Walking back to Pharaoh

We, as a People, now deny the promised land. Many have climbed the mountain and seen our more perfect union. But today, a balance has turned to walk back towards Pharaoh by electing Donald Trump. In Exodus, the time in the wilderness was to burn the slavery to Pharaoh out of the people, to instill agency and responsibility over mere servitude and obedience to entitled human masters so as to enter the Promised Land. Our American Experiment, even with its clear historic failures, began with such a hope to cast off kings with divine rights and begin a journey to govern ourselves by respecting the dignity of all while we all together pursue happiness in the perfection of our union. But, our experiment, from its inception, holds a tragic flaw of near-genetic tenacity that constantly threatens to crack our apparatus and explode to end our hopeful project. As explored in Expecting Chickens to Roost, this fragile apparatus faces many threats.

In the fight for independence, idealists who truly hoped for a human revolution made book with those who prospered by enslaving others to throw off a king. Those who strove to instill freedom and self-determination aligned themselves with landowners who sought a government structured on the domination of others for profit to win a war against an empire. In short, those who dreamed of democracy allied with fascists in a belief that freedom would prevail. So our country has a tension between these poles, which has driven the turbulence of our history and hounds us to this very day. Oppressing, then relenting to a point only to oppress from a new position then relent again. Denying then expanding the franchise in waves. Restricting then expanding rights by race, gender and age. Two steps forward, one back, but forward.