America, today; the whole world today. What went so terribly, terribly wrong?
We are almost a year, 9 months into the single most polarizing event in American history. We have passed through some really severe tests along the way and we have seen what exposure to those tests has revealed.
1) A lunatic opened fire with assault weapons on a concert crowd in Los Angeles, killing at least 50 and injuring many more.
2). Terrorists ran into crowds using vehicles in London, Barcelona; killing dozens and injuring hundreds
3). Four of the largest hurricanes in history come one after another in a row and damage many parts of the Caribbean severely, as well as Texas and parts of the Eastern United States. As much as 80% of Puerto Rico remains without electrical power.
4) Severe earthquakes in Mexico kill hundreds and cause millions of dollars worth of damage.
5) Catastrophic wildfires in California (USA), British Columbia (Canada) and Northern Spain burn hundreds of people out of their homes and causing untold millions worth of damage.
6) In Catalunya, Spain, the people decided to vote for independence from Spain and form a new nation. The police flooded polling booths and stations, beating women and the elderly in order to stop them exercising their democratic right. Now Spain, with America's backing, want to force the Catalans under their control and prevent them from seceeding again. They even charged key figures involved with "sedition" and sent them to jail.
This is, as some of you know, just the beginning, there are all kinds of other things going on around the world. Some worrying, some oddly amusing, others are frightening.
Nazis march unopposed in Charlottesville NC.
AntiFa Cause chaos and hurl missles at same.
Idiot rams into the undistruptive part of the Antifa protest with his car and kills an innocent woman.
More Nazi "Protests" are planned.
NFL players "Take A Knee" in protest on this goverment's actions regarding race. Most of those players are black.
At this precise moment in time, who is right and who is wrong does not really matter. It has gone a fair distance beyond that now. I will add my own personal opinion on one point thought and it is this;
"There is nowhere in the civilised world, especially not in the self-proclaimed best country in the world and leader of the free world for Nazis. Desecrating (it is worse than destroying it) a flag with a Swastika is the single worst thing which can be done to it. A world war was fought to end the evil of Nazism forever. Think of the thousands of veterans, millions of Poles, Jews and other groups THAT offends. You are worried about a few hundred butt-hurt folks getting angry at them rich brown folks? If you are unable to attack those Nazis as vociferously as you did Colin Kaepernick et.al. then you do not have an argument..."
Think about this; if one is to conquer a nation, is it easier to impose one's rule upon a united one or a divided one?
America, at least, has become more polarised in these last nine months, really this last year if you include the campaign which cristalised it all, than it ever has been before in it's history. One is For Trump or one is For Hilary/Obama/Etc.; one is Left or one is Right; one is a Patriot of one is a Snowflake/Cuck/Russian Apologist; one is a Liberal or one is Right. The list goes on and on. One watches CNN or one watches Fox (let the C&D letters come flooding); one is a fan of Brietbart/Jack Van Impe/Joel Osteen or one is with Anderson Cooper/Kristian Amonpour/The Washington Post/The Huffington Post. If one does not declare eternal love for the President, one is often flooded with requests to leave the country for "treason" and for being Un-American (a very popular word these days); it seems that dissention is not permitted. That is not at all democratic, do you not think? Criticising our goverment is what makes us great, I thought! Of course we have, lest we forget, the opposite. If one does not worship the ground Obama passes over, asks uncomfortable questions and agrees that, just maybe the candiate who actually won (by the popular vote; to me, as a European with our 'backward and quaint system which gives victory to the person the people actually vote for, I find this confusing) might not have made the best of Presidents in my opinion, draws equal ire and accusations of being racist (which I find hilarious) or a supporter of aforementioned divisive Pennsylvania Aveneue resident.
We cannot just be ourselves anymore. We have to "fit" into the right category.
