COMMENTARY: The New Age of Anxiety

By James C. Johnston, Jr.

Sometimes I do not fully
recognize the country I live in any more. It is like that in just a
few months we have become at odds with the whole world. Just why is
that? There is also a mean-spirited atmosphere being generated from
Washington, D. C. There is a great amorphous mis-trust of “The
Other” in the “Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.” And
we seem to be possessed of a nameless fear of traditional foreign
friends and supposed foes alike.

I
have an Islamic friend living in London who comes for a vacation to
Franklin, Massachusetts each year to visit with friends and spend
Christmas with me. We, who congregate together at Christmas, are a
group of people from the area who have celebrated this holiday
together for the better part of twenty-some years. These people
consist of my sibling and her husband, many former students, friends
I made in business over the years, some of my favorite doctors who
have become good friends, and other good people of all religious and
ethnic types with whom I share interests in culture, art, history,
and philosophy.

Now
comes the problem of my special guest for Christmas 2025. My Islamic
friend does not feel safe landing in the United States. He is afraid
that he may be taken by ICE, or some other functionaries of the
government, to some alligator infested swamp, and just disappear for
life for no good reason at all. This friend is a man of very high
intellect. He received his Education in one of this nation’s
ranking universities in which his recently deceased father was also
educated. My friend worked in this country for eight years, with a
green card, in positions of great responsibility. My friend was born
in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and that provided his membership in the
British Commonwealth of Nations. As such, my friend had the
birth-right to freely move about the entire British Commonwealth
including England itself and live and seek employment.

I
had met his parents, and they were my guests in Franklin at my home,
and were totally delightful citizens of the world. Because of
Malaysia’s connection to The British Commonwealth of Nations, and
the fact the United States government at the time was giving him such
a hard time with his green card, is the reason he migrated to
England, settled in London, and became quickly employed by several
British firms at multiples of what he was making here. He soon bought
a house in the British capital to house himself and his various
collections including Early American Folk Art. He has made a lot of
friends in: America and England as well as in France, Italy, and the
Benelux Countries. During the last year he has been host to many of
our mutual friends including Jewish friends. Anti-Semitism is not
part of his makeup.

Yet
this gentleman, and millions of citizens of this planet, feel just
the same way about visiting this country during the last six months.
Many of these would-be tourists feel the increasingly xenophobic
aspect of the new government that is not welcoming to strangers, and
that not only wants to end birth-right citizenship, but whose leader
in the White House has even suggested ending citizenship for critics
of his regime like Rosie O’Donnell.

Rosie
O’Donnell, a well-known American public figure. She was born in
Commack, New York on March 21, 1962. Ms. O’Donnell is a
natural-born-citizen of the United States, and she has been a critic
of Donald Trump who dares to speak truth to power. In response to
this, the President stated, as reported by NBC News, the
following: “Rosie O’Donnell is not in the best interest of our
great country. I am giving serious consideration to taking away her
citizenship. She is a threat to humanity and should remain in the
wonderful country of Ireland if they want her.”

The
fact that O’Donnell was a natural born citizen of this nation 63
years ago does not seem to matter to Trump, but then look at what he
has done in regards to the 14th
Amendment. The man is very ignorant of United States Constitutional
Law, and he does not fully realize the concept of what constitutes
either “Citizenship” or indeed a “Tariff”.

For
the record, a tariff is an import tax leveled on the people of these
United States as an import duty on imported goods. If a tariff is
imposed on goods imported from China, that means that U. S. residents
will have to pay that import tax and not the citizens of China, and
that is the way tariffs work and have always worked since Alexander
Hamilton first introduced that as a main support of government during
the Presidency of George Washington when our whole population was a
bit over three million individuals. The world was working on the gold
standard which was incapable of growing wealth just re-arranging it.
But this is another topic foe another time. The world has changed
substantially during the last 235 years. I am happy that some of us
have actually noticed that.

When
tossing the prospect of the imposition of tariffs around, it is well
to remember that a substantial amount of the drugs we take come from
China and India. As expensive as they are in these United States,
with tariff increases they will cost a great deal more. The
pharmaceutical industry in the United States is a very greedy entity
as it is. Consider that medicines that cost so very much in the
United States are much cheaper in Canada and Europe. To impose high
tariffs of China and India will result in those tariff costs being
passed on to you. Remember when tariffs are levied on China and
India, those nations do not pay them. You the American consumer do.
Do not expect the present Congress or man in the White House to do
anything about that if history is any judge in the matter.

The
Xenophobic nature of our government’s leadership today is a real
cause for concern. The threat and the reality of imposing tariffs
willy-nilly is economic suicide and so is the negative and
threatening attitude we have taken with our traditional allies and
friends. If you are experiencing anxiety there is a very good reason
for that fact. Among other things, it means that you are most likely
still sane if not just a tad anxious.

** * * * 

James. C. Johnston, Jr., is a retired Franklin educator and author.

The 'Age of Anxiety' is a 1947 long poem in six parts by W. H. Auden, focusing on man's quest to find substance and identity in a shifting and increasingly industrialized world. Set in a wartime bar in New York City, Auden uses four characters – Quant, Malin, Rosetta, and Emble – to explore and develop his themes. The poem won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1948.

It later inspired the composition of an eponymous symphony by Leonard Bernstein.