The Fragility of Human Institutions

By Rolland Kidder

 This is not an uplifting subject to write about. If you are having a bad day, just put it off or forget about reading it.

What it deals with is the reality of how fragile and easily broken can be those institutions which frame our lives. Probably the best example is marriage. It can be easily entered into but its lastingness is not a given. Marriage is a fragile human institution which can easily give way to disharmony, discord and divorce.

Business organizations, partnerships, and professional associations have all been created to promote human activity and cooperation towards a common goal. However, in law school, we were taught as much about how to incorporate protections for those so involved as we were about creating them in the first place. The assumption being that such human institutions were fragile and break-up was always a possibility.

Sadly, our political institutions are also fragile. I was reminded of this recently when reading the book "In the Garden of the Beasts" by Erik Larson. Larson is a gifted writer and is especially good at personalizing, through narrative storytelling, history as it is revealed by people involved.

This was not a "fun" book to read as it dealt with Germany's descent into war and totalitarianism under Adolph Hitler and the Nazis in the 1930's. The observations come through the eyes of American Ambassador William Dodd and his young daughter (and dilettante,) Martha, as they observed the Republic of Germany dissolve into a rogue, violent dictatorship.

Many good-hearted Germans thought that Hitler would just fail, that finally grown-ups would intervene and that the German state would return to its well-organized, historical, rational self. That hope failed and, instead, Germany degenerated into a government of catastrophic war-making and death camps. The Weimar Republic and its elected Reichstag disappeared under the brutal heel of Hitler.

How could that have happened? Somehow, the human, governmental institutions that had been built by Germany over many years with stalwarts in every field of human endeavor--think of names like Bismark, Bach, Beethoven, Immanuel Kant and Martin Luther--disappeared.

The sad truth of Larson's book is that all human institutions are fragile, and the best of them need safeguards and an involved, informed constituency if they are going to survive.

And this, I think, is a truth which we must continually remind ourselves of. We are all captive of the human institutions within which we live. We cannot automatically assume that they will go on forever. It takes work, compromise and dedication to keep them going.

Our governmental institutions, especially, require an involved and informed citizenry. If we try to "pass the buck" and decline our own responsibility--the democracy we have come to know and cherish as a beacon of light to the world, could also pass away.

 

This article was printed in the Jamestown Post-Journal

October 24, 2026

 

 

The Surreal Republican Convention in Dallas

 

"Surreal" is a subjective term describing something that is beyond normal reality…like something out of a dream. That is the way it seemed with the special Republican Convention called by President Donald Trump last week in Dallas.

It wasn't a serious political convention with any real substance. It was a Trump pep rally--a call to the MAGA troops not to look at the price of gasoline or the ongoing war in Iran…but to think about all of the good things going on like the new ballroom at the White House, a new arch near the Potomac, or the U.S. getting oil from Venezuela as "the biggest deal in our nation's history,"--the Louisiana Purchase by Thomas Jefferson apparently not being considered.

It seemed to be primarily a convention of political deflection combined with self-aggrandizement. Stay away from the real issues like the cost of living, inflation and the price of groceries.

For sure, it was nothing like political conventions from the past where nominees for President and Vice President are made, and a party platform is presented for the general public to consider. This was a "pep rally" pure and simple. "Tell the people to vote as if I were on the ballot…" was the general message from the President.

That is what made the whole Dallas event especially "surreal" to me. That is exactly what the Democrats want the election to be about…the President and his policies. Why would the President even mention that? Either he is a political "genius," as he claims to be…or he just sprung a Democratic trap on himself.

It has to be one or the other. It made no sense to me.

Okay, I am not a particular fan of Mr. Trump. But, still, it was hard to make much sense out of his nearly two-hour rambling speech other than, in his view, he is the greatest President of all time. He promised not to make such a long speech the next night as he had given the convention delegates enough "material" to digest in his comments during the first night.

To me, it all seemed to end up in the category of "you can't make this stuff up!" Yet, it actually happened.

What concerns me more is what the President didn't say…especially as to why the federal government is trying to restrict voting by mail and is demanding to get voter information from the Boards of Election in the various states. The aim here is not to encourage voter participation but to suppress it.

He did propose that if the Republicans win in November that the federal government would send a $5,000 check to all Americans. It is estimated that would cost about a trillion dollars. Who would pay for that was not mentioned…but it would have to be paid for either through increasing debt or taxes upon the same Americans receiving it. Surreal?

There was one other promise made which stretches incredulity, and that is that gasoline prices would come down after the election in November. How that would or could happen was not explained. I doubt that the Iranians were consulted in that regard.

So what was accomplished in Dallas? Many Republicans in tough election races did not attend. For them, the President's negatives now outweigh his positives.

But, maybe he did energize others to get out to vote despite all of the bad news. Only the election results will tell that story.

Published in the Jamestown Post-Journal

September 19, 2026