The four topics that seem to dominate the political landscape these days are 1) Anti-immigration; 2) Furor over anything Muslim; 3) Is the president a bona fide US citizen and/or is he really a Muslim in disguise?; and 4) The supposed assault on our supposed Christian heritage by the forces of secularism (which includes equal rights for people who don't happen to be heterosexual).
If we look closely, there is a theme that ties these four together: a fear of anyone who is not a white conservative Christian!!
You see, white conservative Christians use to represent the majority in this nation by a wide margin. While they, of course, have never represented a monolithic bloc -- they argue amongst themselves by rule -- they still were able to keep this country on a generalized course in the directions they preferred. However, over the last century, they watched their majority status get whittled down to the point that they are now a minority and, I believe, a shrinking minority at that!
So, they are throwing out all the stops to try to reverse their course. They are bent on attacking ANYTHING that doesn't restore their standing to the reigns of power. And they are utilizing a time-honored strategy to try pull this off: Fear.
Fearful people are easier to manipulate. When a person lives their life in fear of every sound that goes bump in the night, it's easy to make up monsters, ghosts and goblins. Hand in hand with this, fearful people are far more apt to be hateful people and that is precisely what the demagogues of white conservative Christianity want right now -- scared hateful people!
Scared hateful people are more willing to look the other way when authorities bend the rules here and there. Scared hateful people are more than willing to give away their constitutional freedoms supposedly to protect those very same freedoms. Scared hateful people will embrace war more readily. Most importantly, scared hateful people want scapegoats to blame for their own problems.
From my experience, there is only one weapon that can defeat scared hateful people.
Genuine love. No, not the namby pamby kind. I mean the kind of love that embraces justice, fairness, peace, diversity, acceptance and respect for Mother Earth.
The choice is ours to make.
If we look closely, there is a theme that ties these four together: a fear of anyone who is not a white conservative Christian!!
You see, white conservative Christians use to represent the majority in this nation by a wide margin. While they, of course, have never represented a monolithic bloc -- they argue amongst themselves by rule -- they still were able to keep this country on a generalized course in the directions they preferred. However, over the last century, they watched their majority status get whittled down to the point that they are now a minority and, I believe, a shrinking minority at that!
So, they are throwing out all the stops to try to reverse their course. They are bent on attacking ANYTHING that doesn't restore their standing to the reigns of power. And they are utilizing a time-honored strategy to try pull this off: Fear.
Fearful people are easier to manipulate. When a person lives their life in fear of every sound that goes bump in the night, it's easy to make up monsters, ghosts and goblins. Hand in hand with this, fearful people are far more apt to be hateful people and that is precisely what the demagogues of white conservative Christianity want right now -- scared hateful people!
Scared hateful people are more willing to look the other way when authorities bend the rules here and there. Scared hateful people are more than willing to give away their constitutional freedoms supposedly to protect those very same freedoms. Scared hateful people will embrace war more readily. Most importantly, scared hateful people want scapegoats to blame for their own problems.
From my experience, there is only one weapon that can defeat scared hateful people.
Genuine love. No, not the namby pamby kind. I mean the kind of love that embraces justice, fairness, peace, diversity, acceptance and respect for Mother Earth.
The choice is ours to make.
Well said.
ReplyDeleteWhat or who they can not understand, they try to control.
If they can not control it, they try to destroy it.
This has been their history.
Pretty well summed it up. Great post.
ReplyDeleteBruce
Thank you for another spot on thought provoking, challenging post.
ReplyDeleteNow, let's keep on truckin for the good!