The prior history of the United States is divided into two parts:

1) The period from the Revolution to the Civil War.
2) Everything after.

We are entering a third chapter, marked by the Crisis of Trumpian Fascism.

A short thread.

1/5

I've studied the structure of good novels. They are in three acts.

They begin with a call to action. The first act sets the stage and introduces us to the heroes and villains. We learn the stakes and become embedded in the conflict. Act 1 ends with a crisis.

2/5

In Act 2, the heroes do battle, and seem to make progress. The early contests are mostly resolved. We see a way forward. But Act 2 ends with a shocking failure, a disaster so existential our heroes are imperiled in ways they could not have imagined.

3/5

The horrors that begin Act 3 show us what is really at stake, the depths of the fate that ultimate failure truly represents.

The third act brings a final confrontation that will make or break the world of the heroes. It ends in transformation, either redemption or tragedy.

4/5

America so far has two chapters:

I. What happened before the Civil War.
II. What happened after.

We are still within the final crisis. We are entering America's third act.

Tragedy or redemption.

What happens in Act 3 depends on what you do now.

Be a goddam hero.

5/5

PS If you examine the three books (or movies) of the Lord of the Rings trilogy--or the original Star Wars trilogy--you will see exactly this pattern.

It is also how all the world's myths operate.

This is basic Jungian stuff, hardwired into what it means to be human.

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