The Sunset Effect

I don't know if William Irwin Thompson invented the idea of the Sunset Effect, though he mentions it several times in his work, without (as far as I could find) really defining it. I take it to mean that just as the dying day produces a final spectacular brightness, a dying aspect of culture lights up the sky before fading and going dark completely. He does use the idea to explain the disconcerting power of the Rabid Right, when the progress of science and culture offers possible solutions to the mortal threats the old culture has caused, but such progress is seemingly superseded politically and culturally by the regressive and reactionary ideologies of groups that time is passing by. He calls it a "farewell phenomenon."

The metaphor of the Sunset Effect may offer some comfort, and perhaps some explanation, for what's happening in U.S. politics and culture at this moment. It may be pertinent to the power of white reactionaries as their numbers dwindle while other demographic groups grow (as discussed in the previous post, White Makes Right.) It may in some sense explain the extremes of the efflorescence. I am daily amazed by just how bold are the extremes that suddenly current political and cultural leaders are stating openly, as amplified by the eager media, including progressive Internet sites. There's the not unfamiliar political extremism (it used to be getting rid of federal cabinet departments, now it's slicing away at the Constitution), but notably the racist extremism linked to an emboldened religious extremism.

In part this seems to be a final venting, an explosion of true beliefs that these folks feel the culture has suppressed, with all the power of repression unleashed. The anger over needing to keep quiet or talk in code seems to furnish a lot of the power behind this extremism, now that it's become politically permissible to say this stuff, proud and loud. In addition to the open racism (while denying that's what it is), there's a coming clean about the Christian right dogma--their God as they define God is the real one, and everybody else is wrong and probably evil--as expressed by this Tea Party candidate for the U.S. House: "But … the significant difference between the kumbaya sessions and interfaith vigils and atheist protests of the Religious Left and the Bible studies and prayer circles of the Religious Right is that our God is real."

The white Christian Right component is integral to this End of Days efflorescence, as its own politicians admit. There's another Sunset Effect component, too--the traditional manipulation of the lowest common denominator by the highest monied interests, protecting their flow of wealth derived from exploiting people and the planet, including the fossil fuel industries eking out the last billions before they deplete themselves and kill off the life of the planet. Notably, President Obama last week named them as insidiously attempting to take over U.S. democracy, a pretty strong assertion that in other times would have resounded more than it did. Though statistics so far back him up, I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for media to blow any whistles on corporate millions secretly empowering political extremism, since the same media are the chief financial beneficiaries of this spending. If it weren't for billions spent on political advertising, much of the media as we know it would disappear.

The Sunset Effect may be some solace in explaining why even the most outrageous views and antics don't seem to slow the momentum of these extremists. But there are probably less metaphorical reasons. The rise of the Tea Party extremism--which has yet to prove itself in electoral tests, by the way, beyond intra-party primaries--is inextricably bound to ongoing shifts in the U. S. media of public information. For almost a century, Americans have received political and cultural information--and importantly, absorbed political and cultural clues--through a relatively small number of large media outlets they shared in common (as well as smaller, special interest outlets.) This was particularly true in the television age of three national networks.

Now there are no media sources of information Americans have in common, and all the media are special interests. In particular, the ideological and political power of Fox News is a new factor in this age, joining the somewhat dwindling power of Rabid Right talk radio beyond Rush Limbaugh. Nobody in America gets more air time than Limbaugh and Glenn Beck. Not the President, not any elected official or any progressive on any issue. The rest of the media plays to their agenda, either supporting or opposing it, but always amplifying it and feeding off it. Add to that the need for corporate money by all the traditional media running scared, plus the financial need of new media to expand and take their place.

Various polls and studies conclude that Fox's audience is overwhelmingly white, old and Rabid Right wing, and that they pay attention to no other news media but Fox. It is the Sunset Effect itself blossoming on the screen. But the moment is dangerous. This year is clearly some kind of culmination, a purging of poisons. But it may infect the body politic, and eventually kill the host. Politically, it's a fight between the rapid march to Armageddon fostered by the Rabid Right and the slow, painful change begun by President Obama. As Obama said Sunday, "The last election was a changing of the guard. Now we need to guard the change.” Whether Americans have the patience to continue on this path is a test of political maturity, the kind that Americans have flunked repeatedly in the past couple of decades. But the darkness gets ever closer.