The Ultimate Test

The Ultimate Test

Little is more infuriating than someone who denies the obvious, while accusing those who point out the error of being blind.  It is more infuriating, still, when said person holds considerable power, from the obtuse office boss to the political demagogue, even a president who seduces millions of voters, turning them complicit, and thereby advancing an ego-fueled trajectory toward the center of everything,  until a land of freedom threatens to devolve into a soil for tyranny.

Catastrophically, this is the situation we face in the US. The obvious is denied, and yet those who object are vociferously labeled liars.  Climate-change denialists rant that those who believe the science are, not only ignorant, but also in fact malicious.  Racists and xenophobes,  gender bigots and sexists, angrily label others as prejudice, while adducing their own record as just and pristine.

As a coup de grace, these gaslighters, in effect, challenge a constitutional premise--that humanity can embrace equal and inalienable rights--with the bald example of their own behavior.  They do this, of course, while denying that they are doing any such thing, and casting hateful aspersions.

For those who wish to protect a government centered on rationalism, in the spirit of our Founders, this psychological warfare, this "no, it's you" mindset, is the ultimate test.  Patience, virtue, dignity, all can slide into petty invective in the face of such hair-pulling intransigence.  Any resort to insult or anger, however slight, only validates the stance of the gaslighters in their own mind.  If all you can do is mock them, clearly you have nothing better, no solid argument.

Maddeningly seamless aggression that accepts no blame, while thriving off double-standards and division. This is what those who wish to defend bipartisanship are up against.  Perhaps most frustrating of all, this tactic could work.  From ancient times to the present, kingdoms glued together by fanatic loyalty are not uncommon.  The last presidential election showed that a core constituency could be yoked to 'big lie' fear more easily than anyone thought.  Victory could be had by demonizing the 'other.'   

The genie is out of the bottle.  It is possible that in 2020 campaigns, some Republicans contenders will go much farther, moving past even the most threadbare insinuation to outright endorsement of white nationalism.  It will earn them the fanatic praise of millions, if they have the twisted charisma to wield the dark ideology.  In a way, Trump's corruption and  incompetence are a gift.  They give us a chance to prepare.  To address and redress, to heal and inoculate.

The death-swell of 20th century fascism, its dethroning of empires in an orgy of all-out slaughter, including the fire-bombing runs and the apocalyptic use of fission; how it bred the horrors of the genocidal concentration camps; has not stopped the grim specter from rising again.   

Those who wish to push upwards, against our current state of descent, need to remember two things.  This is the ultimate test of patience, and everything you believe in is at stake.

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Republicans are not stupid: they are ruthlessly logical

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NOTE:  if you like this post, you might like this one as well:

The Ultimate Test

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Someday, let us hope, history will look back at this time objectively.   When it does, it shall conclude that the GOP has abandoned truth in major ways, with devastating consequences.  And yet, they have not done this out of ignorance.

 

Caricature, lampoon or otherwise deride them, the Republicans are using a highly effective rational strategy to gain and maintain power.  The strategy involves the creation of a base of followers so committed that they are completely loyal, regardless of the truth.

 

The GOP project is all about gaslighting.  It claims to be good and righteous, while labeling its opponents as evil.  Despite the rhetoric, it intends to destroy democracy.  It champions White heteronormative patriarchal supremacy.  It rewards blind obedience and punishes decency, empathy and ethics.  It replaces human rights with might-makes-right. 

 

This project requires immense deceit, part of which is denying that there is any deceit.  It holds up the Big Lie that the 2020 election was stolen.  It is, at the deepest level, dedicated to hiding what it is.  Hence, the GOP path, in general, has become the Maximum Lie.

 

This is evil.  But it isn’t stupid.   Calling the GOP stupid and ignorant, in fact, reveals the liberal side’s own ignorance and vulnerability.

 

Again, Donald Trump is often called stupid.  But he is no more stupid than a cunning crime boss.  He currently leads a movement that has forever changed America.  It may gain complete control of all three branches of government.  Given the goal, the strategy has been wildly successful and is completely logical.

 

Trump may already have reached the point where his sheer power completes his metamorphosis from the greatest con man of our times to the most powerful leader, someone who could in the near future, be discussed as widely and reverentially as, say, Napoleon.

 

If that conclusion seems absurd to you, or repels you, my response is this: Wake up.  The Republicans are not foolish.  An organized, impassioned zealous minority, united behind a charismatic authority, can defeat and control a disorganized and internally divided majority.  This is a simple fact, demonstrated over and over through time.

 

Fear and hate can--and have--defeated science and unpleasant major truths.  An example of such a truth is that the covid vaccine reduces death.  That is obvious.  But it doesn’t matter.   It won’t stop a populist movement with momentum on its side, and a magnetic leader who can herd a sizeable minority of citizens into cult-like fawning.

 

Death, economic ruin, the decline of the American Empire, these accompany the fall of democracy.  None of that matters, if your goal is a less vibrant, less decent, less competent country under your thrall, a country whose primary goal, above all else, is to protect and preserve the power of its leader. 

