Portents in a Secular World

Every once in a while, there are strange occurrences, omens if you will. The hand of God tugs back the curtain of history to hint that there is indeed an order to the grand scheme of things. A few days ago it was two horses, one white one black, galloping frantically through the streets of London. And the white horse was stained red with blood.

Any Englishman not poisoned by the Enlightenment would know what it means. Britain is dying, on the brink of catastrophe. The noble animal is wounded, running for its life. And meanwhile, millions of invaders swamp its shores for the spoils. If there is anything to be done, it has to be done now. Or else it is too late.

Turning away from Britain, I can’t help but think of an American omen, though few recognized it at the time, that of the Chernobyl miniseries. Coming out in 2019, the HBO drama was a retelling of the events surrounding the Chernobyl nuclear disaster (a real life portent of its own right, signaling the end of the Soviet Union). But instead of examining a historical catastrophe, the show seemed in equal part to be forewarning the future of America.

Chernobyl follows a wide cast of characters from the inquisitive scientist Valery Legasov, to the staunch (but miraculously) humbled bureaucrat Boris Shcherbina, to Lyudmilla Ignatenko, the wife of a brave firefighter who succumbs to radiation poisoning. All throughout the series, the theme is hammered in. For every effort our heroic protagonists make, they are always two steps behind the total state.

You see, there can’t be a nuclear disaster in the Soviet Union. There is? Well, there can’t be a serious nuclear disaster in the Soviet Union. The dosimeter said 3.6 roentgen, the equivalent of a chest X-Ray. Or rather, was it 400 chest X-Rays? But at least the reactor core isn’t open right? They told us the reactor core couldn’t be open. And yet, there’s graphite scattered throughout the area, and graphite is only found in the reactor core.

Everyone lies. No one wants to take responsibility. It’s all pencil pushing bureaucrats from the top-down, and not a single one of them wants to admit the truth. Because if they were to admit the truth, that there indeed was a serious nuclear disaster in the Soviet Union, there would be calls for investigation, for justice. And once people started asking questions, who knows what other ugly truths might be revealed. Who knows how many heads would roll, how many people in power would be disgraced—even lynched.

No! Better to cover it up! Nothing is wrong in the Soviet Union! Nothing is wrong in Chernobyl! And we’re going to continue repeating that lie no matter how many body bags come back. We’re going to continue lying until reality comes smashing in, revealing the putrid filth for all it was. After all, nothing is worse than facing the consequences of our actions, better to put it off to tomorrow. And yet, with every day that passes, that open reactor core puts out forty-eight times the radiation of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

“We're on dangerous ground right now, because of our secrets and our lies. They are practically what define us. When the truth offends, we lie and lie until we can no longer remember it is even there, but it is still there. Every lie we tell incurs a debt to the truth.” -Valery Legasov (Chernobyl Miniseries)

“What is the cost of lies? It's not that we will mistake them for the truth. The real danger is that, if we hear enough lies, then we no longer recognize the truth at all” - Valery Legasov (Chernobyl Miniseries)

It was utterly surreal then, to know these words were being spoken right before the Covid-19 Pandemic. Not one year passed before America had its own landmark tragedy. Except instead of a very real nuclear disaster, we had a manufactured catastrophe. Not only in the sense that Covid might’ve come from a lab leak, but that our leaders were more than happy to lie and rapaciously take advantage of the situation.

We were warned about a devastatingly lethal virus (and yet everyone I know has had it). We were promised a 100% effective vaccine (and yet nearly everyone who took the vaccine still got it). And strangest of all, we were promised that the George Floyd riots had nothing to do with the spread of the contagion. And yet, the rest of us had to wear masks and stay quarantined in our houses.

And in this climate of fear mongering and lies, who was it that stepped forward and spoke the words that needed to be said? Was it the politicians who should’ve been concerned with the well-being of their citizens? Was it the scientists who should’ve been concerned with the public health? Was it the journalists who should’ve been concerned with telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

What a laughable notion. No, it was Rightwing anons on Twitter.

Even so, it is hilarious to me that just a year before the greatest governmental overreach in America’s history, we had one show warning precisely about this. And it came from Craig Mazin, of all people. He was the writer of The Hangover Part II and Scary Movie 3 no less, a laudable filmography. Of course, Mazin thought he was criticizing Trump, but liberals often possess a stunning lack of self-awareness.

But turning back to Chernobyl, this show casts a dubious lens on modern America. What are we allowed to say anymore? How many existential problems are we supposed to ignore for the sake of appeasing the narrative of liberal democracy? Millions are pouring through the border. A presidential candidate is being tried by his political enemies. We’re facing economic, demographic, and infrastructural collapse. There is no doubt. The reactor core in America is open, graphite strewn on the ground, and nobody wants to admit it.

Everyone’s waiting for the other shoe to drop, and nobody wants to be left to foot the bill. I can’t say when or how bad things are going to get, but I know something is on the horizon. Everyone senses it. It’s undeniable at this point. But I don’t think we’re helpless against what’s coming.

Telling the truth might seem a hard thing, and telling a lie might seem like a very little thing, but it is only in telling the truth that the world has any chance of getting better. It is only in telling the truth and the whole truth, that we can come to understand the world around us and finally start talking solutions. The Left doesn’t want you to notice the graphite on the ground. But it is only by noticing that we can start to address the damage, and potentially, hopefully, find a way to a better tomorrow.