Greetings and Salutations;
In today’s world, the so-called “Conservatives” in the Republican Party have become a fanatical cult. Proof of this is trivial to find on the Net..ranging from the insurrection of Jan 6, 2021, to the mindless dismissal of news based in evidence as “fake News”, to the whole-hearted support of moving America from a representative democracy to a fascist dictatorship. As a single example of this fanatical attitude, last night #45 called for Liz Cheny to be executed by firing squad. Today, there is not one Republican who has the courage to say, in public, “this is insane. We cannot support anyone who would call for the execution of political opponents”.
How has this happened? How have we, as a society, moved from hating oppressive governments, who limit the rights of their citizens, to glorying in the idea? I believe there are many factors…concealed misogyny, bigotry, and envy of others are big parts of it. However I think a big factor is fear. Over the past 40 years the world has changed in fundamental ways. It moves a LOT faster than it did. This has turned a slow evolution of changes in our world into a firehose that batters us constantly. NO one takes change really well. We, as humans, prefer our world to remain fairly static, so we can understand what to expect. Change brings unexpected challenges that require us to find new ways of dealing with the effects of that change – I. E. The Unexpected. These challenges can be frightening to many people.
Look at the changes wrought by the advent of the computer as a common part of life, and as an extension, the Internet. Not that many years ago, computers were gymnasium-sized constructions that took specialized equipment and skills to keep running. Now, most of us have at least a couple of amazingly sophisticated computers on our persons daily. I, for example, wear a smart watch (by Garmin…which I like very much) that monitors my health, can display messages sent to me, and, tells me the time and date. If my eyes were 50 years younger, I could even use it for navigation, as it has built-in GPS and mapping functions. 10 years ago, this would have been impossible to build, and would have cost huge amounts. I purchased mine, used, from a fellow who was upgrading and paid $80 for it. To have the level of computing power in it hanging on my wrist is a huge change… Then, there is the smart phone. Not that long ago, a phone was a tool that was wired to the wall, large and clunky, and would only allow one to hear and speak to another person. Now, look at the multitude of tasks a smart phone can perform…Ranging from the old, talk to someone function, to acting as a calculator, a dictation machine, a television, and a games platform (and more). HUGE changes in the hard and software.
I touched on the Internet earlier. I said, decades ago, when the World Wide Web was created, that this was an innovation that was at least as important, and might be more important than the perfection of the Printing Press by Gutenberg. It is amazingly powerful, giving us access to much of the knowledge of the world, in an instant, and, often for free. However, it is a double edged sword, in that there are no rules limiting what a person can add to it. Almost without limit, both basic truths and abject lies can be presented with NO indications as to which is more trustworthy. This is fearsome because it allows propaganda to be passed around, unchecked. It erodes our trust in the truth, and causes us to become skeptical of its existence. Sadly enough, over the past 60 years, the educational system in America has been damaged by political pressures, to the point that basic skills such as skeptical thinking, and adequate research abilities are a rare find.
Now, let us consider for a moment, the structure of society. For too long, the white male has been alone at the pinnacle of power, both here and in the Old World. Traditionally, he has been considered the head of the family. Throughout history, dictators…(which includes Kings) have been predominantly male. In the Slave Days of the old South in America, the male was the owner of everything, and as such wielded great power and privilege. However, as far back as the 1950s, that started to change. The unquestioned power of the white males was being eroded away by the growth of the Civil Rights movement, the increasing emancipation of women, and the evolution in attitudes of business management. While not always understood or openly expressed, these changes caused a deep fear reaction in most men…causing them to strike out in various ways, to try and maintain their dominance.
Let us look first at the Civil Rights movement, as regards people of color. One basic characteristic of humanity is that we are tribal creatures. The roots of this are lost in the mists of history, but, I believe it comes from the simple reality that staying alive is a challenge. The world can be a dangerous place, especially for a solitary individual. So…a survival instinct grew for humans who looked like each other, and, in general, thought like each other, to band together. This mutual support system would help ensure the survival of a majority of the tribe’s members, both through defense when attacked, to increased food from coordinated hunting/farming, to aid when injured. This led to the concept of “The Other“….which we use to determine if a given human is a friend or an enemy. This concept also controls how we treat and react to, the people we meet. SO…for much of history, humanity has created a hierarchical outline of privilege. There are those at the top of the ladder, who hold the most privilege and power, and at the bottom of the ladder are the people who are given so little esteem that they are no different, in the minds of many, than cattle. India, for example, has a number of social levels (5 or so). They range from the Brahmin caste – Priests, teachers, and intellectuals, believed to have come from Brahma’s head to the Dalits (Also known as “untouchables”) this group is considered to be outside the caste system and performs occupations that are considered unclean. Here, though, I shall focus more on the United States’ society distinctions. The USA has a caste system, too, although not officially recognized, as with India. In the early days of the country, it was, roughly, White Men, White Women, White Children, Indigenous Americans, People of Color. These days, it is more like The very rich, White men, women and children, the poverty stricken, people of color. Of course, these are flexible groups, and there are certain cross-overs from group to group. However, these cross-overs tend to be by individual, and do not include large percentages of the overall group.
