As I wonder how come there’s never been an episode of The Walking Dead that revolved around toilet paper…

Yesterday I went out on a trail run behind South Mountain here and I started thinking about the Civil War. Now, I know that I’m simplifying it, but I’m sure there were plenty of decent church-going southern folk back then who subscribed to the whole “Love thy neighbor as thyself” credo. But then they turned around and kept black people as slaves.

And I imagine some of these southerners rationalized that the blacks actually preferred it this way (Remember Bill O’Reilly only a couple years ago noting that all the slaves who helped build The White House —that name; there’s no end to irony— were well-fed?) and they were happier. Others were able to cognitively disconnect, as their descendants do now, what they profess to believe versus the way they actually behave. Still others didn’t give a rat’s ass because what’s good for business is all that matters.

One thing all of these southerners had in common, though: they didn’t cotton (pun intended) to a bunch of northern Yankees telling them how to live their lives. So the Civil War was fought and it remains the deadliest war in American history (more soldiers died than in World War II, and of those who perished more from disease than from actual battles) and the South was ravaged and a 3-plus hour film was made about two beautiful people who can’t stand one another. Was it worth it?

The lesson of the Civil War is this: some people are willing to lose everything before they admit they’re wrong.

Which brings us to 2020. Remember, was it only last week, when Trish Regan went on air on Fox Business and accused Democrats of whipping up a frenzy and a hoax about the coronavirus? I wonder where she got that idea. Oh yes, it was from the President of the United States.

The playbook for MAGA has been and is as follows:

1. Downplay the coronavirus and insist that Dems/liberals are using it as a weapon to harm the president.
2. As the coronavirus demonstrates that it as a true existential threat, make the point that now is not the time for partisanship (unless Trump wants to tweet something about Joe Biden) or to politicize the issue. Also not the time to dwell on the past.
3. As the coronavirus wreaks the havoc it will wreak, try to demonstrate that there was never anything anyone could have done about it.

In short, as with the Civil War, never admit you’re wrong. As President Trump said, “I don’t take responsibility at all.”

Sadly, human behavior never changes. Science and technology advance, true. But the people who subscribe to those advances are almost always outnumbered by those who are happy in their ignorance. The world is working out for them (free labor in the 19th century, subsidies for being a stay-at-home farmer in the 21st) and they don’t want to hear anything that upsets their paradigm.

Eventually, as it always does, reality strikes. And the Happy Ignorant, they never accept responsibility. They just find a way to channel their bitterness toward someone or something else.

The world keeps spinning. But it never seems to go anywhere.