Jack of Harts

One of the things that made the Second Great Depression as bad as it was is the decades of political and cultural division that preceded it. Identity politics divided people by race, sex, religion, politics, and more. Those who had friends in other groups were called race traitors, or the like. And there was always a protest group happy to march with signs held high to call for someone to lose their job, their business, or worse if they didn’t do exactly as they were told. By the time the economic crisis hit its peak, the time when people really needed to hang together for the good of everyone, too many people no longer cared what happened to those outside their close group of trusted friends and associates. And too many others took a delighted glee out of watching those who’d attacked them lose their jobs or homes in turn. And when the governmental social safety nets failed, those who depended on them had to sink or swim. Far too many of them pulled others down with them in their frantic attempts to avoid drowning. It wasn’t just the economic crisis that hurt. It was the political crisis. The culture crisis. The moral crisis. It all came to a boil at once, and when it hit America, it hit the rest of the world like a thunderbolt.