Photo Credit:Trump comes back
The Last Refuge, by permission
In 2024, both the dystopian nightmare of Kafka and the American dream of Capra unexpectedly came to America; their competing visions were prophetic more than fictional.The 2024 election was a referendum like no other. Unlike past elections, it was not an inconsequential choice. It was not a choice between candidates who campaign as political opponents with competing philosophies and different visions (as those erudite pundits characterize most presidential elections) but then govern indistinguishably as uniparty puppets. It was not that kind of election in which, regardless of partisan proclamations, all candidates eventually become foreign policy McCains and domestic policy New Deal, Great Society, Keynesian drunken sailors with a modern monetary theory open bar.
This was the kind of election in which I felt compelled to wait for the inauguration before even seriously reflecting on it, just to make sure it would really happen. While the election did involve major themes and core concepts of rights and liberties that have always defined our country, the election also seemed unusually personal. For this was an election that took direct aim at me and how I think, how I think of America, how I am for civil liberties and limited government and against the welfare state and the warfare state and the wokefare and the lawfare. It felt like a referendum at least in part on those who think like me, whether often or occasionally.
It was as if we were on the ballot, asking voters to determine whether we are racists, misogynists, deplorables, threats to democracy, domestic terrorists, and garbage, or simply Americans. And anyone who would associate, however tenuously, with garbage would also have to be considered garbage or garbage adjacent creatures, like cockroaches. So if your candidate loses an election, you could wake up one day and find that you are a cockroach, just like Franz Kafka’s Gregor Samsa. If you persist in your traditional American ways with your liberty-minded rights-based American ideals, you could wake up one day and find that you are guilty of a crime that is never defined or explained, just like Kafka’s Joseph K. in The Trial. American institutions have been filling up fast with woke authoritarianism. Practically the only place not completely infiltrated is that of the people, just as Frank Capra’s Bailey Building and Loan was the sole institution not under the control of the corrupt powerful Potter. George Bailey’s fight against Potter was a liberty versus tyranny type of battle, like our fight now. This juxtaposition of Capra’s victories and Kafka’s defeats aptly captures the essence of this election. The 2024 election was a referendum on America, the America of Franz or Frank, of Kafka or Capra.
It has been a time of lies. And not just any lies. Not the white lies, the fibs, the minimal impact ones of transitory hurt feelings, spared feelings, or boosted egos. No, these lies are the far-reaching, life-changing kind, vicious lies that destroy good people, innocent people. These are the kind of lies that are blasted from the proverbial mountain top, the kind of lies so egregious it makes Moses’s top ten list. These lies may be outright fabrications, mischaracterizations, or lethal lies formed from truths cut and altered and then pasted together to give the lies the sound and feel of truth. Since there are multiple sides to the truth, the lies may masquerade as one of those sides. But lying is not a side. The middle ground between lies and truth is a lie. And no lie would be complete without the liars hypocritically projecting their own offenses, including dishonesty, onto the maligned.
These lies spread and multiply, spawning more lies that are necessary to support or cover up the original lie. The lies have to become more absurd and brutal, a complete malfunction of reason and logic. This is Kafka’s world, the upside world of warped inversions. Complex and simple, trivial and significant, sacred and profane, good and evil all trade places. It’s a world of conclusions in search of evidence. There is no proportionality, no ability to apply weights and measures, measuring intentions, causes, and consequences to determine the best outcomes. The individual becomes increasingly trapped in a world of irrationality, watching helplessly as the innocent are mistaken for the guilty.
Many Capra critics might dispute that Capra’s syrupy idealism could explain the reality of a far more complex America descending into a far more diabolical authoritarianism than anything Capra could understand. Maybe Capra did not know about deep state door knocks for dissenting opinions, lawfare confiscations, and demolitions of earnings accumulated rigorously and lives lived righteously, or propaganda-based political divisions so acute individuals on one side wish hardships, suffering, even death on those on the other side.
But Capra did know about the treachery of some of those ruling elites, whether in government or law or business or media, whose power and habits and desires shield them from any legal and moral consequences of the unjust harm they inflict on others. Capra’s villains will subject anyone hindering their acquisition of power, status, or money to entrapment, slander, or false charges. They will employ media, governmental, judicial power, and the vicious gullible mob, as all Capra’s heroes were subjected to. Capra’s heroes are often ordinary, unlikely, a bit eccentric, maybe a little ethically compromised but able to change when faced with moral choices. Inspired and strengthened by the spirit of Christmas or of ‘76, they are able to harness enough common sense and humanity not just from themselves but from others — who may be wavering or timid or part of the villain’s following but whose corruption is not yet irredeemable — to prevail against unsurmountable odds over powerful oppressive forces. Capra’s Meet John Doe ends with a triumphant declaration to a prototypical Capra villain: “There you are, Norton! The people! Try and lick that!”
In this era of lies, liars are awarded honors, given prizes, granted presidential medals, or promoted to prestigious positions. As for the truth, the price of truth becomes so hyperinflationary, having to be paid with sacrifices so draconian — cancelled careers, ostracism, bankruptcy, prison — only the very rich with the steeliest spines and the most golden of hearts are able to afford truth. Truth is at the core of what is interesting, what is funny, what is art, what is sensible, what is wise, and what is right. Losing truth means losing all of that. In classic Capraesque fashion, an unlikely hero in the form of a blustering billionaire came along. This master salesman and self-promoting alleged narcissist somehow seems to be about the only one around with enough common sense and compassion and courage to pardon pariahs, speak the consequential truths, and open up the American First Amendment frontiers to enable truth and its byproducts to flourish.
Both the dystopian nightmare of Kafka and the American dream of Capra unexpectedly came to America. Their competing visions were prophetic more than fictional. In the 2024 election they clashed. Capra won. It’s a wonderful election. America is being fitted with wings where the iron fists of the state had been tightening its grip. As long as we continue to speak truth, as thoughtfully and courageously as much as we can, and guard those truth-telling and truth-seeking angels, America will get to keep those wings.
<img alt="Trump comes back" captext="The Last Refuge, by permission” src=”https://conservativenewsbriefing.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/capra-defeats-kafka.jpg”>
Image: The Last Refuge, with permission.
