Modern Whigs

In the 1850s, the powerful Whig party of America broke up into factions and disappeared forever. The main cause was slavery, aggravated by regionalism and leaders who were unable to cope with the divisions .

I’m not sure which party will break up and vanish this time, maybe both. The formal cause will be work and wealth. There are wealthy people who work very little, and – as always – poor people who work very hard. But increasingly not only will working harder not make you wealthier, but the divisions between the classes grow sharper simply in the normal course of events as capital concentrates.

I await the equivalent of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” to crystallize inchoate feelings into actions. But both parties seem very Whiggish, unable to formulate exactly what they are for, trying to tie together things that resist unity. It’s quite likely we emerge into an unrecognizable new era, hopefully without a destructive war .

The main battle cry on one side will probably be “security and opportunity”. On the other “liberty and merit”. The new plantation owners against the almost but not quite comfortable proletariat. And machine intelligence throwing monkey wrenches everywhere –  like the telegraph, railroad, and repeating rifles in the earlier conflict .

Nobody seems to want war except for a few firebrands on each side. Each singing the same songs and nearly identical slogans .