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3.14.2004
Perspective I guess I just feel angry, politically. Ever since Kerry has been the clear winner in the Democratic primary we have seen what I consider the worst pack mentality I have ever witnessed. It nearly rivals the sheer frothing blather thrown at Dean when it looked like he might challenge our dear leader. It drains me. I feel that all debate has become pointless. You cannot reason with wounded dogs, angry bees or tidal waves. Forces of nature are at work here. I feel exasperated at the lengths I have to go to define my position. Its a success of unimaginable proportions that one side can win an argument through sheer definitions. I feel that when issues get boiled down to basic instincts our worse tendencies show through. When you define things in terms of fear you get instinctual behavior. We lash out at our fears. So it drives me crazy to hear the terrorist threat reduced to issues of US / THEM and simplistic notions of "They just want to kill us!". You see, they have no reason? We have no responsibility to justify our actions. However we act, no matter how cruel and thoughtless will be justified by the ultimate definition: Evil. Where my critics and I diverge is in our willingness to accept that basic premise. We are good (unconditionally) and they are evil (unconditionally). In an earlier post I touched on issues of perspective. But why is it important to have perspective? Because if you recall during the Cold War we thought it perfectly reasonable to assume that the Soviets were the embodiment of evil and hell-bent (literally) on taking over the world and destroying freedom. And where did these evil communists go? During WWII it was perfectly reasonable to consider Japanese people or Germans as possessed of evil and one again intent on destroying the world and freedom in its wake. And where did these evil being go? Human beings, when born, fresh from the womb hold no innate bias towards good or evil. Our values are constructed by the framework of our society. We are social beings. We share information and share values. During the Cold War and WWII it became part of our social framework to think of Germans, Japanese or Soviets are evil. They in turn were victim of a different framework that lead to their actions. I think we sometimes fail to distinguish between these social frameworks (governments, ideologies or religions) and the people themselves. Sometimes we refuse to accept that these social frameworks are products of converging forces. Today we no longer demonize the Germans, Japanese or Russians. They are our friends. They are no longer possessed. Today its perfectly acceptable to discuss what might have caused these groups to act in the way they did. We talk about root causes. What led to the rise of Nazism, what went wrong with communist Russia? We take at look at those social causes. We wonder what happened to cause people to stop thinking critically and start acting in irrational ways. What we find is that in all cases what broke down was perspective. A society either refused to consider another point of view or they dismissed it entirely. The narrative of reality was reduced to core elements where emotional responses overrode rational thought. People accepted caricatures of their enemies as a way of dealing with emotional responses; fear and anger. Political propaganda in principle is active and revolutionary. It is aimed at the broad masses. It speaks the language of the people because it wants to be understood by the people. Its task is the highest creative art of putting sometimes complicated events and facts in a way simple enough to be understood by the man on the street. Its foundation is that there is nothing the people cannot understand, rather things must be put in a way that they can understand. It is a question of making it clear to him by using the proper approach, evidence and language. Propaganda is a method of programming the subconscious mind. Modern day marketing has taken this methodology into new territories and I sometimes wonder if we're becoming a nation of programmable people. Or are we becoming immune? Part of my dismay comes from this cult of personality built up around Bush. An image of him has been created that tells us that only Bush can "win the war on terror". Its as if only Bush has been given the "gift of sight" and we are turning our backs on enlightened leadership by turning our backs on Bush. Read this next quote and you can easily imagine it coming from the mouth of the more rabid Bush supporter. Works of talent are the result of diligence, persistence, and gifts. Genius is self-creative by grace alone. The deepest force of the truly great man is rooted in instinct. Very often he cannot even say why everything is as it is. He contents himself with saying: it is so. And it is so. What diligence and knowledge and school-learning cannot solve, God announces through the mouths of those whom he has chosen. Genius in all fields of human endeavour means - to have been called. But its not, its talking about another leader gifted from God to lead his nation in a time of war. Suffice it to say that July 20th changed everything. What would these nitpickers do if that authority suddenly disappeared? At such a time as this, a strong hand at the helm is the most important prerequisite to keep things going, and ultimately to win the victory. I guess what I fear more than anything is the trends promoted by this administration. They have been outed not once (Dilulio) but twice (O'Neil) as opportunistic powermongers who see it as their role to enact their policies disguised behind misleading propaganda. I could in an honest debate concede a few points to conservatives and their support for things like the Iraq War but what I have a hard time believing is that we can trust the current holders of power to act responsibly with the power we have given them. I think they have proven beyond a doubt that they see power as their providence, not as a responsibility. | |
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