A problem with caste systems is that they tend to promote delusions about the OTHER castes, suspicion of them, and as such, a willingness to believe unsubstantiated rumors about them. It is interesting to see how, when one caste member mingles with other castes for a time, their view of that caste tends to evolve from the cartoon-like stereotype to a more realistic view of the other as being a human, with many of the same goals and attitudes that they have. However for many people, this is unlikely to happen
To return to my original thesis..I submit that the massive changes that have flooded society have left many, Conservative, white males feeling fearful that they are losing their position of power, and privilege, and are on their way to a lower station. An amplifier of these worries is the fear that the groups they have been oppressing for decades will seek revenge after pulling them down. The result? They cling to hate for “The Other” – People of color who they know are the most likely to harbor desires for revenge. Misogyny towards women, who have made good strides forward in achieving status as equal citizens, as they so richly deserve. They have a burning anger towards those people who do not believe as they do, and disagree with them in matters of life, including politics, dress, issues of society, and the like.
These fears and their consequences make them targets for manipulation. So, when they consume news, it tends to be from very limited sources, and, they tend to believe the reports of these sources without question. Perhaps more importantly, they can easily be seduced by a grifter who promises to ensure they will maintain their position of power. Who promises to stop the whirlwind of change that keeps them off balance, and unsure as to how to proceed with life.
The late 1950s and early 1960s, which gave us Lyndon Johnson’s concept and creation of of the “Great Society” programs, and the start of the Civil Rights movement, triggered a sea change in the two major parties in the United States. As discussed in this history of the Democratic Party there was a mass migration of liberals away from the Republican Party to the Democratic Party, and, of course, Conservatives in the other direction. This filtered out opposing views from both parties, and, amplified their attitudes. As with most mobs, though, it also made it easier for a grifter to take control, as in groups like that, attitudes tend to become self-re-enforcing and amplified.
This is why, as of today, 2024/11/01, many Republicans believe that the Democrats are importing immigrants to replace them. They believe that Haitians in Ohio are trapping and eating the dogs and cat companion animals of their neighbors. That Democrats are pedophiles who steal babies and drink their blood. That Democrats want to become fascist dictators, to implement a Communist society. That Democrats want to destroy the Constitution, and confiscate ALL guns from Citizens.That they are justified in planning to kill Democrats when #45 is re-elected. That Democrats control the weather and cause violent storms to strike Republican states, to kill Republicans, and make it more difficult for them to be free, and, a multitude of other, equally delusional, beliefs. The common factors in all of these beliefs is that these beliefs are totally lacking any provable evidence; that the cultists do not care if these beliefs have been proven to be false; and that their unshaken faith is based simply on the fact that their cult leader (#45) has talked about and supported these points as being true.
So…what can we, as a society, do to combat the negative and destructive effects of this cultism? Alas, there are no silver bullets, or easy ways to correct our course. We have gotten to this point via several paths. In no particular order, these include:
- Our school system has suffered and become less effective because of political pressures.
a) Too much attention has been given to not being “offensive” to any one. This has caused too many school systems to remove books, and avoid subject matter that is vital for understanding how we got to where we are today. This, in my opinion, has given parents too much control over the curriculum. It allows people who may not have any understanding of the educational system to cause topics to be banned from being taught. My view has been, for years, “If you do not want YOUR child to learn something…then you have the right to require they be excused from the class. However you do NOT have the right to keep ALL students from learning about the issue”.
b) “Teaching to the Test”. Instead of making sure that students learn what is vital for them to have a broad world view. For example, two vital skills for dealing with reality are skeptical thinking, and “Library Skills” – the ability to research a given topic with the goal of finding multiple, possibly competing views about a given topic, and, being able to evaluate where the truth lies.
c) An unwillingness on the part of teachers and administrators to change how subjects are taught…to deal with changes in knowledge and the like.
d) An growing contempt for intellect and learning. This has been around for a long time, as I ran into it to some extent when I entered the school system around 1960.
e) An increasing tolerance for bullying of groups who did not fit the mold. Many schools attempt to deal with this and keep it from happening. However, the “Zero Tolerance” rules put in place are almost worse than the problem. Too many administrators apply these rules without any consideration of context. As an example of this, last year, there was a story about a young lady who found a knife laying on the ground on school grounds. She picked it up, and took it to the office to turn it in. She not only lost the knife, but was suspended for several days because she had a weapon.
