The Age of Trump has assaulted and undermined America’s governing institutions and the rule of law, civil society, and shared sense of normalcy. Beginning to heal these many great challenges, as President Obama and Michelle Obama implored last month in Chicago, will take much hard work. In total, it will be a project of democratic renewal that will last decades and not just one debate or election cycle. Doing the work of democratic and civic renewal will require that the American people develop a different relationship to time.
The attention economy with its endless and empty “content” and algorithms is how the late capitalist experience machine distracts and profits. This dynamic of constant stimulation in an age of spectacle has contributed to epidemic rates of loneliness, social atomization, depression and other mental and emotional unwellness. We've seen a decline in the type of social capital essential for a healthy democracy. How can the American people and their leaders do the work of reinvigorating democracy and defeating Trumpism and the larger neofascist threat if average attention spans have been greatly decreasing over the last two decades?
