Keep Calm and Carry On: A Prescription for US Politics in 2012?

Recently, I ordered a poster from the UK that bears the words, "Keep Calm and Carry On." It was commissioned during WWII, to be posted everywhere in case the very real threat of invasion became a reality. I was drawn to the sentiment because I see it embodying life in a nutshell (according to the British anyway). It says, if the Germans should beach their landing craft along the south coast of England and advance inland by machine gunning everything in sight, then the best thing to do is just to keep calm and carry on.

The poster is a reproduction of one that, mercifully, never had to be put into circulation. Hitler got distracted with a little place of geography called Russia and called off Operation Sea Lion, which was the invasion of the British Isles. It was a while before the British learned this, so thousands of these posters were printed in anticipation. They must have ended up in a landfill somewhere since only one has showed up almost accidentally, found in a box of books purchased by a second-hand book store. It has been an immediate UK and international hit. It's pretty enough with its bright orange color with stiff-upper-lip white printing, but I think it's the universal appeal of the sentiment that attracts people--at least that's what got me to buy it.

The poster calls for patience and concentrating on daily life as a way to deal with adversity. It implicitly denounces those who might panic and since it bears a stylizing crown on the top, it suggests that this is official government policy. Since I doubt the Nazis would have been much interested in having people carry on with their lives, the poster is meant for those whose with lives turned completely upside down. Have patience, the words say, this too shall pass if we can hang on to what we can of our lives, subject of course to fighting the Nazis street by street as Winston Churchill promised when he said that England would never surrender.

I have the poster framed on my office wall and I look at it when I am tempted to over-react to the state of US politics and the media frenzy that has been stirred up. Just when I think we can sink no lower, I find the bar has been lowered yet again. The Republican campaign has long lost any connection to real issues. It has become a slug-fest of slogans. If this is Tuesday in Louisiana, by all means start in on contraception. Wednesday and New Hampshire? No problem: dig out don't tread on me flags and yell about freedom.  Virginia on Friday: raise voices about abortion and punishing women for wanting one. Texas on Saturday? hit on illegals and health care--promise to make medical care available only to the rich and employed--if the poor die off in larger numbers, well that gets rid of a useless population; who cares about joblessness anyway--if people were any good, they'd be employed already.

Does anyone really mean what they say? I rather doubt it. Good sense has been drowned in the stampede to appear as narrow-minded and judgemental as possible. Meanwhile, the rich get richer with money they can never possibly spend in their lifetimes, the middle-class becomes poor, and the poor drop off the map.

Next week I go to the UK to visit family where I know I will be asked about this current political mess. "What's going on?" they're going to ask me. I haven't figured out yet quite what to say. If I explain that none of this matters because no one really believes that any of this is going to be acted upon after the election, I'll be met with blank looks. The British election cycle is over in a few weeks rather than the long, drawn-out bloodbath the nominating process has become. If I say it's all window dressing and entertainment, they'll wonder about how reliable we are with our nuclear capacity. Do we really think war is the only solution for people who disagree with us?

I know I won't try to explain the almost mania that has gripped the US--mainly because I don't understand it. I come from the school of steady as she goes, try for the best for everyone concerned, and keep any one group from dominating the others. I'm going to say instead that I'm trying to ignore most of it. There are very few people interested in having their minds changed. In fact, the dominant interest right now seems to be finding people of like mind who can reinforce one's prejudices.

I suppose this all will pass. These periods of insanity usually do when someone gets asked, "Have you no shame?" Then the noisy minority faction among us goes slinking away and the rest of the country tries to forget they ever existed. Until then, I guess all we can do is keep calm and carry on.