MONDAY: David French, in search of hope!

MONDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2025

Reconciliation: A gloomy guest essay appeared in Sunday's New York Times.

"The West Is Lost," the headline said. All in all, we can't quite say this is wrong:

The West Is Lost

From the Enlightenment onward, progress functioned as the secular creed of the West. For centuries our societies were defined by the conviction that the future must outshine the present, just as the present surpassed the past. Such optimistic faith was not merely cultural or institutional but all-encompassing: Everything was going to get better. In this way of thinking, there was no room for loss.

Today, that civilizational belief is under profound threat. Loss has become a pervasive condition of life in Europe and America. It shapes the collective horizon more insistently than at any time since 1945, spilling into the mainstream of political, intellectual and everyday life. The question is no longer whether loss can be avoided but whether societies whose imagination is bound to “better” and “more” can learn to endure “less” and “worse."

We can't say that's wrong. The author, Andreas Reckwitz, lists the various regressions which are underway (economic, environmental, geopolitical), leading on to this:

[C]oncealment has become impossible. Losses multiply and attract attention, while faith in progress falters. Once societies no longer believe that the future will inevitably be better, losses appear more severe. There is no guarantee that they are merely transitory episodes; soon, they begin to seem irreversible. This forms the basis of today’s crisis. As the experience of loss contradicts the modern promise of never-ending progress, a general sense of grievance prevails.

Against this backdrop, the rise of right-wing populism makes sense. Populist politics, whether in Europe or America, appeals to fears of decline and promises restoration: “Take back control” or “Make America great again.” Populism channels anger over what has disappeared but provides only illusions of recovery. The crucial question then becomes: How to deal with loss? Is there an alternative to both populist politics and the naïve belief in progress?

Is there a way out of this gloom? Reckwitz, drops in on psychotherapy to offer some possible balms. In an unintended near response, David French describes a somewhat similar state of despair in his own new column. French is describing a sense of despair on the American political front:

There’s a Path Out of This Divide

[...]

When I speak on college campuses or in churches, or when I simply talk politics with friends, I constantly hear different variations of the same questions: Can we get through this? What’s the plan? And perhaps the most poignant question of all—is there hope?

There are, in fact, plans—lots of plans—to restore our nation’s unity and purpose. Whether it’s restoring our country’s capacity to build big things, or amending the Constitution to rein in imperial presidents, or simply doing something about those infernal phones that cause so many children (and adults) to isolate themselves in anxiety and depression, many of our nation’s best and brightest minds are brimming with good ideas.

When I share my own ideas, I get the same response time and again: We can’t do it. People hate each other too much. We are too divided. We can’t compromise.

"We can’t do it," people tell French. "[We] hate each other too much." 

Within the American context, French counsels a tribal forgiveness. It's a bit like truth and reconciliation as practiced elsewhere in the world (and sometimes here at home) by the planet's moral giants.

He cites two recent acts:

America has witnessed two remarkable acts of forgiveness in the last month. Erika Kirk forgave the man who killed her husband. Latter-day Saints loved the family of the man who massacred their brothers and sisters. A nation that produces such acts of such love is a nation that still has life. It’s a nation that still has hope.

On Tuesday, Kelsey Piper, a staff writer at The Argument, responded to the Latter-day Saints church’s act of love with a beautiful and true statement. “If America is going to make it,” Piper wrote, “it will be because people choose forgiving things they should never have had to forgive over hurting people they have every right to be angry with.”

Piper recommends that we the people practice a type of forgiveness. We should forgive other people who, by implication, seem to have done our own group wrong.

In the podcast we directed you to this morning, Rosie O'Donnell extends the hand of friendship toward regular people on the other side of the American political divide. Before the week is done, we're going to show you exactly what she said. 

In fact, she said a great many things in that deep and remarkable podcast. That was only one of the many things she said.

In response to Brother French, we're going to float an additional thought. We can not only forgive the people on the other side. We Blues can also start to acknowledge the long, long list of various things we ourselves may perhaps have got wrong!

Does no one err except the Others? We can set out to acknowledge the (fuller) truth, seeking reconciliation.