Courtesy of wikipedia.org
The anthropologist Margaret Mead spent her life studying humans and came up with observations that go unchallenged today. One of them is, Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed it’s the only thing that ever has. But, like the Oracle of Delphi, there was much in her pronouncement that Mead left out. Did commitment guarantee change would be good or bad, for example? Or, what happens when people on two sides of an issue seem equally committed?
The news in the last few weeks has provided a stomach-churning display of an equally matched tussle. A court struck down Trump’s tariffs, and then a higher court issued a stay. Trump moved to prevent Harvard from enrolling foreign students, only to see another court block that order. His next ploy was to demand a list of the names of Harvard’s foreign students. This, Harvard denied.
On other fronts, Trump continues to sow chaos in the name of reform. Fortunately, his efforts so far have backfired. Elon Musk, the billionaire he appointed to head the office of government efficiency, Doge, has left that position to save Tesla, his electric car company that is losing money. Some saw the drop in car sales as a protest against Musk. Others said, “Good riddance to his exit” as Doge wasted money.
While Congress lies comatose, like a patient etherized upon a table*, Trump’s Cabinet performs as if they were Keystone Cops. The Fourth Estate tries to cope by exposing the President’s corruption and the examples are many. Not only has he monetized the White House, selling tours to billionaires, he’s also engaged in meme coin transactions where millions of dollars go, not to the government, but into his pocket. There’s even a suggestion that he may be selling Presidential Pardons.
As shocked as the majority of the country is by these antics, we the people share responsibility for our failed nation-state. Nine million Americans didn’t bother to vote in the last election. A number of young males who did cast their ballots for Trump. As one of them explained, “At least he’s trying to do something.”
The young man’s justification in my view is breathtaking. Vladimir Putin is doing something in Ukraine; Benjamin Netanyahu is doing something in Gaza; Adolf Hitler did something in Germany. What that something is has consequences. A desire for action doesn’t absolve wanton ignorance. If this young man hungered for responses at our Southern border, he should know that Joe Biden’s deportation numbers matched those of Trump’s during his first term. The difference is that Biden never “disappeared” people off American streets. No, that was something ”Sleepy Joe” never did.
Ignorant opinions are toxic to a democracy. Instead of dismantling the Department of Education, we should increase its funding.
Cortical thinking is a must in self-governing societies. Though most of us suppose we think rationally, experts say people tend to form their opinions based upon the values of their tribe, the people with whom they feel comfortable. (“Critical Thinking about Our Vulnerabilities and Misinformation,” by Bertha Vazquez and Melanie Trecek-King, Skeptical Inquirer, May/June 2025, pg. 49.)
If these experts are right, I’m struck by a question. Why is patriarchy prevalent in so many cultures? How did pecking orders and competition and aggression take hold? When we examine the smallest society, as Mead defined it, that between a mother and child, the foundational principle is for the stronger to protect the weaker. Eric Hoffer held a similar view about society as a whole. Weakness and not strength energized cultures. Where would medicine be without the sick, he asked. (The Passionate State of Mind by Eric Hoffer, Hopewell Publications LLC. 2006, pg. 27)
In, Male and Female, Mead wrote that beyond propagation, men have no biological role in society. Fatherhood, she asserted was a social invention. If true, I feel the need to extrapolate. Could Nature’s neglect of men have left them free to invent themselves? And could it also be that driven by their testosterone energies, they created a role that normalized the desire to conquer and smash things?
Mead may be right that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. But I’d add a corollary. Any group with grandiose ambition will go farther and faster if it champions feminine values.
*” The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” by T. S. Eliot
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