brendan halpin

Dark times are ahead, but I’ve found some comfort in what might initially sound cynical and defeatist, but bear with me.

I realized that one of the things that was very hard for my mental health during the first Trump administration was the constant anger and frustration that nobody was doing their job. That our elected politicians refused to hold Trump accountable as he committed crimes in full view, that the media seemed to be bending over backwards to pretend that this senescent clown was actually a serious person with a legitimate thought in his head.

But something I’ve seen floating around the internet has really helped shape my thinking on this. It’s a statement coined by a guy named Stafford Beer, who in addition to having the second best name ever (His daughter Vanilla Beer holds first place) looked like this:

Anyway, Stafford Beer said, “The purpose of a system is what it does.” I found this to be enormously clarifying and also relieving.

So if we include institutions in Beer’s formulation, we can look at the Democratic Party and realize it’s not failing to be a viable alternative to fascism because that’s not its purpose. Its purpose is to nullify the left. Now I know this sounds like something one of those annoying guys trying to sell you a copy of Socialist Worker would say, but consider this. In 2008, the Democratic Party nominated a center-right candidate who pretended to be a center-left candidate. Because he was Black, racists hated him, which meant that very few on the left wanted to criticize his catastrophic mishandling of the 2008 financial crisis, his enthusiasm for murder drones, and his utter failure to address the crisis of inequality in the United States.

Why didn’t Obama fix things? Because that wasn’t the purpose of his administration. The purpose of his administration was to protect the status quo from challenges from the left.

Then in 2016, Bernie Sanders was building momentum. And the supposedly ineffectual Democratic Party sprang into action to shut him down. They bent and broke their own rules, brokered corrupt deals, and even created the whole “Bernie Bros” meme that allowed them to control the narrative. Imagine! Democrats controlling the narrative!

In short, the Democrats were ruthless and efficient at shutting down a challenge from the left. So they’re not the bumblers they appear to be when fighting the right; they’re excellent at their true purpose, which is neutralizing the left. The purpose of a system is what it does.

Recent events have shown how much Americans hate our healthcare system. I remain convinced that had Harris run on Medicare for All, she would have won. But for Democrats, winning versus the right is a nice to have, where as winning versus the left is a must have.

I could go on, but if you look at the track record of the Democrats in this light, you’ll see that they will not save or protect us from Trump. So we can stop being angry about their failure to do so. When someone drives recklessly in front of a garbage truck, I don’t get angry that the garbage truck doesn’t issue them a citation. It’s not what they’re supposed to do. Similarly, I will no longer be reading the news and fuming about Democratic inaction. They only take action against the left.

It’s the same with the media. I was a little kid in the 70’s and so grew up with the idea that the job of the media was to uncover uncomfortable truths, whether that was Woodward and Bernstein digging up the truth about the Watergate burglary or Kolchak finding out that vampires were real. I was a kid. I may have been confused. But pop culture told me that reporters ask uncomfortable questions and stop at nothing to get the story out.

LOL. It’s not like that anymore. If indeed it ever was. The media’s job is to make money and protect the status quo. Or possibly to make money by protecting the status quo. They’ll have a vested interest in pretending that this Trump administration too is legitimate. Reporters will save their scoops for their books and will continue to serve as stenographers for the powerful rather than warriors for the truth.

The purpose of a system is what it does. So I won’t be spending any energy getting angry or frustrated at the media for not doing what I perceive their jobs to be. They will continue to do their actual job efficiently and well.

Is this an ideal state of affairs? Of course not. But how was my anger and frustration at the Democratic Party and the media helpful from 2016-2020? It wasn’t! It didn’t do a damn thing except make me feel bad!

So the hell with that. I will not be looking to anyone else to save us during the next four years. We’ve got to save ourselves, and not only should we not expect the media and the Democrats to help, we may well find them in opposition. Again, it’s not great, but neither is spending every day in a heightened state of frustration.