 

Why would intelligent human beings throw away freedom for this?  Fear, first of all.  But also because their own fortune, as they define it, is tied to their leader.  A charismatic takeover works for those who can ride the coattails of the nascent autocrat.  They get more money, more attention, more ego-pampering. 

 

The psychology of this is intricate, and varies from follower to follower.  Anne Applebaum brings this out in her chilling, meticulous piece on collaborators in The Atlantic [1].  The bottom line is this:  conscience will not stop people from knuckling under.  And yes, some will eagerly abandon ethics for power.

 

Note that many Republicans might not even consciously know the path they are following--even though it is blatant in their actions.  If you want to get Biblical:  The tree is known by its fruit.

 

Denial is useful for those who have chosen evil.  It removes the shackle of guilt in the rush to destroy equality and erect a throne.  Total belief in a false worldview has advantages for the plotters of a coup.  For instance, if you adamantly claim you are not doing what you are actually doing--with convincing body language and delivery--it can stymie and slow the opposition, while assisting in the recruitment of more followers. 

 

If you think denial cannot partner with effective goal-seeking, then you are not doing justice to the complexity of the human mind.   Is this rational?  It is within a framework of seizing power.  The logic of the Maximum Lie is efficacious for usurpation.

 

The price of a GOP takeover is absolutely devastating.  Equality, empathy, freedom of the press, indeed, freedom to express, all gone--and so much more.  Worse of all, an all-powerful narcissism invites war; and in the nuclear age, war is global doom. 

 

The best defense is to stop calling Republicans stupid or ignorant.  Accept that they are fearless in their realpolitik.  Be honest.  Call them authoritarians, not conservatives.  Stop pretending that the threat isn’t real.

 

Remind yourself, too, that ethics, empathy and compassion are wonderful things.  We need them as torches to light the way as we stumble into the future

[1]   https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/07/trumps-collaborators/612250/

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Use Psychology, Not Rationality, to Reach Trump's Followers

"Rationality will not save us" is #2 in Secretary of State Robert McNamara's ten lessons from the Vietnam War, as presented in the movie, "Fog of War."  

https://nothingbuttherain.com/2013/08/12/lesson-2-rationality-will-not-save-us/

Although I think some of his ten lessons need modification, I also think that we live in a time of Wonderland-ish psychological warfare (or neurochemical warfare, as I have called it) and that McNamara's lessons apply today, at least as useful springboards of reflection.  In specific, these rules can help us approach Trump's fanatic followers, with a goal of healing the divide in this country--or at least help us stay sane and empower ourselves.

I say "psychological warfare" because Trump is using psychology to divide the country and harness his base into an army of cultish followers, willing to suffer greatly for him; and he has even urged them toward violence with tweets like, "LIBERATE MICHIGAN."  This kind of exhortation, much more than a dog whistle, is becoming more frequent and vehement in his 'take up arms' rhetoric.

I say "Wonderland-ish" because even Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, realizes the craziness.  He used a paraphrase of the Cheshire Cat to describe Trump, "If you don't know where you're going, any path will get you there."

Craziness creates chaos, and chaos can work well as a means to usurp (or create) a throne.  Naomi Klein's Shock Doctrine and Disaster Capitalism are relevant here, underscoring that we are less rational and less resistant to fear-mongers when panicked.

If rationality will not save us, then I suggest--as I have before, many times--that we chose another strategy, one that seems obvious.  First, admit that humans are psychological, not rational.  Second, use related techniques to listen, validate, and deal with conflict.

Reason is useful, yes, but only secondarily, when couched in our true way of apprehending and perceiving at the world, a psychological one.

Part of this solution, actually, relates to McNamara's Lesson One:  "Empathize with your enemy."    Lesson Three is great, too, as it focuses on enlightened humility:  "There's something beyond one's self."

In many ways, we continue to pretend that humans are primarily rational.  We cherish the chestnut of the noble, wise voter.   However, every major marketing company in the world knows we are subconsciously motivated.  So does Trump.

If you think you are immune to this, well, maybe you are.  How should I know.  But statistical demographics back up the general trend.  Looking at the big picture, via statistics, large segments of society are subliminally vulnerable.

Again, this doesn't mean that rationality is irrelevant or unimportant, only that we are not designed to accept naked logic without considerable resistance, even if it is solid science.  Part of this is all the pain we carry inside, and how it can be surprisingly activated by any change in our way-of-being or worldview.

We also tend to much more easily accept what we want to hear.  What brings us pleasure.  What backs up our current belief system.  Moreover, we are happy to bend or distort arguments so they fit our preconceptions.  In psychology, this is called confirmation bias.

To respond to Trump's psychological warfare, try psychological techniques.  I offer a number of them here:

http://owlwholaughs.blogspot.com/2017/01/some-observations-on-rising-tyranny.html

To emphasize the very important point--that rationality cannot save us--I supply the following quote, taken from another of my blog entries:

The death-swell of 20th century fascism, its dethroning of empires in an orgy of all-out slaughter, including the fire-bombing runs and the apocalyptic use of fission; how it bred the horrors of the genocidal concentration camps; has not stopped the grim specter from rising again.   

