^In cartoons (particularly Looney Tunes), we often see a situation where a character runs off the edge of a cliff… and… for a time… keeps running forward through empty space… before suddenly realizing they are in mid-air … usually above a fall that defies conception.

Then, they turn to the camera, blush, or shrug… and begin free-fall.

I never really expected my nation to actually »do this.

But it has. In fact, it’s doing this in multiple situations, with multiple aspects of identity, reality, problem-solving, and analysis.

And here’s the problem:

While in free-fall, it’s entirely possible to pretend that everything is normal, will be fine soon, nothing’s »really gone awry, and so on.

And one can ‘just keep pretending this’… all the way down.

Until the impact at the bottom of the fall.

And I think our nation, and modern societies in general…

… are pretending in precisely this way.