Welcome to Reflections on Power, Culture, and Society for September 13, 2025. Hello new subscribers!
It is bird migration season. Immigrants are not the only ones to migrate. I consider it one of my blessings that I live on the top of a cliff in the Allegany Mountains. Geese fly right past my balcony. They all chatter at once.
Flocks range in size from a few dozen in family groups to several thousand in a flock. I live near a river, so that makes for popular and easy navigation. If I were a Canada goose, I would also consider it pleasant.
Geese fly in a V-formation. The one at the point takes the brunt of the wind, shouldering the resistance. Leadership is hard, so the lead is soon replaced as all the geese edge toward the front to take their turn. Nice, huh? For our country and our allies, it felt like this for the week. (Volume up!)
I. Staying engaged with the flock
To practice non-avoidance is to experience a situation that produces strong emotions while remaining engaged in that situation. Think of it as a state of mind linked to courage. Staying engaged is not the absence of negative emotions, but finding the bravery to approach the field despite the heightened emotions while maintaining enough composure to be effective.
It was Mahatma Mohandas Gandhi who said nonviolent resistance was not the same as passive resistance. The former came from the strength of moral conviction or “soul force”, satyagraha. Also translated well as “truth-force.” Where do you find truth in ideas, opinions, explanations, and popular culture? More on that integrity later.
Holding the awareness of reality, it’s time we acknowledge the truth that we have passed through constitutional crises and are now in the midst of a collapse of the American experiment of a democratic republic. The end is not yet written.
I began this essay on Monday, September 8. I chose the above-mentioned aspect of Gandhi’s philosophy before Charlie Kirk’s assassination on Wednesday. As regular readers are aware, I believe the nation and other liberal democracies around the world are in a battle for survival. I do not advocate violence ever.
Violence is unacceptable as a means of political expression. The use of violence to achieve political aims is the very definition of terrorism.
I put dehumanizing language referring to the other categorically close. I know thinking like this is tempting. I have thoughts, and I sometimes have to use some muscular self-restraint myself to not call the vicious rhetoric coming from those I disagree with dehumanizing labels. I must commit to agreement with the transcendentalists Walt Whitman, Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, and others, like Jesus, who expressed the idea that we can reach higher levels of development through understanding and non-violent means.
II. Back to the week. This is the reality we must accept.
Even as one who spends a lot of time keeping up with foreign and domestic affairs, how could any of us expect the week to hold this much?
1. SCOTUS ruled that racial profiling is not unconstitutional. That seemed to violate the 4th Amendment, with the rounding up of people because of where they work or might want to work.[i] [ii]
Please see Dahlia Lithwick on Vasquez-Perdomo, which explains Justice Kavanaugh’s inane decision on legalizing unconstitutional racial profiling. Kavanaugh’s concurrence and Justice Sotomayor’s dissent are included in the footnotes. Do we now call it “constitutional racial profiling”?
2. Russian drones invaded Polish airspace in what the Polish Prime Minister called a “large-scale provocation”. Prime Minister Donald Tusk called for an Article 4 consultation after they shot down the Russian drones. The NATO Security Council met on September 12, 2025, in Brussels. In attendance were representatives from Denmark, France, Greece, Slovenia, and the UK. The USA missed the meeting. Security Council Emergency Briefing on Drone Incursion into Poland. This is history, folks. Even if most of us are not following it.
Russia also bombed a government building in the capital, Kyiv, killing four, including one infant.
3. A small craft boat of Venezuelan origin, carrying 11 passengers, was bombed by the US military. The NY Times reports it had already turned around as instructed.
4. AP News reports Israel attacked Doha in Qatar as negotiators were in discussions to end the genocide in Gaza and return hostages. The usual lame excuse was particularly ironic this time: the meeting had Hamas members present.
5. Far right provocateur Charlie Kirk was assassinated as he answered questions.
6. The Trump Administration and MAGA spokespeople blamed the entire Democrat party for Kirk’s death and called for drastic measures.
7. The budget for FY 2025-2026 is due September 30. If nothing is passed, the government will be shut down. Again, by the Republican Party, as always. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer says it is different this time.
The Democrats will try to undo the damage done by the Big Barbaric Bill. That’d be a big victory!
8. The social media “activists” still believe that releasing the Epstein files will prove to be the single issue to turn the ship of state around. (Warning—the Venezuelan boat tried that.)
This really is a lot to take in. We are living in the midst of the curse, “may you live in interesting times.”
This does not mean all is lost. It is time, though, to leave ineffectual wishing and hoping, and work for the hard-won confidence of successive victories.
It is time to accept what we all see. Berlin 1933. I assure you, some in Poland see September 1, 1939.
Scholars are using different words to describe this phenomenon. In June of last year, I relied on the best scholars and used the word “fascism” referring to what I perceived was coming. On Fascism: What is in a word?