As psychological, evolutionary creatures, we tend to focus on what's around us right now--not long-term or global effects, beyond our immediate perceptual purview.  

http://owlwholaughs.blogspot.com/2019/01/the-ultimate-test.html

Fly Well In the Dark,

Owl

  

Op-ed: Godlike Technology Requires Democracy

 

Godlike technology requires democracy

 

Maybe every generation, throughout human history, has seen itself as embroiled with some myth-worthy foe, fighting for ultimate survival.  I suppose I would be remiss if I didn’t join the herd.  That said, in our times, there is a super-salient difference:  large-scale war will wipe us all out.  Today, we’re mortally interconnected.  The way things are going, full steam ahead, to use an outdated idiom still in use though things are changing so fast, we will have quite a menu of choices to exterminate our headlong species:  not only nuclear, but also biological, robot, quantum, or nano-conducted. 

 

How are we going to manage the vastly powerful tech, godlike really, that has and will come our way?  Quite soon, in a tick on the anthropological clock, let alone anything cosmic, humanity will have powers never imagined, just as you and I witness powers never imagined by recent generations.   Again, for imperative emphasis:  How are we going to manage these godlike powers?  It’s not just about the collapse of a nation state or even an empire anymore.  We’re talking the fate of humanity and the Earth itself.

 

As it stands, in our current woeful state, there are only two possible paths.  One is clearly dark.  The other is our only hope for planetary flourishing, even a paradise.

 

The first path available is fascism.  This is a strategy to maintain and expand power, centered on a cultish, charismatic dictator.  Think abusive control-freak husband whose wife is the entire population of a country.

 

History has suffered plenty of these malign egocentric thugs.  They consider themselves gods.  Misnomered as ‘strongmen,’ they are parasites, assailants with bottomless holes for hearts who ramp up their recklessness like drug addicts urgent to outrun a mounting physiological tolerance.  They suck up wealth and attention at everyone else’s expense.  Finally, in an unbridled fit of poor impulse control, it all goes over a lemming cliff.  Two words:  Napoleonic Wars.

 

Loosely, this is a continuation of what has pretty much always been.  It started with a bureaucratic theocracy in ancient Sumer (‘I am your God King!’) and paired with the upper body strength of war-bred masculinity.  This deadly duo has led to thousands of years of slaughterous chaos.  Fast-forward to where we are today:  macho egos who seek monuments and pinnacles while they bully the rest of us with might-makes-right. 

 

The Earth is flat.  The sky is red.  The election was stolen.  Bow down before me and embrace my beliefs and commands as your reality.  This is the loyalty test.  Pass it or suffer.

 

Let me play Cassandra for a moment, and state the far-too-obvious:  fascism, its primitive level of ethics tech, will take us into WWIII.    I say ‘ethics tech’ because ethics is a technology capable of advancing like any other tech. 

 

The only chance to advance our ethics tech, enough to properly manage our godlike powers, is democracy.  Adaptive and reasonable, a healthy democracy dares to face empirical truths (gasp).  One of these is that all sorts of humans are, well, human.  Humans think, feel and accomplish.  This has been quite a shock to over ten thousand years of god kings, superior races, males-should-lead, gays-as-evil, and so on.

 

Ten thousand years of this sludge.  Many generations in succession have passed down the curse.  The acculturative trap is deviously woven into social life at all moments and stages, effectuating an almost guaranteed trojan horse.  As soon as I was born, maybe before, I was being molded by this darkness.  You, as well.

 

Can we escape the acculturative trap?   We already have in part.  Women’s rights.  Gay Marriage.  Earth awareness.  Anti-slavery.  The very existence of human rights.  Without these huge, startling advances becoming more and more the norm, we are going to perish.  Control-freak narcissists will wither our souls into utter obeisance, then slay the whole species in a bellicose coup de grace.

 

Do you think world dictators will hesitate, when it becomes  practical, to put, let’s call it a ‘monitor & discipline’ chip, into the human brain?  When robot police and armies are economical and efficient to manufacture, assembled by other robots, do you think the dictators will wait a moment to put them on every street corner?  Better yet, why not a mandated ‘robot friend’ in every household?  Don’t worry, they can see through walls and hear the slightest whisper to better protect you …

 

Dictators want everyone to be thinking about them all the time.  They want puppet-applause and conspicuous approbation.  Guess what’s going to happen when they can ensure it by employing oppressive, omnipresent persistent surveillance?   I did that on purpose.  OOPS!

 

We have to plan now for the future of humanity and Earth.  Failure to advance our ethics tech means that we will be trapped, constricted more and more, as science allows greater control of body and brain.  This is a pivotal blip in time on which all future blips depend.  Choose democracy.  Make it our gift to the future.  A potential paradise or hell awaits our decision.

 

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