January 17, 2021
Hello Everybody,
Here's an excellent recent podcast called 'Crossing the Abyss' by Sam Harris. He is a philosopher and neuroscientist whose work touches on a wide range of topics including politics, religion, artifical intelligence, and meditation.
Sam discussed the events of January 6th with General Stanley McChrystal and his colleague, Chris Fussell. General McChrystal is a retired four star general who served more than 34 years in the military and was the commander for all American and coalition forces in Afghanistan. Chris Fussell was a commisioned naval officer and he spent 15 years in the Navy Seals at various points around the globe.
They spoke about the radicalization of the Far Right under Trump, the events of January 6, the behavior of the Capitol police, the history of white supremacy in the US, the effect of banning extremists from social media, the logic of insurgency, the consequence of public lies, and what should happen to Trump and his enablers. They compared the extremists of the Far Right here to the Islamic extremists in Iraq and Afghanistan.
I recommend listening to all of it. Here's a "sound bite" that made me laugh (very welcome in these very strange times):
Sam Harris: I'm wondering - do you think there's anything Trump could say that could close Pandora's box? I'm not suggesting that there's any chance that he would say it but if he got a proper firmware update to his brain and had a full mea culpa here where he said, listen guys, you know I'm a reality TV show star and I'm a bit of a con man and I've been lying all my life and I'm sorry to say I've been lying about election fraud, too, and there's really every sign that Joe Biden really did win. I got the second most votes in American history there's no doubt about that I am great but the truth is I fought long and hard for this and I probably fought a little too long and I wish Joe Biden well. All of this QAnon stuff - I'm not the guy who's going to save you from pedophile cannibals because as far as I know there are no pedophile cannibals and I'm just going to go play golf and I'm sorry I made such a mess here at the end. Some four hour version of that with appropriate weeping and the prospect that he might commit seppuku [also known as harakiri (abdomen belly cutting) - the Japanese ritual suicide by disembowelment] at some point along the way. Would that do any good or would that all be wrapped up in yet another layer of conspiracy where obviously the lizard people got to our dear president and now we have to fight all the harder?
General McChrystal: Sam, I'm feeling that you must have been drinking early today to even entertain that thought. Here's what I think: I don't think it would make one bit of difference. I think Donald Trump is an obese New York developer with funny hair who has become a symbol. I don't think he's ever led this group. He got out a tuning fork and found out that it resonated with the existing frustration and fear in this group and so he became a symbolic leader for them. And he was convenient for them. In some ways they helped him. They were something that gave him a base that caused other Republicans to fall in line. But he was also very much useful to this group because now you had a persona that was relatively legitimate as the position of the president of the United States would be who was saying things that added legitimacy to this radical movement. I think at this point were he to come out and give a discussion I think they would simply say that aliens had come down and they've taken the beloved leader and he's no longer himself and what we've got to hold true is to the ideas. And they would continue to go their own way. If he genuinely tried to change the direction of this movement now I don't think he'd have any effect on it.
Again, here's a link to the full podcast.
Let's all hope and pray that all goes well on Wednesday and that the Senate will convict Trump and finally hold him accountable. It will certainly make for riveting television. And then we can finally begin to ignore him.
Be well,
Stay safe,
Jon