Norms

USians often have this notion of themselves as independent free spirits who are self-sufficient and have a who-the-fuck-cares disposition to what others think and that they use some god-given innate value systems to make their decisions and to hustle and get ahead in life. But in reality, we are all relatively weak social primates that depend primarily on norms, systems, and infrastructures to live our lives: things that are built and run and repaired by other people, things that came into existence without our involvement. Norms and systems are the way things get done, and they mostly decide economic winners and losers, and how our collective futures turn out. Which is why anyone who is able to change norms and systems have outsized power over the entire country. Trump, for instance, destroyed much of the norms that kept the Federal government steady, and congress has allowed him to do so, and that has tremendous, long-lasting effects on just about everything in the USA. I find it…