Now here's a scary thought. About 17 years ago there came a grand shift in the world of entertainment. In the year 2000, when people were suffering an existential crisis about the world ending or civilisation crashing down, a new paradigm of in television began. They called it Big Brother and no-one got the irony because that was the beginning of the end. Now we are flooded with more Reality TV than we can possibly watch and keep a track of. People know more about the lives of Celebrity A's interactions with Celebrity B than they do about their own family. Thousands of hours of people doing what people do but on live TV and, thus in a wildly exaggerated or highly edited fashion. It is now incredibly simple to get famous. One has to simply expose an intimate part of one's anatomy, act in a stupid enough way for millions of people to want to see it or...no-one really knows. In short we have become a nation and a world of Reality TV shows while refusing to deal with the actual, non-glitzy reality around us. The uncomfortable part.
I'll give you an example. You all must remember The Sims, it is wildly popular still and folks still like it. I was never really a fan, I rarely have time for gaming, especially a game which requires so much attention. All of my electronic pets died alone and in misery, of starvation most likely, I think one threw itself off of the wardrobe...I was convinced by a friend to try it out so I did. I programmed traits and behaviours for my couple of as yet childless virtual people, built them a decent house and found them jobs and set them off into their idylic electronic world. I then got busy with actual life for a while and forgot about them. I did not know that the game would continue without me...I came back a week later to find complete chaos; the man of the house had been out having an affair while his wife was pregnant with their second child. He had gotten a young workmate pregnant and, in fact, moved her into their house. His wife was, obviously, not happy about this and they fought, she would lock herself in her room and cry a lot....it was surprising, it was shocking, it looked just like real life. Only it wasn't. None of it was real, all that was there to make the game more interesting, suck me in and make me play more to see what else would happen. Same with these TV shows, they exaggerate, show the worst excesses of human behaviour because they know we never lost one little thing from childhood. That guilty little excited buzz we get when we do something wrong, that little thrill. We get it when we watch others live out our fantasies on the screen. They draw us in and play on our darker side, the voyeur. The one who likes to see others fail and , thus, be made to feel better about their own self.
You know you do. We watch people on TV do all the things we dare not do in our regular, boring day-to-day lives. It's a guilty pleasure because we get that little buzz of wrong each time we think "maybe they'll figure out what I'm really thinking" each time you catch the eye of the person next to you on the sofa. That they'll see your guilty little secret at last, that they'll know. They already know because they are thinking the same things themselves already.
Now, the Reality Revolution is in full force, the media networks jumped right on the bandwagon, seized the zeitgeist by the throat, gave what was demanded; millions of hours of empty and ultimately pointless televison. No originality, no creativity, nothing different and daring. All conforming. Music, all mixed, synthesised, auto-tuned and similar, nothing new, nothing original. All conforming. TV, music, literature. Vampires. Ghosts. Werewolves. Angels. Demons. Muti-Sexual. Fluidly Switching Pansexual beings. All is permissiable now. You have freedom to do as you like as long as you conform. Agree. Be classified. Sit in your box like a good stereotype. Conform. Conform. Show your individuality by being just like a thousand others. Diversity is not welcome here. Uniformity is encouraged. Conform.
Big Brother, Orwell's masterpiece creation, not the TV show so blithely paying superfluous homage to him. The Thought Police. Big Brother himself. They existed to control how people thought, to make them think in The Right Way. Conformity or thoughts making people easier to control. Anyone who stood out was removed. People were watched 24/7, everything they did, every communication, every thought even, it was said (whispered in fear). No like the world of today at all is it? Oh no, not at all! Our government would not do that, would they? A certain movie, involving a rather good actor playing a self-styled saviour of a city argued with another excelent actor about this very thing. Problem is, the movie turned out to be rather prophetic and the people in charge of "The Machine" not as moral as the character in the movie was....they wouldn't do THAT now, would they?
Oh yes! THAT one in Utah. The one we know about...
One is Left or one is Right, isn't that right?
