I was reading an article titled The Scars of Democracy from The Nation this morning. It was about Theodor Adorno, whose writing I had my first encounter in or around 1986. Back then, I was voraciously reading everything I could get my eyes on that was dealing with ideas of the “Outsider.” From Nietzsche and Schopenhauer to Bertrand Russel, Wilhelm Reich, and Elias Canetti, I was joined at the hip to the British Book Shop in Frankfurt, Germany, my lifeline to English translations of books I’d never heard of. One of the titles I picked up was Dialectic of Enlightenment by Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer. This was my introduction to critical thinking by people relatively modern in my view. From that book, I first learned about Alexis de Tocqueville and his pivotal work Democracy in America.

Adaptation, forward movement, harnessing new paradigms, and willingness to change were what I took from Tocqueville as he explored the young United States in 1831. In The Nation’s article about Adorno, the words “…embrace the democratic ideals of self-criticism, education, and enlightenment” grabbed my attention and triggered some old memories. One thing led to another, and in a moment, I was once again thinking of The Outsider by Colin Wilson. Years before my encounter with German Philosophy, I learned of this author and his seminal thoughts that I felt pegged my feelings of societal abandonment due to my artistic, literary, and musical interests. During the intervening 40 years since this journey of the mind began, I’ve thought time and again about the bridge between the outsider and the conformist masses.

It seemed to me that acquiring knowledge was the only path of exploration in a world already found. As I sought out answers to what life might be about, I constantly returned to the question of how one cultivates curiosity. How will others search for new possibilities when conformity is dictating that society shares the same love of a narrow set of cultural paradigms that appear to limit what it means to be a citizen of a particular city, state, or country? The article I was reading this morning dealt with a talk Adorno gave in Vienna back in 1967, in which he spoke about the rise of fascism. Naturally, I was thinking of our own recent encounter with populism. I had to stop and wonder about how ineffective I’ve been in communicating a solution to the oppression brought about by intolerance. By bullying those not like the majority, we demand that the potential outsider join ranks or suffer isolation; I chose isolation. But I still believe that the only way forward for a society is to gather around progress and accept the bitter pill of change.

To that end, I’ve tried to refine my skills in writing to obviously mixed results. Six years ago, I embarked on creating a virtual world called Hypatia that was intended to offer those without the means to travel far and who lived in situations where museums, theaters, and concerts were difficult to attend a place in which they could explore the arts, literature, and creativity in general. Personal expression outside of mass culture was my intention; sadly, the desire to learn from the unknown has been squashed to some extent here in the United States. Parents are no longer interested in their children taking different paths in life as they only see economic security with a high-paying job as a future for their offspring. Parents trying to dictate the ambition of a generation to conform have produced kids and young adults who are confused about identity and, instead of marching into the possibilities of expressing one’s self, are more interested in mimicry of influencers who make life look exciting and purposeful. What they are failing to grasp is that those very same influencers are often those who are exploring new possibilities in a digital economy that is still evolving. The VR world I sought to bring into being was meant as a stage for those at risk of becoming followers to shine in their own right.

In 2016, circumstances on our political stage changed the direction I hoped we might be going. Instead of seizing the tools of sharing and learning, populist dogma dragged us to a halt with an appeal to all people who were losing their grip on control of their own lives. By whipping such a large segment of our population into a frenzy about the “Takeover,” the politicians and media who energized this circus were still profiting, and so any thoughts about democracy were placed in a holding pattern until we determined which way the wind was blowing and how populism would play out in early 21st century America. The country where I was born abandoned its ideals of self-criticism, education, and enlightenment. Instead, we embraced fear, hostility, and blame that changes brought by others were responsible for our alienation from prosperity or the perceived threat from lifestyles and cultures that didn’t mesh with ours.

Our country was founded on those very principles of different people coming from other continents, religions, ethnicities, and cultures in order to find a place in a wide-open land where horizons were broad, and self-realization was to be found in carving out your spot in the sun. In our technological rapidly evolving world of today, it is difficult to keep up with the pace of change, and when that change was rising on all fronts, from sexuality, job security, entertainment, music, food, and education, to ever-increasing diversity, some of our population lost their grounding in hope. Unable to adapt due to the poor distribution of financial resources, the trapped were only becoming squeezed between the proverbial rock and a hard place. Even those who are financially well off, which often means their education is lending itself to better opportunities, they too felt trapped by a culture of influencers, viral videos, music, fashion, and even the change in transportation to feel that they understood the world around them.

Humanity has always been changed by the need for adaptation to shifting currents. The turn to populism, a.k.a. fascism, is a way to dial back progress and, for a moment, freeze society in the familiar, even if it requires violence to do so. Today, we stand on the precipice, in danger of falling into the abyss of hatred due to our fear, and the opportunity to accept the outsider is more distant than ever. Intolerance is never the way forward and must always be atoned for, and while this message has been sifted into the minds of the few, it largely falls on deaf ears as to embrace change often is perceived as a dangerous step to embracing the risk of becoming irrelevant.

Far greater minds have had platforms that allowed them to reach a wide audience, and while my optimism has been slow to dwindle, I have to admit I see little hope that there’s an interest among our political and financial elites to see us drift away from the script of mediocrity, even at the risk of self-immolation.