A Series of Deadly Downward Spirals is Unraveling America

Will we defend civilization, or descend into chaos and barbarism?

When we see a business, or someone’s personal life, or even an entire society — like the U.S. — doing poorly and going downhill, we often say that it’s “spiraling out of control.” We talk blithely about “downward spirals” — but what does that potent phrase really mean… and what does it mean now for us?

Since many aspects of our lives these days seem to be spiraling downward fast, it’s time to look closely at this phenomenon and explore what’s really happening within and around us.

First, it’s important to briefly contrast the downward spiral with the much-despised “vicious circle”. If a person or group is caught in a vicious circle, he/she/it is stuck in a repetitive, self-reinforcing loop and can’t seem to break free or change anything — literally “going in circles”. It’s a totally static, depressing condition, since no meaningful improvement can occur. It’s often a very annoying, difficult situation — but it usually results in ongoing frustration and irritation, not in calamity, death, or horrendous events.

The downward spiral, on the other hand, is much more dynamic — and not in a good way. Rather than being a static, repetitive condition, spiraling downward signifies an increasingly damaging process of continually worsening conditions and intensifying collapse.

Spiraling is also a self-reinforcing process, like the vicious circle — but here, the deteriorating elements or conditions keep amplifying each other, and the whole process gets super-charged. Depending on the situation, downward spirals can, and often do, lead to utter calamity and horrific events — personally, socially, economically, and/or politically.

Now, before we launch into what’s happening in our society today, let’s contrast it with the opposite process as well: the “upward spiral” or “virtuous spiral.” Just as the varied elements of a downward spiral keep amplifying the negative, destructive trends, in an upward spiral its various elements or aspects keep building each other (and us) up and create ever-increasing positive, desirable momentum (or “flow”).

Upward spirals, as they’re happening, usually feel really good — and they usually create helpful, beneficial, and/or enjoyable results. Though upward spirals are certainly rarer than the downward variety, they do exist, and in fact are often the “ideal” that many people and societies strive for… but seldom reach or achieve.

This across-the-board cultural rarity is very revealing: It shows that in our existing societies we’re much more comfortable and familiar with damaging downward spirals than we are with uplifting virtuous spirals.

And that’s really, really sad — because both are possible, both are recorded in the annals of our history and in our collective memory… and it’s only our negative social and emotional conditioning that makes us so cynical and makes positive upward spirals seem so “unrealistic” or out of reach.

The past forty years in America: Anatomy of an extended downward spiral

Now, let’s apply these ideas to the recent trajectory of American society. As I look back on the last 50+ years here in America (during which time I was both alive and fairly aware), I see several overarching, interlocking trends.

I think that the U.S. actually reached its peak, and was in the midst of a strong, pragmatic upward spiral — actively working toward achieving some long-term goals like real equality — in the mid-60s-late 70s, when major civil rights legislation and the EPA were both created, “Earth Day” originated, labor unions were going strong, and both the women’s and men’s liberation movements were really taking off.

Yes, I know that there were plenty of major societal problems then also, and it was far from a golden age (we couldn’t even manage to pass an Equal Rights Amendment for women, for God’s sake!) — but still, there was actual, significant progress, and we were actively fulfilling more of our great promise of “Liberty and Justice for All.”

So what happened next? A crushing conservative counter-reaction began, and Pres. Reagan and his abhorrent “trickle-down economics” (basically “Make the rich even richer, and then they’ll throw the rest of us some crumbs!”) came to power from 1980–88 — and our long, excruciating downward spiral into social backsliding, greed, and plutocracy began in earnest.

Our unconscionable “socialism for the rich” resulted in the decimation and rapid collapse of the middle class in America, as well as the death of upward mobility and the American Dream — a clear and classic downward spiral.

What were/are the main elements of this still-accelerating downward spiral? One crucial aspect was Reagan’s destructive, negative attitude towards the Federal government itself — which led to his insistence that “the government is the enemy”, an idea that Republicans adopted and now believe wholeheartedly.

This was no minor development: Here we had many of the elected officials who represent us and form our government telling us that our government is useless, incompetent, and dangerous, so we’d be better off without it! Some Republicans even dreamed of drowning our federal government in the bathtub and burying its corpse — nice, huh?!

Privatization and super-capitalism: BAD ideas with bad long-term effects

Then, going along with and supporting this dangerous anti-government attitude, was (and is) the perennial, erroneous conservative belief that business and businessmen are better than the government at tending to Americans’ needs and getting things done — which led to the ever-increasing, relentless Republican push for “privatization”, ending or shrinking Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare, and gutting/defunding our federal government.

It’s all quite bizarre, really — since there is no evidence at all that private businesses and industry are really more efficient or perform better.

In fact, there’s quite a bit of evidence to the contrary: Usually “privatization” undermines former progress or willfully undoes it, since the motive has now become monetary profit instead of the public welfare, and there is every incentive to cut or minimize services. Private industry may be much more efficient in terms of earning money — sometimes — but it’s usually far less efficient at fulfilling social goals and providing needed and promised public services.

