I’ve been reading the op-ed columns from the Times most popular e-mail list, which is one of the most valuable tools on the internet.
All of the recent columns are good. Krugman. Dowd. Rich. All hit some of the main themes of the past week. The hidden underclass was exposed. There were graven inequities of this disaster. There was a failure of leadership at all three levels of government. And I, who have been full of righteous anger for a week, found good company.
But, you know, I liked Brooks’s column the best. He’s talking about the long term ramifications of Katrina’s relief effort.
Brooks reverses his position from his column a couple of weeks ago, which spoke of a new era of virtue. Now Brooks writes:
The scrapbook of history accords but a few pages to each decade, and it is already clear that the pages devoted to this one will be grisly. There will be pictures of bodies falling from the twin towers, beheaded kidnapping victims in Iraq and corpses still floating in the waterways of New Orleans five days after the disaster that caused them.
It’s already clear this will be known as the grueling decade, the Hobbesian decade. Americans have had to acknowledge dark realities that it is not in our nature to readily acknowledge: the thin veneer of civilization, the elemental violence in human nature, the lurking ferocity of the environment, the limitations on what we can plan and know, the cumbersome reactions of bureaucracies, the uncertain progress good makes over evil.
As a result, it is beginning to feel a bit like the 1970’s, another decade in which people lost faith in their institutions and lost a sense of confidence about the future.
Ya gotta admire a guy who can do a 180 that swiftly. And then he says what I’ve been saying around here. Big changes are going to happen.
Katrina means that the political culture, already sour and bloody-minded in many quarters, will shift. There will be a reaction. There will be more impatience for something new. There is going to be some sort of big bang as people respond to the cumulative blows of bad events and try to fundamentally change the way things are.
Reaganite conservatism was the response to the pessimism and feebleness of the 1970’s. Maybe this time there will be a progressive resurgence. Maybe we are entering an age of hardheaded law and order. (Rudy Giuliani, an unlikely G.O.P. nominee a few months ago, could now win in a walk.) Maybe there will be call for McCainist patriotism and nonpartisan independence. All we can be sure of is that the political culture is about to undergo some big change.
We’re not really at a tipping point as much as a bursting point. People are mad as hell, unwilling to take it anymore.
Yeah, things are going to change big time. First of all, who can seriously talk about small government now? These events demonstrate the vital necessity of governmental services to protect the public, to plan for the future, and to care for the needy. Libertarianism has been dealt a serious blow.
Secondly, many people are apparently surprised that there were a lot of poor people in New Orleans. I’m not really sure how this could have been such a shocker, but it apparently it was. Never before have middle class Americans watched seven days of poor, black people on television. I was worried needlessly about Americans generosity. Houston and other cities have opened up their towns to the displaced and opened their minds to the fact that not everybody has a job, a home, or car. Perhaps this will lead to more consciousness of the poor in their own backyard.
Thirdly, I can’t find a Bush supporter in the house. When the FOX newscasters are surly, things are bad. There is so much anger about Katrina and the on-going war, Republicans are going to have hard time getting elected to dog catcher.
Fourth, the peace movement just got a shot in the arm. One of the major accusations of the relief effort was that troops couldn’t be sent in to Jefferson Parish, because they were in Falluja. The war just ended.
Fourth, there is going to be a lot of rebuilding going on. Not just in New Orleans, but in Washington. Institutions and levees are going to torn down and rebuilt.
I have to believe that these changes might really bring about Brooks’ Age of Virtue.
Apt. 11d 
I hope, I wish, and I go to bed praying that what you say is true. I thought I wanted something very badly just before the election, but it turns out I had no idea how much more I could want change to happen.
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Well, if we’re going to go overboard with optimism — and I’m all for that after an agonizing week in New Orleans — can I add the end of reality television and shows like Survivor. Maybe Mark Burnett’s “reality”-based dramas will finally pale in comparison to the dramas of surviving real life.
Oh, and apologies to Timothy Burke for possibly creating (inadvertent) confusion by using “distracted prof.” I have just seen your nifty blog, Easily Distracted. Watch for RCinProv there, too. Well, maybe after the beginning of the semester dies down.
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I wish I thought this was true. I think the small government types will just say “see, they can’t do anything right, why should we trust them with any of our money?”
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Yes, to agree with Elizabeth, I know people who are saying, “Well, really, what else could you have expected, with a storm as bad as this? I think they did as well as could be expected, and why should the feds have to bail everyone out?” Granted, these aren’t the actual media commentators, but then, media commentators aren’t all the voters come election time.
(I personally agree with you, and my husband’s reaction was that this, rather than the war, was what would bring Bush down, but I’m not sure this will necessarily change small-government people’s minds.)
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Great post, Laura. I couldn’t agree more with you about Brooks–for the first time in a long time, he’s suddenly cutting through all the superficial stuff he usually grooves on and talking about the big issues. Stuff this catastrophic has brought down kings and presidents in the past; such disasters have often resulted in massive socio-economic, administrative, and political changes. And I like your list of particulars very much (especially the bit about libertarianism having been deal a “serious blow”). But what remains to be seen is if we’re still the sort of society in which such dynamics hold. We could, unfortunately, have passed that point: between a narrow-minded fixation on small government, a general ignorance of public matters, and a media culture which encourages both inattention and helplessless, we may have tragically become the sort of country where the czars at the top issue regretful proclamations, and everyone else just gives up and goes home.
There were a couple of discussions at APSA which crystallized these possibilities for me; here’s my longer take on them both. In a week or two, I may be feeling better about the American public than I have in a good long while–or I may be feeling sadder than ever.
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I wish what you say would be true but I think that where I live there is infinite patience and an inherent belief in the President.
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Just found you via Mimilou. I would love to believe this post, but unfortunately I personally know too many people who have refused to be outraged, instead defending the president and federal response, defending the priority of terrorism over natural disaster relief, defending John Roberts for chief justice.
The religious right is a majority in this country, and I just don’t see that changing anytime soon. Sadly.
God, I’m sorry to be so depressing on your blog, especially when I just found you!
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Pfft. I think there could be a change, but Brooks has been such a hack about so many issues that I’m not looking to *him* for direction. I think he’s just trying to hop the bandwagon early. Frank Rich has been a much more honest and insightful columnist, in my opinion
…but that’s my opinion. I prefer writers who aren’t afraid to get angry at injustice before the public opinion polls make it ok.
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Hey, plenty of distraction to go around.
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Ah, Russell. Looks like it is only the two of us in the happy boat. And you only have one foot in it. C’est dommage.
(and Russell, loving all the comments on your Potter post. esp. the theory that one hoarcrux is Harry’s scar.)
RCinProv, there are a lot of excellent distracted professor bloggers out there. I believe this is the complete list: http://crookedtimber.org/academic-blogs/. And since I’m steering the happy boat, I’ll happily toss some reality shows into the deep, along with the disturbing return of leg warmers to the fashion magazines.
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LOSING CONFIDENCE IN THE INSTITUTIONS?
Laura at 11-D approves of a David Brooks column suggesting shifts in the public mood…. So what about the institutions? … So what about the institutions?
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