Gob-Smacked Society

Fifty years ago, a futurist named Alvin Toffler wrote a book called “Future Shock,” which can be (rather unjustly) reduced to one line: Society shudders – and so do individuals – when they experience “too much change in too short a period of time.” You might say, we are there, being gob-smacked.

What do I mean gob-smacked? Well, if the brilliant conservative thinker and Ronald Reagan’s mentor William Buckley were still with us, he would put it succinctly, but let me struggle to.

In this wild, wind-whipped bit of American history, which started about 20 years ago, we are force-fed gobbledygook or “wokeness” as “conventional wisdom,” which (we all know) is neither conventional nor wisdom.

What do I mean? We are told by pan-faced (or hysterical) “talking heads” in politics and media that American history is not unique, or is uniquely bad, told July 4^th is nothing to celebrate.

We are told boys must be girls, kids taken from parents, communism rocks, and girls have no basic rights to equality, privacy, or respect, since transgenderism is the new independence.

We are told genetics, biology, and science – except if used to suppress rights – is wrong. We are told individuality, a centerpiece of America, is only good if it conforms with the “woke” mob.

We are told, at the same time, the word wrong is wrong, and moral relativism is right, in a world where there is no wrong or right, making a mockery of the left’s own use of language. 

We are told we need to get with the program, join the Chicken Little climate craze, declare Earth in a death spiral, the world ending, sky falling – no answers except world government.

We are told to stop thinking, just follow, stop looking for answers, admire the problem, stop being individually responsible, join the collective celebration of anger and irresponsibility.

We are told to get woke, join the indignant, unabashedly irreverent Biden crowd, a slice of America that disowns Supreme Court decisions they disagree with, is content to pander to the ends of the Earth (apparently not far off) for every last vote (legal and illegal).

Then turn to matters economic- and security-related. We are told to ignore inflation, which exploded after Biden spent needless trillions and shut down major parts of the energy sector, converting us overnight from energy independence to a struggling, dependent nation.

We are told unfunded police makes us safe, open borders are good, homelessness a non-issue, drug trafficking (ending 100,000 kids’ lives each year) no matter, drag queens what our military needs, China our friend, appeasement pleasing, stumbling something to be proud of.

The list goes on, but let’s end it here. What would Bill Buckley say? Or Ronald Reagan?  How would they drive home the lunacy of the moment, direct us back to pride in July 4^th, remind us of the absolutely life-changing nature of this amazing, once-in-all-humanity nation, and of the sacrifices that have created, animated, and defined this unrivalled nation from our start?

Maybe they would, or at least Bill would, use words like gob-smacked.  He would tell us to think harder, trust our instincts and experience, act on it, like we knew and were proud of the truth.

He might use words like “bumfuzzle” (totally confused) to describe Biden, and “gardyloo” (dirty water thrown from windows in old France) to describe what is dished by this White House.  He might offer Biden’s leadership is “taradiddle” (lies), and what isn’t is “codswallop” (nonsense).

He might even defer to Alvin Toffler, who noted that “one of the definitions of sanity is the ability to tell real from unreal,” noting “Soon we’ll need a new definition.” Or he might just remind us to keep our own counsel, think critically, that is think – with courage to be critical.

Between Buckley and Reagan, we might be reminded that – without apology, without any nod to woke jokesters, with respect to all that has brought us to this point, from Lexington and Concord, Valley Forge and Yorktown, through Gettysburg, WWI, Normandy, Iwo, Korea, Vietnam, and to present, we have more to be grateful for than anyone on Earth, and the others all know it.

Our mission is to understand, even if we are gob-smacked by social, political, and cultural nonsense, that we are still the greatest nation on Earth. Our history requires celebration. Those who know – know. Those who do not, God bless them. May they someday be gob-smacked – by the truth.

Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, attorney, and naval intelligence officer (USNR). He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (2018), and is National Spokesman for AMAC.