This Needs Fixin'

And turn it over.

It’s done.

OK, I’m mixing up my musical references there (and probably offending non-U.S. Americans), but you get the point?

It’s time to talk about a post-U.S. America.

While it’s possible that the United States as an organization could be rebuilt after all this, that would only be possible if Musk is stopped soon. The damage he and his Minions have done so far is significant, especially if (as seems to be the case) the data and systems that have disappeared so far have actually been deleted rather than archived and shut down.

There’s no coming back from actually deleting huge swaths of a modern State; even if you try, what you’ll have afterward will by necessity be a new thing rather than a continuation.

(It’s like the “Ship of Theseus“, but one where you just keep shredding bits without replacing them and then try to build a functional ship partway through.)

But it’s really doubtful that Musk will meet with sufficient resistance.

The institutions of the U.S. that we would need to address this are old, rickety and so very very slow.

Whereas the corporate raiders in this country are supercharged with avarice and can move way faster.

So, while the first responses from the courts might be encouraging they are also quite weak and coming in way too late to actually have much impact. And while the resignations may be dramatic and focus some attention on all the coup-ing going on, they actually serve to reduce the level of resistance within our federal institutions.

Move fast and break all the things, indeed.

So, in addition to needing our non-federal institutions to see this through (by doing things like keeping the roads maintained and keeping e. coli out of our food supply that the federal government won’t be doing), it would be smart to start the conversation about what we want these institutions to look like after this fiasco plays itself out.

Because there’s a very good chance that they’re all we’ll have left.

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