What's Tony Thinking

In A Dangerous Time

A society already polarized into tribes and camps, the extremes hate-filled.

You overlay a pandemic. Its uncertainties magnified by a lack of Presidential leadership and decency.

You add a tragic spark, the brutal killing of George Floyd.

Peaceful protests born of pain are manipulated by those who crave the outbreak of violence and chaos on the streets.

A President fans the flames. “You’ve got to dominate . . . otherwise you’ll look like jerks.”  In front of a church, St. John’s Church, he held a Bible aloft, pumping it like a fist.

Are we there now? There at the point Yeats foresaw in “The Second Coming.” We are at a most dangerous moment.

“Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.”

Yes, the worst are full of passionate intensity.

Do the best lack all conviction?

Is it true “the centre cannot hold”?

George Floyd’s brother, and so many others, are calling — imploring — those in the streets back from the brink.

Who will call Donald Trump back from the brink?

In a dangerous time.