I’ve been trying to wrap my head around something that has been bugging me since last Friday night. You see, I went of on a wee quip/tear into how the “idiots on the right” vote against their own interests on our WWL Radio show. I was using scathing sarcasm for the laugh, and used every stereotype in the book: religion, trailer parks, pickups and teeth. It was funny. It rang of truth too. I listened to the show a few days later. Yep, good radio all around. Still, it bugged me. I don’t think it was from any sense of guilt for not being PC, I am as good with being the brunt of a joke as the dealer.
I stewed on it.
People trained in human psychology and marketing; think tanks, if you will, have done their job well. Even on me.
You see, the more you challenge someone, the more they are made to feel backed into a corner, the more they will dig in and fight. They will even defend the indefensible, without reason, with only the reactionary reflex humans have.
They have created such polarizing conditions between this country’s denizens that we may as well be riding the bike above. We ain’t goin’ nowhere.
Godless Commies vs Christinazis:
They think of the Left as having no basis in Faith, no spirituality, no soul that heeds the call of God and Goodness. They think our definition of free speech has lead exactly to pornography and abortion. They think of us as having no value for human life, that we fuck everything that moves and our children are all in the compost heap behind planned parenthood.
We think of the Right as being without reason, letting their Faith repress us all into mindless acceptance that The Flintstones was a documentary. We think they want to ban Science and make the Bible the only text in Schools.
The more we attack “Creationism” or “Intelligent Design” the harder they dig in. The more we insult Churchgoers, the more they think we are incapable of seeing them as good people. “Wait, people who go to Church are bad?”
The more they attack us for wanting personal freedom to choose, or caring about the environment, the harder we dig in. The more they attack science, the more we think of them as misguided children and think they are incapable as seeing us as good people. “Wait, our protection of Free Speech is what allows you to Speak about your Religion publicly!”
The think tanks know this. In the 70’s, in Midwestern America where I grew up, people in my Catholic Church were decidedly Liberal. Many were immigrants from places where Religion had historically been oppressed, or deemed by the State. They were for taking care of the poor, for free speech, for social reforms and inclusiveness.
I grew up with them. They were good people.
Then the think tanks made abortion a wedge issue. Then they made Evolution a wedge issue as well. It was not enough that there were Private Schools or Catechism to teach religious views, the psychologists knew, if they felt challenged enough, they would push back and try to defend their mores and instill them on all the people. Christian Religions became the Right under Reagan.
I still have friends, relatives and neighbors who attend Church every Sunday. Most of them are not frothing lunatics. They are still good people.
The difference now, is that I cannot debate freely with them like I could in my youth without them feeling attacked, like I am making fun of their faith. Because thats what the Left now does. Makes fun of them.
The difference now, is that it is equally hard for me to listen to their debates about I.D., for I feel like I am being forced to accept a premise that defies all reason, and being forced to accept that their faith, and allow them to indoctrinate my child.
We used to be able to talk.
I still can, but, maaaaaaaaan, people are so touchy you have to be the gentlest of gentle, and come at it circumspect for them to even hear a word. I understand religion, I came from it, and the basic tenets do come from an angle of trying to improve oneself, as well as care for others. The hardest part for them to get is that we also want to take care of others. They have it in their heads that we cannot both be good, and allow abortion. We have it in our heads that they cannot both be good and support wars and genocides.
It is no longer the principles, its that they have taught us to hate each other as People.
Big Government vs Rugged Individualism:
Again, something we brushed upon Friday night, and Gottlieb spoke most accurately to the overall problem. (I paraphrase) “They see Socialism as Government, and rightly fear Government.” Louise added another point to it about how Socialism is for Individuals.
The Right sees the Left as wanting a huge government to control every aspect of their lives, and lets face it, in all our recent histories, the government takes our money and doesn’t do anything substantive for us. They see it as a nanny state of hand wringers trying to take away their guns and take more of their already waning incomes.
The Left sees the Right as wanting to crush all government, and let corporations run rampant with no restrictions whatsoever. Recent history shows that with the Right in power, more personal restrictions than ever have been put in place, and the government itself polices Corporations right to run amok.
We both fear the Government. Rightly so.
This seems to be the most easily breached subject, as long as from the Left you do not trigger the cornered fear position of the Right by using the dog-whistle word “Socialism.”
Even up into the early 80’s we could talk about reforming the Government. We could talk about what we wanted changed, or to stay the same. Sure, people back then still had their hair triggers, like racism, quotas and Union abuses… but you could have the discussion. You could talk about spending reform and billion dollar hammers and how to cut waste and spending; you could talk about the budget and policies.
Those on the Right seem genuinely surprised that what we on the Left espouse is the same anger at the elected officials as they have. The split occurs when we talk about what to do about it.
The think tanks have used the idea that being Left means taking away the Right’s personal autonomy. They use the old Commie-fear from the McCarthy era and the failed Russian state to make ideas like socialism mean we are all wearing grey uniforms, standing in bread lines and being told what to do by some nefarious huge all-seeing government.
