Who Will We Be?

The ’60s took a bite out of America, gagged on it … and spit us out.

We leapt onto the scene like celestial giants, born just as Neil Armstrong took his first, small step at Tranquility Base. On our way in, we passed the restless shades of MLK Jr. and RFK.

We’re old enough to remember Watergate, long gas lines and yellow ribbons in every front yard. We grew up with the Bomb and other existential threats, like disco. We also had Star Wars, which was new and hopeful — like us.

The ’80s? A cold, rainy Morning in America. Hinckley shot Reagan. The Challenger exploded. And the Band Played On.

College beckoned. Off we went, into the world.

It wasn’t great for all of us, but it was OK for some of us. Even though the country had taken small steps toward equality, barriers based on gender, skin color and impoverishment remained.

Years passed. We slacked. We strived. We cried. We danced. We worked, too, and we waited our turn, like good, little postmodern citizens.

Then 9-11. Then social media. Then the Great Recession. Then Obama. Now …

We’re almost 50. A lot of us are parents. Some of us are grandparents. Those of us who made unwise or unlucky career decisions flounder through second acts we never envisioned.

Then …

Trump.

Through it all, we didn’t stop to think about who we are. Introspection never was much of a priority for Americans, certainly not those of Generation X.

We just did what we needed to do to get by. Whatever happened, happened. A lot of it sucked for a lot of people, and it still does. Maybe it always will.

For the most part, we have done what we could with what we had, just as our parents did and their parents did. A small step here, a giant leap there.

The result?

Well, look at the news today. Look at Twitter, if you can stomach it.

With so many versions of the increasingly murky “truth,” with sustained vitriol staining the public discourse, is there even such a thing anymore as the “American people?” Does it still matter who we are, who we’ve become collectively?

Yes. Yes, it does.

Knowing how we got here can inform us as we decide — finally — to take control of the narrative. We need to understand what came before if we are to shape what comes next.

That’s where we are. That’s the question now: Who will we be?

The answer to that will depend on the worldview that holds sway over time.

Will it be a worldview based on fear and antipathy, with its undercurrent of despair, anguish, suspicion? Will we capitulate to the machinery that supports such a worldview: deception, hypocrisy, reflexive cruelty, instinctive tribalism, anti-intellectualism?

Or …

Will it be a worldview based on compassion and empathy, with its guiding principles of optimism, kindness, grace? Will we embrace the human values inherent to such a worldview: truth, sincerity, generosity, instinctive inclusion, an abiding regard for knowledge and life itself?

The first worldview is distasteful, bordering on disgusting. It seems to be the kind of worldview we should expect to find in a society built over the centuries on a foundation of aboriginal genocide, human slavery and the systemic subjugation of women and people of color.

Does that read like “liberal propaganda” to you? OK, let’s try this aspirational, patriotic screed, instead:

The second worldview is empowering, bordering on revolutionary. It seems to be the kind of worldview we should expect to find in a melting-pot society built over the centuries on a foundation of the fierce, unapologetic pursuit of life, liberty and happiness, along with a belief in freedom of opportunity regardless of race, gender, religion or personal creed.

It’s all true. None of it is true. Pick a number, any number. That’s your truth — today, anyway. Ask again tomorrow.

We need to figure this out. We need the answer tomorrow to build on — not contradict — the answer of today. Which means, naturally, that we need an answer today that is worth building on.

It comes to this:

Are we going to succumb to despair, anguish and hypocrisy?

Or are we going to embrace optimism, compassion and sincerity?

Who will we be?

We need to decide.