This anti-government/pro-industry bias within our government was a direct outgrowth of the underlying, inherent tension and ongoing conflict in the U.S. between capitalism and democracy.

At times in our history our intrinsic capitalist attitudes have dominated, while at other times pro-democracy forces have been more prominent — and during the 80s (and since) our capitalist side won out, big time. Our super-competitive, heartless capitalist system was touted as the best of all possible worlds: An uber-wealthy, plutocratic society in which “Greed is Good”, as the unscrupulous Gordon Gekko preached in the film “Wall Street”.

This huge shift began the era, which continues today, of anti-democratic, elitist “super-capitalism” that keeps concentrating most of the nation’s wealth in the top 2–3% of the population, while relegating most Americans to lives of downward mobility, frustration, and economic insecurity. This unconscionable “socialism for the rich” (along with the offshoring of many industries) resulted in the decimation and rapid collapse of the middle class in America, as well as the death of upward mobility and the American Dream — a clear and classic downward spiral.

Of course, this long-term trend is definitely not a recipe for social stability or increasing democracy. Rather, it’s a potent recipe for increasing public discontent, increasing plutocracy, and fast-decreasing democracy.

The rise and devious “respectability” of the far-right

Then, starting in the 90s and continuing through today, we saw the rise of far-right talk radio, followed by the rise and vast power of Fox “News” and other right-wing media outlets. To my mind, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter, and Tucker Carlson — and all the rest of their ilk — have done immeasurable damage to our nation, as they insidiously replaced real, accurate news and reasoned public debate with demagoguery, slander, rage-stoking, race-baiting, malicious innuendo, and partisan disinformation.

Now we’ve reached the very dangerous point where at least 35% of Americans receive entirely different “news” and believe in a completely different “reality” than most of us — leading directly to the now-infamous, massive divisiveness that’s plaguing our nation and ripping it apart… and setting the stage for even more intense conflict and violent insurrection.

Add to all this manufactured, intentional chaos and conflict: Ta-Da! — the ubiquitous rise of social media over the past decade. This new technology allowed Americans to pick their preferred social and informational “silos” and then stay there, surrounded by partisan information/”news” and much disinformation, and often cut off from real news and accurate information about events.

Our nation’s founders were always quite concerned about the dangers of demagoguery and an uninformed “partisan rabble” taking over American politics — and today, we have an Internet-addicted citizenry that buys into all the social media hype and drama, and believes it’s well-informed, but is actually poorly-informed, hyper-partisan, and frequently semi-delusional or hysterical.

Inflamed passion rules, not reason.

In other words (and I hate to say this so bluntly): An uninformed, irrational, often-devious “partisan rabble” has been growing in power and influence and is now taking over America… just as our founders most feared.

Last, but certainly not least, there’s the rise of Donald Trump and his deceitful, rabble-rousing demagoguery, which has also spurred intense divisiveness, and fomented white rage, corrosive anti-government and antisocial attitudes, and even blatant sedition and insurrection. Say what you will about Trump, he is definitely one of the most successful and powerful demagogues of modern times, and surely the most powerful in all of American history.

That he is also an amoral pathological liar and master manipulator just compounds his deadly, astoundingly effective demagoguery… as he successfully drags millions upon millions of Americans into his narcissistic, destructive “alternate reality”, built on a foundation of paranoia, racism, and greed.

Talk about horrific, sickening downward spirals…

The blatant deception and radicalization of the American public just keeps increasing… and most Republican politicians are so afraid of alienating/angering Trump’s MAGA base that they’ve chosen to go along with all this deceit and manipulation.

Climate destabilization and other horrors

With America now caught in an accelerating downward spiral… what are the current and developing results?

Since every part or aspect of a downward spiral amplifies and intensifies all the others, some truly terrifying patterns are already becoming starkly obvious. For instance, let’s look at the contentious issue of global warming/climate change — and our utterly inadequate response — which provides a very clear example of how downward spirals develop and accelerate.

When global warming/climate change was first fully validated by climate experts back in the early 90s (and ever since), fossil fuel industry groups joined forces with reactionary political factions and conservative think tanks to very successfully undermine and invalidate these findings. Their right-wing/capitalist “victory” ensured that for decades the U.S. and various polluting industries around the world did next to nothing to combat or slow climate change…

Which helped accelerate the dangerous effects of global warming, including more and more extreme weather events all around the planet… which are already interfering with our crops, harvests, transportation networks, and supply chains… which increases our collective fear and anxiety about the future… which inclines people to look for easy solutions or scapegoats, and be easily deceived by the false promises of demagogues… which conditions people to accept and support increasing far-right extremism and fascism… both of which minimize/ignore climate change or even deny the problem altogether… (hooray, now we’re rapidly spiraling downward)…

Which further ensures that we won’t do enough to slow or reverse climate change… which hastens and intensifies extreme weather events even further… which increases our fear and anxiety and quest for scapegoats… which increases public support for extremist and fascist “solutions”… which leads to mounting calls for “patriots” to revolt and “take back our country”… which incites more and more actual violence and insurrection… which poses an immediate civic threat that diverts us from focusing enough on climate change… etc.

