Watching the conflict between government and people in Minneapolis, Minnesota, a question has persisted in my mind: How did America become such a savage nation? (Or, how did we become such savage people?)
The shortest answer is that we are still only half human (and half animal). When we left nature’s jungle to form a society (to “socialize” our nature), we expected to become completely human, not just half-way human. But by the quirk of history, the nation we founded was a uniquely “natural-frontier” society that was barely “social” and has remained mostly that way just under the surface of its 250-year history: We as Americans never erased the animal nature we inherited from our jungle origins. This conflict between being human and being animal is now in sharp relief in Minneapolis: If Trumpism wins the long game, we will be more natural than social (with lots of boots and guns); if liberalism wins, we will be more social than natural (with lots of social experiments).
In a larger sense of history and society, the ICE-Minnesota conflict represents the long story of humanity which lives in a prison walled by nature (of power) and guarded by society (of law). In the American context, MAGA-Trumpsters are more “natural” than “social,” exercising their power over law, while Democrats more “social” than “natural,” insisting on the primacy of law over (ICE) power. The former insist more on natural existence (from power to gender identity) whereas the latter insist on more social engineering to overcome natural limitations (from inequality to predetermined DNA). We will soon determine which way the nation goes: nature’s power or society’s law.
Liberal society exists to the extent that law tames power. Natural order prevails if power controls law. Our “society” demands law and our “nature” demands power. Trumpsters insist that they are law, but Democrats see them as power. The conflict between the two is the eternal conflict between nature and society in us. Old World nations are favored by society (because of their origins) but America is favored by nature (because of its origins).
As history has evolved, animals live in nature and we, as humans, live in society: We breathe and breed as animals, but we have to do so within the rules of society, which often complicates things: Some men are in prison for their “wrong” heavy breathing and breeding attempts.
In nature, order is maintained by “force,” mostly by alpha males whose strong genetic features determine that they are boss. In society, social order is maintained by “power” and the hierarchy it creates. To rise in nature, you must be endowed with good physical-biological inheritance from your parents. To rise in society, your inheritance is entirely “social,” say, in your family name, wealth, connections and cleverness; education, artificial knowledge (mostly useless in nature) is also valued in society.
As animals caged in society, we still want to express our nature (driven by our natural desires) as freely and as often as we can. We want sex as natural animals, but society says, find your partner and do it legitimately. We want food when hungry, but society says, buy your food and eat it in proper manners. In our speech, society demands intelligibility and grammar. In all of our pleasurable or necessary activities, society makes sure that our pleasure or necessity does not interfere with communal order or destroy collective peace.
Still, nature and society coexist in harmony in most societies. In Japan, for example, natural impulses are harmonized by the social system that’s well understood and accepted by all, resulting in low social stress and lowest crime rates in the world.
In America, the world’s only nation that was neither complete “nature” nor complete “society,” thanks to our frontier beginning, it’s war between natural impulses and social peace every day. In this unprecedented heritage, we pretty much began our collective existence only as half-human and half-animal, and pretty much have stayed that way (after all, what’s being “American?”). Minnesotans minded their own individual businesses when left alone; it was only when their peace was disturbed by ICE that the individuals became mutually aiding neighbors.
Liberal Democrats, who used to demand absolute freedom of action and detested any imposition of law and order as hindrance to their exercise of freedom, now plead to Trumpsters: “Please, restrain yourself!” Trumpsters, on the other hand, want unrestrained, absolute freedom of action with their power. Politically, it’s nothing short of a total revolution that we are witnessing in America’s political landscape. But sociologically, it’s the two impulses in all of us (one natural, one social) that are fighting each other for our present and future in America: Will we return to liberalism if Democrats win? The answer is: Unlikely. Why? Because with Trumpism, America lost its “innocence” and we no longer feel “American” as we no longer know what being “American” means.
The genesis of this confusion is pre-Trump. We are half-human and half-animal —half-social and half-natural — the strangest species the world has ever encountered. As Homo sapien Americana, we have no idea what kind society or people we will be if or when Trumpism collapses.
No matter which side wins, the historical structure of Americans will always remain the same: half human and half animal. No matter which side wins, this half-and-half pattern will continue because it is in our original social DNA, which has made “America” God’s most wondrous creation (for all its free experiments) and, at the same time, hell’s curse (for its eternal unhappiness and conflict).
Jon Huer, retired professor and columnist for the Recorder, lives in Greenfield and writes for posterity.