The Gilded Age of the Fear-mongers!
Shortly after I turned 5 years old my parents opted to return to the state where I’d been born. Though new to me for all practical purposes, both of my parents were already well connected to the city to which we moved, Pomona, California. In fact, we moved into a house that was just a few blocks from the corner where my mom had been born (in a small house long since razed). Across the street from where she grew up a local park was named for one of the oldest street gangs in California - the 12th Street Sharks (the park was at that time named for the Sharkeys/Sharkies). (See Sharkie Park )
My time in Pomona taught me a lot about the power and danger of fear. As physical beings and part of the Animal Kingdom, humans have been able to survive over thousands of years partly because of fear. Being the target of numerous attacks as a “mixed” person, I learned to use fear and channel it into anger. Personal proof that when we are in imminent danger of being harmed or worse, fear focuses us on acting quickly to protect ourselves. Accordingly, fear has some practical value to us as individuals and as a species. Like so many things however, when fear becomes the norm it engulfs individuals in negative emotions that few have the skills to manage and rise above.
Today, the two major political parties rely on fear to try and generate support for their blue or red group. Much of their rhetoric is framed in absolute terms that, in the end, are wholly devoid of merit. Instead, leaders of these groups demonize their opposition publicly while collaborating with it in private (though “canoodling” might be more accurate). Currently, the parties are fighting over their respective, potential nominees for the office of President of the United States. One group, playing off of former President' Trump’s penchant for spray tans basically chants, ad nauseum, some flavor of “Orange Man Bad.” In response, the other group drones on about “Shambling Joe.” Rest assured, NEITHER of these candidates (or the parties they represent) deserves our support as they’re dedicated, above all else, to serving the wealthy and the corporations the wealthy control. Their interest in the average American is virtually non-existent.
Unfortunately, the power of fear is great. When in full bloom, it dissipates the ability to reason and blinds one to less obvious but far greater dangers. By turning our opponents into anything but fellow humans, we objectify them in ways that seem to inevitably lead to some flavor of mortal combat. Witness the views of Americans about a nation that literally did not exist in any meaningful modern form until the 1990s. America’s military industrial complex, about which one of our nation’s most heralded military commanders warned us, now wages war by proxy relying on the financial backs of the American people. Billions of dollars for a war that is, frankly, unwinnable under any realistic scenario. While those funds flow back to Corporate America they never find their way to Americans in actual need.
When the island of Maui was ravaged by a fire that killed far too many, our nation offered the victims a literal pittance. In a world where every other human is a foe OR an ally, those who don’t fit into either category are not on the minds of those enveloped in a fog of hatred even if such individuals become victims of unbridled hatred. Indeed, hatred itself is little more than the outcome of chronic fear. It’s blinding flame threatens to devour our very souls yet once in its iron grip only those able to successfully. albeit with difficulty, manage their emotions have any chance to recover and embrace the truth. Americans in general don’t seem to have such a skillset.
Fear, together with the hate and anger it creates, serves to prevent the average American from exercising the critical thinking skills that are the foundation of conflict resolution. This is most easily confirmed by trying to hold an intelligent conversation about the aforementioned “candidates” for President with anyone who is in either the Blue or Red camp. When I tell folks in the Blue camp that there must be some fundamental reason people in the Red camp support Orange Man they become observably upset. It is not much of a stretch to believe they would, literally, kill supporters of Trump. At the same time, people in the Red camp will invariably and without foundation insist that Biden is the 21st century face of Joe Stalin combined with Chairman Mao (despite the saber rattling aimed at the political descendants of those two historical figures). Worst of all, those embedded into these two camps will literally refuse to consider even the most basic, objective and verifiable information if it in any way contradicts their emotion-born views. Point out what mistakes “their” candidate has made through the years and you’ll be greeted with outrage, ad hominem attacks and mindless shouting.
Today marks, if we’re lucky, the pinnacle of the elitists who serve as America’s foremost fear-mongers. They’ve learned that by feeding fear they can manipulate a large majority of Americans into hating one another for no real reason at all. The fact so called “pundits” parrot the almost unending noise about “THEM” seems the clearest evidence of all. Whether it’s MSNBC, CNN, Fox or any other “news” organization, their increasingly obvious goal is to sow irrational fear among their viewers. I can recall no era during my time on Earth when the Blue camp actually HATED those in the Red camp and vice versa.
The notion that any American is undeserving of the guarantees set forth in our Constitution BECAUSE of their political views is, quite possibly, the most un-American thing of all. If we’re ever going to “insure Domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity” we must understand that we can never secure such goals by denying them to those with whom we disagree.