Damn and double-Damn! It’s a very grim and obvious downward spiral — yet it’s still frequently denied or minimized… which of course keeps amplifying the whole deadly spiral.

Trumpism, fascism, and other shitshows

Here’s another distressing example: The still-emerging and horrifying results of Donald Trump’s continuous lies and amoral, twisted machinations. Long before the contested 2020 election, he started lying about the trustworthiness of mail-in voting, fomented intense distrust of our “rigged” voting systems, and even stated outright that that the only valid election result would be him winning! (Of course, this assertion is both absurd and very dangerous in a democratic system dependent on voting… since it undercuts the entire system!).

Then, after his election loss… Trump totally denied he had lost, kept lying and making up his own “fake news” about the election, and refused to ever concede to Joe Biden. This set the stage for utter political chaos in this country, as millions of Republicans and Fox “News” junkies and entitled white folks believed his constant B.S. about the “stolen election”, took up the “Stop the Steal!” mantra, and became deeply radicalized… which led to increasing attempts all around the country to overturn the election… which led to 60+ lawsuits and court cases, 59 of which were thrown out for lack of evidence of fraud, and also affirmed the certified election results…

Which led Trump to redouble his lies and his efforts to overturn the election… which led to increased right-wing denial of the official election results… which led to more calls for “patriotic” public uprisings to “Stop the Steal!”… which led to the bloody Jan. 6 insurrection/coup attempt… which inspired Trump to double down even more on his election lies and self-serving manipulations…

What the…!? But that’s not even the worst of it.

It’s quite likely that some aspects of downward spirals are actually forms of hysteria. The elements of irrationality, rapid spread, intense emotionality, and potential for violence are all there in both.

Since his adoring MAGA followers believe almost every word he says, and many act on his words as well, the blatant deception and deep radicalization of the American public just keeps increasing… and most Republican politicians are so afraid of alienating/angering his MAGA base that they’ve chosen to go along with all this deceit and manipulation.

Which led many right-wing politicians to turn open support for Trump’s Big Lie into a litmus test for being a “real Republican” (!!)… which led to a flurry of lying, seditious, wacko politicians running for red-state offices and winning their primaries… which further cements the supposed validity of the Big Lie… which creates even more civic conflict, and further undermines our democracy and confidence in our voting systems…

Which is paving the way for yet another super-contentious election cycle this November (and I shudder to even imagine the upcoming presidential election in 2024!)… which will likely lead to more fraud accusations and more violence-promoting, overheated rhetoric and lies… which will incite more post-election threats and actual violence… which further endangers the stability and survival of our democratic Republic… which increases our fear and deep anxiety about the future… which inclines people to believe the false promises and fascist rhetoric of populist demagogues… on and on and on.

Scary, scary shit, indeed!!

Downward spirals and emotional hysteria: Dr. Demento’s nasty, ugly twins

The most troubling aspect of downward spirals is the intense momentum they often build up, which makes them incredibly difficult to stop or slow down.

In this they resemble the emotional chain reaction of hysteria, which is an intensely irrational, “over-the-top” reaction to challenging or frightening events. Hysteria also can rapidly escalate out of control, take over a person’s mental state, and easily infect and incite other people, which can (and does) lead to horrendous group events like racist lynch mobs or the Jonestown Massacre or anti-government mob violence.

In fact, it’s quite likely that some aspects of downward spirals are actually forms of mass hysteria. The elements of irrationality, rapid spread, and increased potential for violence are all there in both, as is the rabid, flailing defense of one’s chosen “position” and beliefs — no matter how irrational (think of the absurd, paranoid nonsense of QAnon, for instance).

And just as with hysteria, it’s probable that vast societal downward spirals have to either burn themselves out through destructive emotional release and acting out, OR must be slowed by direct action and forcible restraint. Once rampant hysteria or an intense downward spiral accelerates past a certain “point of no return”… it gets totally out of control, and is impossible to curtail or manage without resorting to drastic measures and forcible external control.

Think far-right uprisings, urban violence, riot control, tear gas, handcuffs, and packed police vans, hospitals, and jail cells. That’s what we’re headed for…fast.

Weathering the spiraling madness

From the above examples, it should be obvious that the U.S. is in big, big trouble right now. We’re in the midst of a still-accelerating and vicious downward spiral, and there doesn’t seem to be any viable way to turn it around. As I’ve written in other articles, it seems that the die is cast for our near-term future, and there will be intense social conflict and violence no matter what we do.

Our nation blew it — bigtime.

The thing about downward spirals, though, is that you have to confront them head on and challenge their supreme idiocy and hysteria — or they’ll just keep escalating and getting even more catastrophic. And mounting that direct challenge effectively — mainly through direct confrontation by law enforcement and/or the National Guard, and strong enforcement of our existing laws — is about all we can really do, at this point.

Maybe, if we’re lucky, we’ll prosecute and imprison the most dangerous inciters, seditionists, and demagogues (including you-know-who), impose a bit of control on the intense downward momentum — and keep our situation from getting far, far worse.