As I look back over the past week in posts, I feel grounded, even if worried about the future. Grounded because having a daily practice of reading, writing, posting, then reviewing at the end of the week, helps to keep my sense of being in the world intact. Worried because I didn’t really expect to be confronting the possible collapse of Democracy in the United States as one of my ‘golden years’ planning scenarios.

In some ways I am bewildered it has gotten to this place, but, I saw the struggle and eventual crescendo years ago. I remember being in a local cafe and talking to somebody about the challenge to white patriarchy unfolding in the country. I am pretty sure this was during the early years of the Obama administration. A young white dude sitting nearby said he was studying that very thing in college and that I was right. He seemed surprised that an older white dude could be aware of it and name it. To what degree either of us white dudes was as enlightened as we felt ourselves to be in that moment is another question.

I am on the most comfortable ground when I am taking in the 360 degree view. I am a generalist. I am good at seeing big pictures, less good at developing detailed plans and seeing them through. The big picture to me has been, for a long time, the challenge of the multicultural promise of our democracy to hegemonic white patriarchal order.

Large numbers of white people, and we should resist the temptation to label them ‘white supremacists,’ favor white patriarchal control, either consciously or subconsciously. It is better understood, I think, as the privileged wanting to retain their privileges. Why wouldn’t they? It has been the state of things since the founding of the country. It has conferred a significant advantage to conducting their affairs which would be hard for any group to give up. It has been the foundation of their identity for as long as they have been living. Nobody likes to loose ground or the foundations of their identity, which is exactly what must happen to white men and women if the multiarchy (as I like to call it) is to emerge.

The entitlement and anxieties of white men and women are not new. They have reached crescendos in the past (Civil War anyone?). However, the present shift in demographics has brought white anxiety and insecurity to the surface in a profound way.

Good leadership could steer us through the transitional rapids to the multiarchy without overturning the boat of our democracy. Unfortunately, that is not what seems to be prevailing right now (though there have lately been some hopeful signs). Instead there is the leadership of desperate, mostly white, men and women who no longer believe in democracy because it won’t maintain their privileges. They are exploiting racial animus and resorting to minority rule tactics to maintain their position at the top.

I believe in the multiarchy. I will do what I can to help birth it, or at least not stand in the way of it. I have no idea which way this struggle is going to go. Some days I am in despair, on others I am hopeful. It’s a continuous effort to take each day as it comes and be grateful for it. Reading, writing and blogging helps.