shaima Swileh, is a Yemeni national who was initially stopped from entering the country under President Donald Trump’s travel ban, which targets Yemen.

CAIR eventually became involved in Swileh’s case, and she was granted permission to enter the U.S. on Dec. 18. Days later, her son died at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital in Oakland, California.

He's since doubled down.

And you know what? There are those who will want to make CAIR the focus of this particular discussion. Yes, CAIR has shady ties to radical Islam, but that is hardly the point here. 

It takes some real digging to find something that isn't grim, ugly, vapid, banal, and devoid of all flavor, humanity, dignity and common sense on the last day of 2018 in post-America. Hugs from grandkids and random acts of kindness in supermarket parking lots are about all one is going to find. I'm as serious as can be about this. Our politics, our art, our educational system, what's left of our journalism, a plurality of our largest corporations, even much of what remains of post-American formal religion, is barren and cracked, drained of all purpose. 

We are starved for joy. 

To be sure, many of us are up to our eyeballs in amusement. That's another set of conversations that dominates Twitter. Which installment in some cinematic franchise is the best. What some college or professional sports team needs to do to clinch a playoff berth. Where to find the nation's most outrageous bacon burger. 

But real joy? It eludes us.

If one has it, what can be done to safeguard it against what is surely going to be a worsening societal atmosphere in 2019?

It seems to me Paul has the apt instruction on the matter:

Therefore take up the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you will be able to stand your ground, and having done everything, to stand. 14Stand firm then, with the belt of truth fastened around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness arrayed, 15and with your feet fitted with the readiness of the gospel of peace. 16In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.17And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

The reason shiny baubles compel our attention so is that they are faint reminders of actual splendor. That which fills us with rich, deep, unshakable contentment is glimpsed enough in the course of our lives, even in desolate times such as these, to seal our conviction that there is something worth going after. The trinkets hint at this, ever so tawdrily.

We'll get no backup on an institutional level, at least to speak of. Even churches are at a loss as to how to impart the worthiness of the quest for joy.

Those so inclined must seek each other out in this atomized society. It's like our first forebears nurturing their sense of community against there backdrop of a Roman Empire in decline.

The other essential element in this is going to be courage. The kind Bre Payton showed when stating plain truths. We can't be afraid of being hated.

2019 is going to be no place for the faint of heart. Dig deep, find your wellspring of God's real joy to see you through. If this message resonates with you, it means you are already enlisted in the cause.

You must go into the new year understanding your charge to be an agent of grace. God be with you.