At the time
of the Cuban Missile Crisis, the US had racial segregation, and yet the Civil
Rights Movement was going strong. Today,
the rhetoric of Donald Trump is dragging us back in an immoral direction. Not only that, he promises torture of our
enemies, and he hasn’t ruled out nuclear options. We can’t afford this mentality. We can’t keep saber-rattling and rolling the
dice of war. Sooner or later, the
numbers will add up to BOOM. A single Russian
submarine captain, acting on his own initiative when communication was disrupted, saved us in 1962. It was that close.
Even though our very existence is at
stake, we are stuck in habits that override our ability to think clearly. It makes us pitiable. We seem hell-bent. When I say “we” I mean Trumpism most of all;
but there are plenty of levels of falsity and misperception. Hillary Clinton serves the Wall Street status
quo. It is this corruption, the obese inequality,
that laid the soil of frustration cultivated by Trump. If Clinton beats him, and nothing changes (the
rich keep getting richer while the rest of us sink), the next Trump-like
contender will likely win.
In this election, don’t be sure
that Clinton’s softer deceptions will win out over Trump’s violent ones. Hate
is strong and he is a master at bulking it.
Democracy everywhere is under assault by black-and-white thinking. Demonizing the other. Look at what just happened with Brexit.
The status quo (Clinton) wears the
mask of togetherness and warmth, then turns around and stabs the masses in the
back, say, with international trade deals that take jobs away. At the expense of US workers, corporations become
attractively ‘leaner’ and their stocks rise.
Clinton’s is a pleasant-faced treachery.
Give the rich cuts. Hide the
loopholes or argue that everyone will benefit.
Meanwhile many Americans can’t afford a doctor. A few stitches costs many hundreds of
dollars.
Trump points out the corruption,
and coarsely hammers home the racism that Republicans have long used on the
sly. The white masses he commands don’t trust the old school
Republicans anymore, not to carry out the segregationist deeds they crave. They trust Trump, due to his virulence, to
make good on his bigotry. None of them,
of course, will dare admit they are actually racists, even to themselves. In this sense, they are as cowardly as they
are selfish.
Clinton’s plastic smile can’t validate
the people’s need to hear the muckraking truth about their government. Trump gives them that, which generates
trust. He then manipulates that trust
into a dark, unreasoning place. His
fascism will take our country, if not the world, down fast. He will make the establishment’s twisting
of the thumbscrews, carried out since Reaganomics, look relatively benign. Trump might increase manufacturing, but fascist governments, historically, are disgustingly corrupt. And
they require hate, kind of like a drug.
The people’s anger must be diverted onto scapegoats: immigrants, foreigners, liberals, feminists,
and so on. At the core is the strong insinuation, or sometimes straight up, of a superior race. The superiority of the nation above all others is loudly trumpeted and taken for granted.
That’s what Trump will bring us, in
all his narcissistic, reckless, delusional glory.
He may not hew to something like
Hitler’s Final Solution--gas chambers in concentration camps that starve
inmates down to twigs--but he will be tyrannical and power-crazed. By his own words, he will torture enemies, a
net he casts broadly, and he will kill their spouses and children. He needs the spotlight, and his preferred
method is the immature aggression of the schoolyard bully.
Imagine someone with the temperment of the Queen of Hearts in Wonderland backed up by the might of the US military.
The one who has it right is Bernie Sanders. He exposes both the fascist and the corporate shill. Following the Scandinavian mixed model, he would directly subsidize the people, thus providing for basic needs and promoting dignity and self-actualization. The standard mantra today is “jobs, jobs, jobs.” No one asks about the quality of those jobs, whether they are soul-demeaning. Whether they debilitate pride and extinguish the little candelabra of one’s hopes and dreams.
The one who has it right is Bernie Sanders. He exposes both the fascist and the corporate shill. Following the Scandinavian mixed model, he would directly subsidize the people, thus providing for basic needs and promoting dignity and self-actualization. The standard mantra today is “jobs, jobs, jobs.” No one asks about the quality of those jobs, whether they are soul-demeaning. Whether they debilitate pride and extinguish the little candelabra of one’s hopes and dreams.
Indeed, those jobs, jobs, jobs often
contribute to global warming, massive pollution and extinction. The
short-sighted, greedy corporations don’t care. Those jobs, jobs, jobs could be manufacturing
the tools of war, that is, mass slaughter and death.
Scenario: Trump starts a war to boost the American economy. Roll the nuclear dice. Rinse and repeat.
This is a terrible time to be alive,
not because humans are worse than they ever have been before--in fact, there
have been some fantastic advances in ethics--but rather because (a) global
collapse is quite possible, (b) democracy is succumbing to fear, and (c)
because of all this, whatever advances we have made in our collective awareness
could shatter. Human rights are a fragile
thing.
Are Trump’s followers simply so
sick of humanity that they’ve given in to the desire to see it all blown up? Do they embrace an obvious
narcissist to make a statement about something broken inside us all? Perhaps they have very low self-esteem and
project their self-loathing onto others, but it’s not a matter of conscious
choice.
Research on obedience has shown that
people not only hide from the truth, but actively fight it. In so doing, they build cognitive filters
that add up to specious worldviews.
Hence, if you point out the racism of Trump’s platform, you are called
the racist. You are taunted. Any weakness in anything you say or do is
used as a fulcrum to belittle and hurt you.
Anything to keep from looking at the truth.
There was a study in which two lines were placed together on a
chalkboard. One was much shorter than
the other. Under peer pressure from
strangers, however, subjects would say the lines were equal in length. They repeated the obvious lie. Further research showed that subjects were not
just dissembling to fit in. They came to
truly believe that two lines of very different length were actually the
same. This is the kind of creature we
are, capable of deluding our perceptions. In evolutionary terms, solidarity with the group can sometimes be more important than the actual truth for survival.
Our neural nets are adaptive. But such plasticity can ossify. Some belief systems help to keep the mind open and questioning. Others work to shut curiosity down.
Our neural nets are adaptive. But such plasticity can ossify. Some belief systems help to keep the mind open and questioning. Others work to shut curiosity down.
Trump is an ossifier. Under his deceptions, millions upon millions
of people can be made to walk over the proverbial cliff of doom, without even
seeing the obvious edge.
We're all vulnerable. Most sadly, once we become locked in knee-jerk,
know-nothing, unethical habits, how are we any different from ants?
In this fashion, we are judged by
how we think, and what that makes us become.
There are many possibilities, both for flourishing--to truly seek after the ways of angels--or wilted desecration.
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