It's challenging to ignore all of the chaos wreaking havoc in the world recently -- the U.S. is in the midst of changing leadership while the pinnacle of civil unrest is playing out across the nation, natural disaster and acts of terrorism leave people perpetually in a state of panic and fear over what might come next -- but many of these breaking news stories are repeats of events that happened decades before us. The people may have changed, but the stories leading up to the climax and the population’s reaction to everything leading up to it is anything but original. The three major categories of our current news cycle -- politics, foreign affairs, and domestic unrest -- are the ones that bear the largest connections to history, possible holding undiscovered answers to such overwhelming situations.
1. Ruling political parties swing to the other side after a long-term majority party rule.
With the Obama administration spending eight years attempting/achieving to pass left-leaning legislation, many Republicans feel that it's time for their party to be represented in the Oval Office, for the baton to pass over in their favor. A similar situation is occurring in Congress: the majority-Republican congressional seats have been barring many of Obama's promised reforms, and many Democrats are calling for the tide to change and the majority to shift in their favor. This pendulum-swing of political parties has been happening basically since political parties were introduced to our child-nation: a strong and highly influential political power reigns for an elongated period of time, and when the next election period comes around, the party feeling unrepresented finally rises and takes their hold to continue the nation's growth to the tune of their beliefs.Some of the most noticeable situations of this pattern would be the end of the Gilded Age's 20-year Republican leadership that gave way to Teddy Roosevelt's erratic and loud voice for change. From there, Roosevelt passed the baton on to William Howard Taft, a Republican rule, until Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Delano Roosevelt continued Teddy's Progressive legislation, and the pendulum swing has continued to influence politics to this day.
2. Fear of an outside threat lead to calls for stronger Border Control.
Our nation's national security has been and continues to be threatened by mounting tensions with ISIS and the Middle East, and multitudes of other nations are feeling the same strain to maintain their population's safety. Many are responding with Islamaphobia and a mass outcry to secure our nation's borders from any outside threat, as a result barring possible ISIS members and any other innocent refugees. Trump's wall, if actually executed, will stand as a symbol for America's ongoing fear of the outside forces that threaten our security and democratic principles that has been occurring since our nation began. The idea of securing our borders did start with pure racism – first against the Old Immigrants (mainly Irish) and then the New Immigrants (primarily Southeastern Europeans) -- settling our fears of any tainted blood or security issues. Later in history, we reacted to the Red Scare’s rising tensions by turning to our borders, trusting that our fellow Americans that we passed on the street on a day-to-day basis weren't 'dirty commies'. With the Emergency Quota Act, we found some comfort from the eventual Soviet missiles pointed towards our nation. Our current outcry to ensure safety from any outside threat may or may not be the correct answer for the world’s current condition, but it certainly is not the first call to double down on border control and tackle situations from the outside in.
3. Minorities turn to race riots and violence in order to be heard.
Every other breaking news story seems to be riddled with the violence and unrest behind the Black Lives Matter movement. Both sides of the argument are bogged down by social media posts and heavy funeral bells, as the lives affected is skyrocketing and the voices for change become increasingly augmented. People just want the violence to end, for the young faces announced dead that flash upon their TV screens to dwindle rather than maintain a steady flow. However, these very similar turn of events occurred in the 60’s during the Civil Rights Movement. After years of standing behind Martin Luther King Jr.’s civil disobedience and peaceful rebellions, many African Americans were frustrated by what little progress their actions had made. Many attribute this frustration to the rise of Malcolm X and the Black Panthers, their logic being that their nation-wide effort to peacefully rebel was reaping only some progress. Many felt that their voices weren’t loud enough if there wasn’t another motivator involved: violence. The civil unrest has trailed behind the Black Lives Matter movement for some time; many critics began to speak against the large racial inequality in the penal system years ago, such criticism even seen in the Netflix original series ‘Orange is the New Black’. The cycle of unrest and violence isn’t a new concept, and over the years until this point, it has just been silenced.
It’s easy to condemn this world as beyond repairable because of the constant calamity that flashes before our eyes on every new channel. However, every negative situation becomes more bearable when we realize that these news stories are merely repeats of what happened decades ago. So maybe the world we live in today is pretty awful, but it’s only taking its course on an infinite cycle that will eventually leave us in a better place, forcing us to look back yet again and evaluate what we can do differently this time.
