In the late 19th century, coal miners began bringing canaries into the mines. These canaries, more sensitive to the ambient air and therefore more susceptible to toxic gases, were used as an early warning signal. The idea was that if the canary became ill or, in a more extreme environment, died, the miners had a little time to escape before they, too, were overwhelmed by toxic gases. A sick bird meant the danger was real. A dead bird meant the danger was imminent.
There is a reason the right-wing elements of political society are prominently anti-communist, or even anti-socialist: they know, because history has shown us, that socialism and communism lead to a more egalitarian society where people’s needs are prioritized over profit. With the profit motive removed and the playing field leveled, there is no longer anyone left to feel superior, and the power of the ruling class is in jeopardy. Right-wing ideologies justify inequalities as the “natural order,” while the class system with its “haves” and “have-nots” is “human nature.” This is wrong, of course, but because it is endemic to this nation’s history, it is treated as immutable.
The ideological framework that infuses the U.S. political and economic system successfully paints opposition as dangerous and dissenters as radical agitators. It works because people don’t have time to read books and ask questions when they have to work three jobs, and their kid is sick from a preventable disease because the Secretary of Health doesn’t think vaccines work. Because of this, people are unable to recognize patterns for what they are, and since change happens incrementally, you end up with a pile of dead canaries before you smell the toxic gases.
The Trump administration, like so many far-right political administrations, is adept at taking legitimate societal grievances and directing them towards convenient scapegoats. The immigrant population is currently being used to justify the horrors wrought by the Trump administration as a way to Make America Great Again, and the plan is customized to fit a wide audience. Housing costs too high? Too many immigrants. Not enough jobs to go around? Too many immigrants. A rise in contagious diseases? Must be the immigrants. Healthcare costs rising? Those damn immigrants again. By not actually addressing legitimate concerns or even agreeing that problems exist related to the unhoused, the unemployed, and those without healthcare, no solutions need to be created. This is a dead canary.
Because the free market gave us lettuce loaded with parasites that give us explosive diarrhea, people have to go to the hospital. And if you need an IV, hope you don’t get hooked up to a saline bag that was recently flagged for containing fiberglass. Because the free market gave us private insurance that doesn’t cover anything, people are saddled with bills they can’t pay, followed by debt and eventual bankruptcy. Recent polling shows that between 36% and 42% of adults skipped needed healthcare in the past year because of cost, with 1 in 5 of those reporting their health worsened as a result. Forbes estimates over half a million people file for bankruptcy due to medical bills every year, a uniquely American issue. This is not the hallmark of a thriving nation, and another dead canary was added to the pile.
As the U.S. gallops toward certain doom because oil company CEOs bought politicians who told people climate change isn’t real, the rest of us are stuck with the consequences. While climate change denialists forget that water is a solid at 0℃ and a liquid at 1℃, glaciers in Nepal are collapsing. Scientists have known for decades that our thirst for fossil fuels would be our undoing, but the car was sold to the public as a symbol of freedom. That glorious open highway held endless possibilities, along with expensive fuel and repairs, highway maintenance, and government subsidies to automobile companies. While China builds high-speed rails, our bridges collapse as our cars idle in traffic for hours, pouring greenhouse gases into the air. And instead of building apartments up, the U.S. built homes out, convincing the public that everyone needs a house with sprawling acres of lawn and a grocery store 20 miles away. That’s another dead canary.
The surveillance state continues unabated, save for a few heroes who take a hacksaw to Flock camera poles. Massive data centers are built at the behest of the owning class and to the detriment of the public, siphoning valuable resources away from communities that never wanted them in the first place. Our taxes go to bombing innocent brown people thousands of miles away, while the secret police disappear innocent brown people from our own streets. The pile of dead canaries is getting deeper.
With the recent overturning of a law banning firearms from Post Office property, the public can now arm themselves while they get their stamps, as the founding fathers intended. The midterm elections are two months away, the Republican Party is desperate to hold onto power, and MAGA believes everything Donald Trump tells them. Since Trump believes mail-in ballots are ripe for fraud (even though he uses them), and MAGA has a history of storming federal buildings at the behest of their dear leader, his supporters harassing postal workers will have no consequences whatsoever. We’re stepping on dead canaries over here.
The United States and its experiment with capitalism are going as intended: the rich get richer as they eat up the environment and the poor along with it. The democratic process is being stripped away. The State is still kidnapping innocent people and giving ICE money to buy “shock gloves.” Dead canaries are everywhere, and for a group of people who use the word “woke” as a pejorative, they are committed to sleeping through the signs of impending collapse. Are we great again yet?
As with all op-eds published by People’s World, the views reflected here are those of the author.
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