It’s a strange story, but it’s been told for thousands of years. An irresistible crowd, following an irresistible leader, all wearing the same tattoo.
It sounded sinister when I read the story as a kid, but I was missing the point. There’s a lot to be said for irresistible force, as long as you’re moving with it. And that tattoo – well, it doesn’t just get you into the crowd, it also gets you into the grocery store and the bank.
I’m slow, but I think I finally get it. The story is not about the leader. It’s about us.
If this year has taught us anything, it’s this: America has become a wave pool of passion, and Americans are far more likely to dive in than ask where the waves are coming from.
And the waves are spectacular. In just a few months we have all faced death, and then become systemically racist, and finally realized that our nation was always evil. That’s quite a summer, and there’s more to come.
There’s more to come because waves don’t last very long. They soar and smash and disappear. They are big because they are big, and not because they are true. They may be led by swimmers, but they are fed by floaters – by the much larger body of people who decide that resistance is futile, or at least too expensive. Floaters are the real power behind every wave. They magnify its force by bobbing along, adding their own weight to its influence.
Waves soar and smash and disappear, and all that remains is the damage… which makes you wonder where these waves are coming from because they all point at the same target. In the old days of, say, six months ago, we called ourselves “a nation of laws and not of men”. Today, we watch the lawless on TV, left free to destroy whatever they will. Our leaders, too, are lawless, claiming for themselves new powers or standing quietly aside as others do, dismantling the system they were hired to protect. We are quickly becoming a nation of men and not law.
I don’t think the beast of the Bible story is here, or that his mark is a mask or BLM t-shirt, but we begin to see how easy it will be. The Antichrist will be a bum, of course, but he will have a few tricks up his sleeve, and that will be enough. He will make waves, and many will dive in, and most of the rest will play it safe and bob along. For the few who refuse, there will be fear and shame and a guy in front of the grocery store checking tattoos.