Deja Vu: The Persisent Time Loop of Race, Inequality, Liberty and the Enduring Struggle to Create a More Perfect Union

DEJA VU: THE PERSISTENT TIME LOOP OF RACE, INEQUALITY, LIBERTY AND THE ENDURING STRUGGLE TO CREATE A MORE PERFECT UNION

By Eric Johnson, PhD

It has been said that facts are stubborn things and that may well be true, but they often shrink in the face of people’s unholy pursuit to acquire power and then maintain it. While any given fact speaks for itself, it is often a fishing boat struggling to navigate the mighty roar of a seemingly dominant ocean. The continuous waves serve as an ever present and omnipotent danger for the boat and its inhabitants. Certainly, there are precautions one can take such as: becoming a skillful boat operator, the use of life vests, and an awareness of oceanic conditions that may serve to be more dangerous than others. However, in the end no boat no matter how big and regardless of the safety measures one undertakes is any match for the on slot of an angry ocean. This analogy represents the challenge of stubborn facts in the face of collective delusions and the narratives they support and create. Facts are indeed no match for the on slot of activity borne from collective delusions and narrative creation; this endeavor is further complicated by people who would use these delusions and narratives in their pursuit to both acquire and maintain power. Any fact or truth teller is but a fishing boat confronting the commanding and violent on slot of collective delusions and narratives manipulated by unholy pursuits to power acquisitions; as a consequence, the enduring struggle to form a more perfect union is coerced into a time loop that perpetuates inequality.

While collective delusions have the potential to inspire an examination of our best possible selves, they are often tools used by power seekers to manipulate circumstance to their interest. This tool is not new to the American psyche or political landscape. Even the Civil War was in large part a manipulation of the vulnerable by the powerful. Even if one accepts the general notion that the war was largely fueled by the issue of slavery which at best is a complicated truth and at worst another collective delusion. Most white people in the South did not own slaves, or land for that matter, and in many ways were economically harmed by the industry. In fact, most records indicate that only 20 percent of white people in the south owned slaves, which meant that nearly 80 percent did not, and those who had no land or slaves were relegated to an economic poverty that was supported by the industry of slavery. Slavery was in fact a contributor to their poverty. That reality begs the question, “why would they fight a war to maintain their own political disenfranchisement and economic instability?” The North was filled with ghettos of people who were white and who labored for the low wages and were often hungry and homeless. A reality that begs a similar question. “why would they fight a war to provide enslaved Africans with things they themselves did not enjoy. The fact is both realities are unlikely without narratives and collective delusions manipulated by the powerful in both the North and South on the weak and susceptible. These truths are no more evident today than they were at the time. Many people gave speeches on the topic, see Henry Wilson’s “The Slave Power Conspiracy.” People of African descent proudly participated in two world wars to provide freedoms for people they themselves did not enjoy. All in support of a narrative that claimed they would eventually experience a better day in their homeland. Still, we wait.

The historical déjà vu phenomenon in the struggle to form a more perfect union in the face of inequality and bigotry is ever present. Déjà vu represents the seemingly inevitable outcome of a social order that both feeds and produces disparities on a host of indicators that include race, sex, gender, ethnicity and any other characteristic deemed as “other.” More directly déjà vu refers to an ever apparent and seemingly cyclical narrative production process that serves as barrier for the equality, progress, and freedom. The effort to form a more perfect union is often misdirected by collective delusions and narratives that serve the haves at the expense of the have nots. While the haves often vary across in any given effort to form a more perfect union they are united in an effort to either stifle change or manage social, political and economic change in ways that suits their interests as much as possible. The have nots vary across a host of dimensions, but are unified their tendency to agitate for change in way that troubles the existing social order. Déjà vu refers to the idea that over the longhaul social orders rarely change to provide more access, equity and fairness to groups who have been systemically marginalized and left out. The efforts to pursue and advocate for social change are rarely undone by the facts, because the facts often support the need for change. However, narratives and delusions that provide comfort in face of inequality, disparities and suffering, are often more acceptable than disturbing truths that burden and interrupt a blissful ignorance. The compelling tendency to seek comfort acts as the most formidable adversary to progress, equality and the effort to form a more perfect union has or will ever face.

As a consequence, the effort to make us better by ever struggling to form a more perfect union appears to be locked in a time loop that seems to be cyclical in nature. A boat operator sets out on a journey to find better and faces the life-threatening hazards and challenges that many before have often unceremoniously succumbed. Delusion and narratives have always had more import than facts. In more concrete terms, the pandemic has wrought unimaginable economic devastation but not for the richest among us, the top 1 percent has nearly doubled their wealth in the last year, largely due to wealth generated from the stock market. While Black and Brown people were often more than twice as likely to catch the virus, be hospitalized and die, White people are more than twice as likely to receive the vaccine. As the momentum for the Black Lives Matter campaign began in the summer of 2020 as a response there was a Blue Lives Matter crusade, but nearly have half of police officer deaths over the last year were the result of COVID 19, but that threat didn’t produce any mask wearing drive to save more Blue lives, in large part because that set of facts didn’t fit any narrative the anti-mask wears wanted to support. In the summer of 2020, there was significant show of force for Black Lives Matter protests, but in the last 25 years violent right-wing White supremacist organizations have been responsible for the vast majority of domestic terrorist violence. Making the January 6th insurrection more than predictable, and resulting in the death of two police officers.

While the effort to create narratives and delusions that facilitate people’s comfort with inequality, disparities and the absence of fairness is considerable, it is not insurmountable. The response has to include big and bold visions of a future that identifies our struggle to form a more perfect union as an essential part of each our survival. The idea that our individual dreams are more likely to be realized when each of us is free to pursue and realize our God given potential. When we sow the seeds of the discontent, despair, and hopelessness we damage our collective ability to realize life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. We can end the déjà vu phenomenon by seeing the whole together and understanding that conflict is a natural part of the human experience. When we use difference and conflict as opportunities to build a stronger collective where each of us in invested in its success, we are not required to agree on every issue, we need only share a collective desire to construct a healthy space that allows each of us to pursue our selfinterest. A collective narrative that invites us to see the big picture together, self-actualize and manage conflict is what is needed to end the viscous cycle of inequality connected to and supported by the déjà vu phenomenon. As Black history month begins again let us use this opportunity to build a world and a future where we can all feel valued in our authentic selves in the enduring effort to form a more perfect union.

Dr. Eric L. Johnson currently serves as the Chief Consultant with Strategies to Succeed and is on the faculty at Virginia International University. He is the former Chief of Research Publications for the United States Air Force Academy.