We are in a new era of colonization: cultural colonists have taken over our institutions, and the result is every bit as dramatic, if not yet as violent, as the colonial expansion into the New World that took place centuries ago. In this solo episode, I develop an extended analogy between the conflict of natives and settlers, and the current fight for ideological, and sometimes literal, dominance.

This episode elaborates on an analogy mentioned at the beginning of the interview with Katie Herzog. See Episode 10 of The Filter for that interview. Much of the material here is based on talk I gave about a year ago. Hope you enjoy.

Related links:

Radiolab Podcast - For Whom the Cowbell Tolls (Mar 2019)

Useful Idiots Podcast – Matt Taibbi, Katie Halper, and Glenn Greenwald on Russiagate and Mainstream Media (Jan 2020)

NY Times – “Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Likens $10,000 Debate Offer by Conservative Columnist to Catcalling” (Aug 2018)

National Post - “ABC has cancelled Roseanne after comedian's racist tweet” (May 2018)

Transcript (rough):

If you want to understand what's happening in our society right now, you have to look back in time. I'm not the only one to suggest we are reliving some version of the past. Others are pointing to parallels with the rise of communism and struggle sessions, or the disintegration of U.S. into violet partisan hatred so strong it might lead to another civil war. I see value in these other parallels, however imperfect.

But if you want to understand what's happening to our society, culture, and institutions I think you need to go back and look at what happened on the north American continent from the early colonial period to the triumph of manifest destiny.

What I'm going to present is, in effect, an extended analogy, or elaborate model for our current moment. There's a famous saying that all models are wrong, but some of them are useful. In my view this particular model, whatever it's simplifications and failings, does a better job than any other framework in explaining our current moment. Hopefully you'll agree.

The theory came to me while listening to an episode of the Radio Lab podcast, titled "For Whom the Cowbell Tolls". It tells the story of Nancy Holten, a Dutch woman who moves to a small Swiss village, and immediately begins complaining about the local style of life. Holten is annoyed by the morning church bells. She's disgusted by all meat eating. She hates having to wear shoes. She even hates the cowbells, the very symbol of her new home in the Swiss countryside. She hates all these things so strongly, that she tries to get everyone around her to give them up.

Her new Swiss community, as might be expected, pushes back.

It turns out that in Switzerland, the community you settle in gets to vote on your citizenship. It’s a throwback to the country’s roots as a highly decentralized democracy.

In return for aggressively insulting her new community, her community votes No on her citizenship petition. Twice.

Holten’s story, as told by the highly capable team at Radiolab, is fascinating. More than fascinating, though, I think it's revealing of something deeper about our present moment. While certainly not told in a one-sided way, reporter Kelly Prime clearly wants us to see Holten as the victim of closed-minded, xenophobic yokels. Holten a powerless immigrant, a barefooted, free-spirit minority who Swiss are cruelly trying to deny citizenship to.

But she’s not an immigrant. Not really.

She’s a colonist.