Dan Rather wrote in his Substack this week, Time To Play Hardball.
“Here’s hoping you are ready to pay attention, my Steady friends. … But the dissolution of our great democracy is happening faster than most rational Americans thought possible. Time to be calm and steady, yes, but also time to process deeply and be smart.”
When Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, with the phrase “pursuit of happiness,” he was not thinking about endless joy and freedom. He was referring to the concept of John Locke of a well-functioning society, with educated individuals providing for a society founded on principles of liberty.
At this point in our American democracy experiment narrative, it is particularly important for Americans to fully grasp the form of government under which they live before it is all gone. That is the solid ground of liberty for all.
III. Ideas, opinions, and explanations
In writing about acceptance as non-avoidance being a form of resistance, I am not referring to a mental health or wellness technique. Instead, I refer to a crucial focus on what we are accepting from the culture around us: movies, streaming dramas of the filthy rich, or ones in which every character is an expert in the astonishing violence of Krave Maga, media of all types, MAGA denizens, and all politicians who have access to microphones, writers of Substacks and blogs, and the plethora of podcasts available.
Let us do the hard work of self-reflection on how we consent to ideas, opinions, and explanations of differing sources going forward. Critical thinking is always hard work. It takes practice and training to think dialectically.
Why does the person I disagree with so strongly believe what they do? Do they offer trustworthy evidence? Does what they say make sense? Is there a second source or an expert’s voice to consider? Is it mutually exclusive to what I believe, or are there common values to be found?
From where do I get my information? Is it mostly material I agree with? Is it dangerous to begin to seriously listen to the other side? What happens to me if they make sense?
I am troubled by so many condemning the entire populace of Democratic Congressmen and women and voters. Full-throated criticism is easy when no solutions come with the disparagement. How can you help?
Who is laying the foundation for happiness and liberty? Who is laying the foundation for misery, poverty, and oppression? How do you answer their concerns? What are they afraid of, and what are you afraid of? Are those fears real or phobic?
IV. Dynamic non-avoidance, acceptance and serenity
Here is my interpretation of Reinhold Niebuhr’s Serenity Prayer in consideration of accepting our present reality. Niebuhr was an activist as he accepted the turmoil of the rise of Nazism, the holocaust, the civilian and cultural destruction of such a savage war, the entrance into the nuclear age, the racism and civil rights movement of the 1960s, and all of that injustice and violence.
Some men and women will ceaselessly seek power and riches. Others know that children, the ill, and the elderly should be protected and provided for.
It is the unending responsibility of adults to teach young people how to navigate the path to being considerate of others.
Not everyone knows how to assess and achieve wisdom. It must be taught.
Unless you are strategizing for or debriefing from an action, it does no good for anyone to ruminate on the past or worry about what may happen instead of being present in the moment.
Enjoy this wonderful life with all its challenges and rewards. Smell the flowers, listen to the birds, smile more, and see how many times a day you can catch the twinkle in another’s eyes as you laugh together.
Trying to avoid the hard things in life leads to a lack of success and contentment, but it is also simply unsatisfying. Life is hard.
There are evil people in the world. By evil, I mean bad people. Some will con you, trick you, lie to your face, steal from you, betray you, and break your heart without a second thought.
Beware of people who make money telling you they have the secret to happiness. Happiness comes from things that happen in life. Try to be content with satisfaction, or knowing you are loved and appreciated.
Let children be happy at their birthday parties (before everyone starts crying). Let young adults be happy at their graduations and wedding celebrations. (The adults will be crying.)
Bliss is ephemeral. Mostly, it is an illusion. It’s rather like a contemplative moment when the meditation practitioner knows the full-bodied consciousness of being one with the universe. Sublime but rare. Let go. [iii]
[i] Harry Litman, “The Fourth Amendment in the Shadows, Court's latest delphic order leaves workers and the district court guessing.September 10, 2025
[ii] Kavanaugh, J. concurring opinion, Kristi Noem, Secretary, Department of Homeland Security, et al v. Pedro Vasquez Perdomo, et al. https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24pdf/25a169_5h25.pdf Nota Bene: do not miss Justice Dotomayor’s dissent.
[iii] 1926 Sermon of R. Niebuhr full Serenity Prayer
I'm seeing people around me beginning to understand where we are and where we're going. I've been saying we're in 1930s Germany since Day One of Trump's Misadministration. My opinion has strengthened as I've been rereading Shirer's "Rise and Fall of the Third Reich." I'm surprised at the speed of it, though. The infiltration and subversion of this country has been far more thorough then my worst expectations.
Given the events of the last week, I think we may be at our "Horst Wessel" moment. They have a martyr now, and will milk that as much as they can. I fear we will see a ramp up of RW violence in the near future.
Funny that you mentioned Niebauer. I was thinking of his famous piece that began with "When they came for the Communists..."