So they say. We fit into two categories now, let me explain;
1) The Left; You like brown people and people of other colours in fact. You think equality is a fantastic idea, for people of all colours, as well as male and female. The shocking revolutionary idea which the rest of the world has been practising for decades, that of Universal Healthcare is also lovely. That politicians help the poor, the less fortunate and disadvantaged. Less war, more reconstruction and improvement. Admire Obama. Felt America was past-due a female President (almost everyone else has had at least one, catch up America!). Want progress. Immigration increasues diversity. Support or non-Native born (technically all of us except the First Nations but...). Also enjoy murdering babies, forcing men to marry other men, get turned into women or get turned gay by being near other gays. Also want to turn everyone towards Shania (sic) law and make woment wear ninja outfits in public and have beards. Want to murder all true Americans and sell us to China, Russia or somewhere far away we don't understand and make us Gay, transsexual Muslim Communists who are also black.
2) The Right; Patriotic, conservative, mostly Christian and middle-class. Have the 2.4 children, the 2 cars, the nice semi in the suburbs, the 9-5 and Monday to Friday. Go to church on Sundays but not TOO Christian. Very keen on the Constitution and Freedom. Great supporters of the military and American ascendence in the world. Often believe the country was meant to be Christian (not realising Masons are not Christian) and that immigrants are ruining it for everyone else (look at the Natives, they can tell you how accurate that sentiment is!). For business, wealth making, corporations and America's corporate world dominance. Feel the poltical correctness of recent years has left then marginalised and mostly ignored. They have become more and more embittered until they, desiring change so strongly, voted for one they felt would deliver that change. Many now regret that decision. WAnt to convert all gays and turn them into Mormon Missionaries. Have connections to the New World Illuminated Order of Christian Supreme Whites of Rothschildia and fakes everything which has happened up until this point, including your birth. They control the media and Have plans to turn us all into drones who follow their dark will and salute flags all day long.
Liberties (haha) may have been taken here and there or, perhaps I was a little conservative (hehe) with my analysis....but Left vs. Right is real but why?
So, yes I may have taken a few liberties here and there in the above descriptions. I know I took a few! The point remains is this; why are we being divided, distracted and led to crash heads and fight? I asked earlier whether a united or divided nation was the best to prevent invasion and you may or may not have answered me. The answer, of course, is obvious. United equals strong. Divided equals weak. Allow me to draw your attention to a few things;
Obama was an excellent President but he was black.
Hilary would have been a great President but she is a woman
Trump would never make a great President but she does know how to whip up the masses nicely.
These are all facts. Just as my humourous, liberty taking comments above were also truths. People believe in them, some with more passion than others. These things matter, are important. Not to everyone but to some people. With enough people in the world; everything, no matter how stranage or odd is true to at least one person out there. This is also fact. Lots of people might disagree with your truth. You may disagree with the truth of many others. To find and seek others who share your truth is one of the deepest needs a human faces in their life. To have your truth challenged - especially if you have held it for a long time - is challenging and tends to make one defensive. Get enough people who agree with you and your level of defensiveness will increase exponentially to your desire to remain in that group and be admired by it's members. We want to belong, we all do. They know how to play with that. They like to keep us divided. They like to keep us fighting; Red and Blue, Patriot and Communist; Conservative and Liberal....you know the names and the insults. Where do we get these from? Are we born with them? No more than a child is born racist. To a baby, the brown babies and the white babies are simply more babies. To humans other humans should simply be people. Right? We could do with shedding the labels and simply being. We like to label, to classify, to catergorise. Some say this is human nature but I wonder. We learn to label and to approve of some labels less than others. Can we not unlearn?
Let me ask one one simple question? Did that zinger of a Facebook post on a Pro-Trump group make The Orange one stop dead, think about it and resign? Did your stirring speech against Muslims cause every single adherant of Islam to leave America or become Christian? Did you telling that gay chap online about his sinful life make him realise the error of his ways and look for a good Christian wife and three children? No, not at all. Not ever. It doesn't work like that but you fight like it does. You genuinely think it's going to have an effect? Or is it just another form of entertainment?