We on the Left see the idea of a Right-run government much the same. Only our version of knee-jerk fears is the same surveillance state, only we are all wearing crosses and being told we as good American workers must work for slave wages and be unable to create any coalition for the improvement of our lot. We think any one who supports the right is a law and order driven fascist.
The thing is, when you talk to the actual People about this, really talk; we agree on most things. We hate the surveillance. We hate our loss of wage. We hate feeling like we have no say where our dollars are spent. We all feel like the Government just does as it pleases and we have no voice.
What they are unwilling to see is that we have been primarily run by the Right, who claim “Small Government” for the last 30 years, and that Government has grown by leaps and bounds.
This government has become so huge that it is fully out of all of our control.
When it comes down to it, we all value our individualism. The Left is a champion of people having individual rights; and PROTECTION for those rights. The Right is as well, yet feels the Government is the last people they want entrusted to define those rights.
They have a point.
We can talk about reforming the Government all we want; yet both sides know it is an exercise in futility. That’s why the Right wants to shrink and crush the Government. That’s why the Left wants to take all Corporate influence out of the Government and make it for-and-by the People.
The break is always “Socialism” the word that freezes us both. In the Government’s hands it has always become a tool to take and not give back, to make red tape and forms so unwieldy and complicated (read Medicare Part D for meds as the latest example) that people cannot get the benefits to which they are entitled.
It is nothing, if not an exercise in futility to convince most people that the two parties are mirages.
Yet, Socialism in reformed hands would make a simple flash of a card all it took to allow everyone to have healthcare, dental, optical and education. Most Western European Nations have already done so. There are working templates.
There is an underlying stigma at work here as well, that I must brush across.
There is the Status embed in the psyche Americana. Your kid’s braces, your straight teeth, your better vehicle, your nicer outfit… if the playing field was more leveled, how could people possibly know they are “better” than anyone else? The rugged individualism meme has trained us to be “winners” and “losers” rather than be proud of all of us and our gains.
Just as I made fun of trailer parks. Just as social and academic elitists won’t deign to speak to me, with my midwestern cadence and pedestrian use of rough language.
They have played our clannishness into an unspoken Caste system.
I have no idea how that collective mentality can be abolished.
I believe that the very thing that empowered us at one point to make Social Reforms, Unionize and increase our collective conditions in America is now our downfall. Our wealth and excesses.
We still live better than 90% of the World’s population when it comes to income and possessions. That excess became our definition of ourselves. Greed became good. Excess became proof we were not only better suited for competition than our neighbors, but proof we were better people. That’s fucked up.
The very same idea has now stopped us from making coalitions, instead become dog-eat-dog individuals in a system that once giveth, and now taketh away. It worked for us when there was plenty, but will kill us now that there is little left.
The polarizing of not just our Political and Social identities is only an aspect; they have used think tanks to make us believe that we must stand set against one another individually to thrive or survive.
They have convinced us that each of us are exactly correct in our thinking about the Problems and the Solutions.
The Right thinks that back to law and order, Flag Waving and Parades, God and hard work will bring back America’s heyday. They think restricting business stops their ability to prosper.
The Left thinks that we need to remove corporate freedom and make Law the protections for the Individual and that will create a new American heyday. We think somehow the Power structure can be made to do so without it becoming, again, corrupted.
I’m starting to think we are all on the Moon.
Globalism vs Nationalism:
Is it the “One World Government” we all fear?
The Right sees the idea that no one will any longer look out for their interests, instead small foreign countries they don’t know or understand will be able to make their laws and stack things in their favor, leaving them to the whims of an Anti-American, Anti-Freedom world.
The Left thinks there already is a such a thing in place, and its name is Corporatism. We think that the wealthiest echelons already control nearly everything and are trying to amass all assets into their hands Globally, and leave all the World’s denizens as mere fodder and slaves for their Wealth.
The end result is the same. We all fear being left voiceless and abused.
The Right sees the solution making local control the law of the land, while still keeping a strong central Military for protection of their interests. (forget telling them local control and coalitions is the premise of Socialism/communism, they will faint)
The Left sees the solution as a fair and equitable coalition of all Countries so that none may be abused, and sees a strong Military as counter-intuitive to the Peace process.
No matter which way you play it, the potential for abuses is enormous. Local control can lead to segregation and an ever increasing clannishness that will allow, nay propagate the potential for self-interested conflict. Global control will place so much power in the hands of that entity, that no voice can rise for any individual group.
Yet both groups stood together on when Haiti was hit with an earthquake: Left social actions like the Red Cross, and right Church donations. We want to be good World Citizens when it comes down to it.
We have just been taught how not to.
We have been given Polarizing Conditions that make the conversations impossible.
Lets face it, the human condition needs to change internally before we become a Species in which all this is unnecessary.
It’s time for a sit down. Without the hate and polarity that makes us refuse to hear the underlying fears. Left, Right and everyone in between.
“Hey, world? We need to talk.”
