We tell our children stories about magic kingdoms, about wizards and princesses and dragons who sleep on gold.
asserted
who → tell → gold
This is a story about the people who live next door.
asserted
who → live → people
It’s a good life, mostly, living in the shadow of a magic realm.
asserted
It → ’ → realm
The magic people are rich, and they want everything, all the time.
asserted
they → want → everything
So the neighbours grow rich as well.
asserted
neighbours → grow → ?
They sell the magic kingdom cloth for their capes and their wizards’ hats and steel for their swords.
asserted
They → sell → swords
They supply wood for their staffs — people in magic kingdoms are always going on about staffs — and ore for their cauldrons.
asserted
people → supply → cauldrons
Some in the magic kingdom even grow a taste for their neighbours’ mead.
asserted
Some → grow → mead
And so the magic people and the people next door become friends.
asserted
people → become → ?
They grow fat together.
asserted
They → grow → ?
They stay safe.
asserted
They → stay → ?
(The magic kingdom is very good at keeping orcs at bay.)
asserted
kingdom → keep → bay
And over time the people next door begin to believe that this life, of mutual peace and shared abundance, is the only life they will ever lead.
asserted
they → begin → peace
And in stories things change.
asserted
things → change → stories
One day, the magic kingdom crowns a new king.
asserted
kingdom → crown → king
He doesn’t like the people next door, this new king.
asserted
He → like → people
He doesn’t want their cloth.
asserted
He → want → cloth
He doesn’t care for their hats.
asserted
He → care → hats
He thinks the dragons have had altogether too much mead.
asserted
dragons → think → mead
But his people listen to him, millions of them, as if under a spell.
asserted
people → listen → spell
They believe his rants about the people next door: that they’re unfair, that they’re ungrateful, that they don’t deserve what they have, their own little realm, that they are, in short, the creatures in the cave.
asserted
they → believe → cave
And so life for the people next door begins to unravel, roughly, if not with great speed.
asserted
life → begin → speed
It becomes less certain.
asserted
It → become → ?
(Who has time to worry about orcs across the ocean when there are mead-drunk dragons next door?)
And they begin to wonder, the people next door: Is this the new normal?
asserted
this → have → ocean
The king like all kings will someday lose his throne, yes.
asserted
king → lose → throne
What if his people never wake from their spell?
asserted
people → wake → spell
Earlier this fall, five weeks out from what might be the most important midterm elections in American history, I spent five days driving 1000 miles across Maine — one of a handful of states that could determine the fate of both the house and senate — and back again.
uncertain
that → spend → house
I passed into Maine through New Hampshire in the southwest and out again east onto Campobello Island, N.B., before turning around and hugging the rocky coast all the way back to the airport in Boston.
asserted
I → pass → Boston
Along the way, I spoke to Democrats in deep blue cities and Republicans in the woods along the Canadian border.
asserted
I → speak → border
I saw Canada, just the idea of Canada, cheered at a political rally in Portland, Maine.
asserted
Canada → see → Portland
I listened to a Trump supporter in Lubec — the bridge to New Brunswick visible from his porch — complain about Doug Ford.
asserted
supporter → listen → Ford
I counted Trump signs in the reddest county in New England: they were surprisingly few and far between.
asserted
they → count → England
I wanted to go to Maine for the obvious political and cartographical reasons.
asserted
I → want → reasons
If the Democrats can beat her they may well take the Senate and gain the power they need to push back on, if not end, Trump’s trade war with our country.
uncertain
they → beat → country
That’s an especially salient issue in Maine.
asserted
That → ’ → Maine
The state shares a 900 kilometre border with Quebec and New Brunswick.
asserted
state → share → Quebec
For centuries Mainers and Canadians have shopped in each other’s towns, peeped each other’s leaves, married each other’s friends.
asserted
Mainers → shop → friends
There may be no place better to witness the rupture Trump’s policies have caused between our peoples — and to understand how that rupture is affecting November’s vote.
uncertain
rupture → witness → vote
(For the record, I don’t think it’s affecting it much at all.)
asserted
it → think → it
At the same time, I had another reason for wanting to go to Maine.
asserted
I → have → Maine
…and 149 more, not listed.
The Aporia