We have many citizens who understand the educational process very well, and have some innovative ideas that are worth considering. Other countries have much better school systems than the USA does…and it would be wise to observe them, and take the best ideas for our system. Using this knowledge and building a willingness to address the issues listed above and others, will give us a good chance to create an educational system that turns out excellent, flexible, and capable citizens. - Apathy. For too many years big percents of the citizens did not vote because they were convinced that it was useless…that their votes would not matter. The increasing efforts of the Republicans to ensure that groups of citizens cannot vote belies this, and demonstrates clearly how important every vote is. For example, in 2015, the democratic candidate for President, Hillary Clinton, lost the election by less than 100,000 votes. That is just a few votes from each state, and, in that election, 80 million registered voters did not vote at all. Consider how different the country would be if that missing 0.13 % of those voters had voted for her instead of #45. Thanks to #45, we have, added to the mix, the out and out lie that our voting system is rift with fraud and as such, voting is useless, as the faceless oligarchs will decide who is elected anyway.
This problem can be undercut by ensuring that all Americans understand how the voting system works, and the multiple safeguards and cross checks built into it to make attempts to pervert it very difficult, if not impossible. We also need to remember that anyone that either claims the election system is broken, or that your vote does not matter is lying to you. They have a hidden agenda that requires their candidate takes office, and, that they KNOW you will not approve of. - A lack of empathy. This is challenging, as it takes a concerted effort of people of good will to demonstrate by their actions as well as their words that empathy for another is a vital part of humanity. It also requires that parents take up the challenge and teach their children about how they are similar to others…to not focus on the differences…and as such, we should care about those others.
- Truth Matters. We have reached a point in both the political world, and even spilling into the rest of life, that we are beginning to believe that there is no such thing as “Truth”, and even if it exists it is meaningless in today’s world. Look at too many politicians who will spread conspiracy theories and other lies without a thought. They are empowered to do this because they know that there will be no important, negative consequences when called out. They are also fairly sure, I suspect, that they will not be called out, either. Look, for example, how the media treats #45. He pushes the most outrageous and obvious lies, often even after people in contact with the situation debunk them. Yet, up to this week, almost no mention of this malfeasance is mentioned in the media. It is almost as if the editors are saying “Well, that is just how he is”. Yet, if a candidate of any other party does this, they are pilloried. We must, for our society’s survival, make it a standard that truth matters, and lies are to be rejected.
- Politics matter…but not that much. As citizens of a Representational Democracy – a Republic – it is vital for us to be a part of the political process. We must pay attention to what Government is doing, and determine if it fits our values. The elected representatives must understand that it is their JOB to push programs and agendas that benefit the majority of their constituents, without ignoring the minority. If they fail in this, then we should vote them out and replace them with someone who will do the job. However, no matter how heated disagreements may be, violence should never be a part of the equation. And, no matter what, every citizen should have equal access to voting. This does mean that gerrymandering has to go, and,. adequate resources to allow casting a ballot be commonly available.
- Respect for all citizens is important. We have reached a point where any single issue can cause one to lose all respect for another citizen. This is a knee-jerk, and sketchy reaction. Now, I will agree that there are certain things where “one strike and you are out” is appropriate. Pedophilia, domestic violence, animal abuse, and that sort of thing are certainly valid reasons for removing respect immediately. Political beliefs, food choices, gender issues, and the like should not necessarily change one’s respect for a person.
- abjuring the culture of violence we have allowed to infect the country. I have written about this serious problem elsewhere…but to reiterate, I believe that as of now, we, as a society have grown to believe that life is worthless…and that the only valid way to settle an issue is with violence. This is one of the reasons that we have the highest rate of shootings in the world. We need to understand, and make it part of our reality that every life has value, and violence should be the last tool used to resolve conflicts.
- Imposing one’s own values on other citizens. There is a lot of this nonsense that has been growing for the past 20 years or more. A big reason for this is the reality that Conservatives (and especially Cultists) are really upset by people who do not agree with them 100%. Thanks to this attitude, we have seen the removal of woman’s rights, the suppression of voters via legal but ethically questionable means, and restrictions on how and what children are taught. My philosophy was defined clearly some weeks ago by Tim Walz, Democratic candidate for Vice President. He said, in a speech that in Minnesota, they believed in the axiom “Mind your own damn business” when dealing with other citizens. I believe that if Americans were to take this to heart, and make it part of their rules for life, the USA would be a much better place to live.
We have allowed the possibilities of the USA to slip away over the decades, but, we can, with mindful work and time, return it to the path of becoming that “Shining city on the Hill” that was one of the few good ideas that Ronald Reagan pushed.
God Help Us All!
Be safe; get vaccinated, wash your hands; social distance; and wear your mask.
Bee Man Dave