What have we gained from all this fighting and argument? No more than Northern Ireland when the IRA and UVF were fighting gained. Nothing. Much more was lost, much more. Lives, families, friends, community, trust. The same applies here, we are gaining nothing here. We identify with one group or another, we espouse or preach the position of said group, we attack or mock members of other groups who take an alternate position. We preach and seek to convert the "dissenters". We identify, we belong, we evangelise, we defend, we seek, we belong, we conform. WE CONFORM.
Just how powerful a force would an actual United United States of America be?
Think about it. If something incredible and miraculous could happen, something which would make the Left and the Right lay aside their differences for just one single day...what would that be like? There was one example of that, before it all went South again. 9/11. When it happened, when it was all shock, disbelief and panic. Before we looked for people to blame, laws to pass and wars to get involved in. Before it became politicised, the American people were, for one miraculous moment, united. United in horror. United in anger. United in shock. United in disbelief. United in mourning. Black, white, Asian, brown, Mexican, American, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, English, Spanish....for just a moment America was what Her founders had envisioned.
Then the moment passed, as these things always do...
Will it be possible to America to be truly united again? If something as huge and traumatic of 9/11 can only do it for the briefest of times, I shudder to think what would be needed to create such an effect for longer...
So perhaps it is safer to sit here, content little dromes. Happy keyboard warriors, fighting the Good fight in the Name of Freedom in the Land of Nobody Really Cares. Maybe we should. Maybe we should watch the sideshow and fight over the antics of the performers while the real drama is carried out just off to the side of where the clowns are. The clowns are always distracting and so entertaining. Right clown is trying to stop Left clown from dropping babies in the blender. Lef clown kicks Right clown up the butt when he tries to take away the poor immigrant clown's money. Oh it is so entertaining! Look to the middle though, just for a moment. Do you see him? That's him. He's not laughing, he's not smiling. He's thinking. He's planning. He hands the new script to Right clown as this section winds down and Right clown fills a glass of water to refresh himself. The Left comes in to mop his weary brow and, he does so, accepts his crisp and fresh script also. Everyone dances to the same tune at the end of the day. The Green Song, the Ballad of Benjamins.
Black or white we are all, as the Bard said, the same underneath. Does my blood run any redder than yours?
When the chips are down, was America ever united? Has the last year simply focussed more directly on the Disassociative Identity Disorder of America? Was it always just about MY neighbourhood, MY street, MY people, MY home? Was the fact that a Black man sat in the White House the beginning or real and positive change or did it simply throw the divisions into still sharper focus?
I seriously think it was always there. Back in it's very infancy, the Civil War of America divided North from South, slavery from Freedom, rich from poor. We would like to think that Freedom is equally accessible to all but was it really?
I also think that now, in today's new and connected world, where one can travel one side of the world to another, meet and interact freely with people from all nations, learn and encounter things you were never previously aware of. I think in this world we have a chance. A slim and tenuous chance admittedly, but a chance, to make the world a more united and better place. Despite all of it's disunity and conflict, America is still the place the rest of the world looks to for example. America is the torch held high, as Lady Liberty represents. The Babylon where all tongues are spoken, all colours share the Earth. America can, today, choose to divide itself further or decide that, maybe, it's time. Time to say We Will Make Change. Not let the TV tell us what to think or do but listen to a truer and better councillor, our own hearts and consciences.
Not let the bought politicians - who answer only to their backers and lobbyists (we, in the rest of the world call lobbying "bribery" incidentally). Not the corporations - including the broadcast media - who are only in it for the money, afterall. Not the demagogues, who are only in it for their fifteen minutes of fame. Not the White Supremasists, Black Supremasists, Orange Supremasists, Anything Supremasists, they are only in it for their own group, ultimately. For the human race, for Truth, for Freedom, for America. It does not matter hiw nebulous those concepts may be, people have died to defend them, or at least they believed they were.
Maybe if we believed they were again, they actually would be?
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