Supremacy is always a temporary state. Every one and every thing eats and is eaten, begins and ends. It doesn’t matter how much heritage one builds on—it, too, will fall. Whether the standard is the birth and death of stars or earth’s continents, worms or bacteria—something and nothing, rising and falling, reveal the larger background of stuff and process.
The U.S. is again reminded that it’s self-proclaimed “city of light built on a hill” is only as bright as its connections—internally and externally—and even then will only have its day, not a forever.
The “Supreme” Court does not rise above the ordinariness of all things. The Dread Scott decision failed to protect slavery. The Citizen’s United will fail to protect corporations and their ability to control politics through profits. Decisions about elections have not and will not protect democracy.
Even Brown v. Board of Education or Roe v. Wade will not avoid subversion, sabotage, and stupidity. People seem not to live long without feeling they control someone else’s opportunities and choices.
Whether our language is that of supremacy, entitlement, or privilege—we are always attempting to finalize the current status quo and protect current structural and cultural power.
Only occasionally does this word game of “supreme” or “perfect as is” get exposed for the charade it is. Even then, naked kings double down on strutting their stuff and grabbing the tender parts of others to defend their particular mountain—only one out of a whole range of mountains eroding away and on their way to being subsumed under a tectonic plate.
Supremacy continues to haunt dreams of community and visions of mutual care, common good, and general welfare.