The book is simply called, “Things Fall Apart.” Written 65 years ago by Nigerian author Chinua Achebe, it portrays pre-colonial life in Igboland, now southeastern Nigeria. Achebe’s beautiful work was one of the first African novels to receive international acclaim.
In partaking of the news over recent days and weeks, the book title sprung back to mind. Those three words too aptly describe a rather large chunk of the world condition.
Going into a stunning fall weekend now eight or nine days ago, I did not have a concerted, orchestrated attack on Israel and the consequent outbreak of war on my bingo card. But here we are.
Speaking of “things falling apart,” it was a shocking failure of intelligence gathering and analysis by the Israelis. As such, it is a reminder that neither institutions nor individuals can rest on their laurels. Each day dawns with a fresh challenge.
It also serves as a lesson that low-tech is not completely out of vogue. The Hamas barbarians used everything from fence-cutters to paragliders to launch their attack. Israel’s response will be far more sophisticated, even as the number of innocent hostages vastly complicates their military options.
As the bumper sticker reads, “Bad stuff happens.” (Okay, I cleaned that up for polite company.) The test is in how well governments and civil society are prepared to handle such curveballs.
By that measure, there is failure all around. Israel has unified under assault. But the last few years have exposed deep fissures in the country and the scary rise of illiberal elements. Bibi Netanyahu is a cynical sort who spreads division and self-dealing, while empowering those who would take Israel far from its founding values.
Here in the U.S., things are hardly in better shape. We seek to address this crisis without a Speaker of the House (at least as of this writing) or a legislative body that functions even at a base level. Lunatics, though relatively few in number as a proportion of the full chamber, are running the asylum.
Any Republican representative who does not identify with and cozy up to the election denial crowd need not apply for the speaker’s post.
A tepid, last-minute stab at bipartisanship in keeping the government open for all of another 45 days was the immediate cause of this mayhem. Working across the aisle or empowering the political middle? How dare you?
Thanks to a has-been football coach and nondescript senator, our senior military ranks are thin as Alabama’s honorable Tommy Tuberville uses some obscure senatorial privilege to block confirmation after confirmation. At the moment, we even lack an ambassador to Israel confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
America confronts the disheartening and dangerous prospect of a presidential choice between a twice-impeached, four-times-indicted, arguably lowest human character ever to hold the highest office and an unpopular incumbent, fading and well past his prime.
The presidential field is further diminished by a crackpot who could barely command a park bench, much less reputable media attention were his last name Jones instead of Kennedy.
Russia wages a ground war in Ukraine, while the leading Republican, between court appearances, blows kisses at Vladimir Putin. All the while, the big guy’s fawners and toadies fall into line and consider resistance to such naked aggression no longer worth the fight.
Ethnic cleansing rages in western China, Azerbaijan and Sudan, and the world shrugs.
Antisemitism again shows its ugliness in far too many locales, including among supposedly educated elites who ought to know better.
Ever-growing tribalism is definitional in our domestic politics and in places far and wide across the globe. So, too, is the flirtation, or worse, with authoritarianism in all its efficiency and vileness.
Those who still deny climate change show as much intellectual heft as mindless types who continue to deny legitimate elections. We can debate how to best redress global warming and at what cost, but it is plainly evident that the world is getting alarmingly hotter.
Here at home, underperformance is the norm in too many sectors. Go ahead, name one American institution that is operating at peak form. Our legal system? K-12 education? Higher education, which too often belies both words?
The gap when it comes to skills and wealth grows ever wider, and we carry on as if that is somehow sustainable.
Even if Congress manages to organize and get back in business, another government shutdown looms in little more than a month. Meanwhile, we will soon be spending a trillion dollars each year just in interest on the federal debt. Think about that number.
Decade after decade, we have been unable to reach a political compromise on the border that serves our national interest, honors our immigrant heritage and protects our sovereignty.
We inhabit a world in which algorithms slice and dice us, and then lament the inevitable division. We are immersed in a glut of information and misinformation, but have been unable to sort one from the other.
Amidst a global pandemic, we ran to our respective corners and argued incessantly over, yes, vaccines.
Speaking of tribalism, we have chosen to make group identity ever more paramount. For all the problems that remain, 2023 is not 1963. Or 1863. Yet, Martin Luther King’s colorblind dream that his children “will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character” is disparaged in many circles of supposed enlightenment.
Our divide now includes those who insist that everything be seen through a racial lens and their opposites who seek to whitewash the teaching of history. Both the woke and anti-woke could use an awakening.
The illusory bar of “equity” of outcomes has replaced the long-held goal of “equality” of opportunity with barely a discussion. While daily email is cluttered with virtue-signaling signature lines announcing pronouns that are invariably obvious.
And do you judge the attributes of moral clarity and personal decency to be advancing or in retreat?
Some will find me too pessimistic. Life expectancy is far higher than during decades long ago. Infant and maternal mortality are way down. A growing share of the world enjoys safe drinking water. More people live in freedom. War is less commonplace. All quite true. The same glass can be seen as half-full or half-empty.
Nonetheless, history tells us that problems beget more problems and things tend to fall apart in sequence. Hamas’s brutal, coordinated attack is not likely to be the last such destabilizing, inhumane event in the near future. Similarly, the disease and dysfunction in our own political systems only invites more deficiency and degradation.
There are always other shoes to drop. Perhaps I’ll be in a more upbeat, hopeful mood next week. Perhaps not.
Eric Sondermann is a Colorado-based independent political commentator. He writes regularly for Colorado Politics and the Gazette newspapers. Reach him at EWS@EricSondermann.com; follow him at @EricSondermann
