We all have fears. I
certainly do. Understanding my fears and learning how to relegate them to their
proper place is a principle focus (among others) of my spiritual journey.
However, I believe it is immoral, crass and disgusting to “milk” or exploit someone’s
fears in order to achieve a personal advantage.
According to everything
I’ve recently read, we are in for a very dirty, very mean-spirited, very
fear-inducing presidential campaign. Both camps are gearing up to scare the
beejezus out of us.
Republicans would have us
believe that America is going to Hell in a hand-basket unless we elect more of
them and try to turn back the clock to a non-existent simpler time. Democrats
would have us believe that unless we donate to them (so they can run fear inducing
Republican-style ads to win more Democrats), the US will revert to a 19th
Century Dickins-style of unbridled capitalism depicted in Oliver Twist.
I’m going to focus on the
Republicans because they are in the spotlight right now.
The following quote is from an
interesting article entitled: Are
Conservatives More Fearful Than Liberals? (By Emily Badger,
Miller-McCune.com, Posted on February 5, 2012, Printed on February 6, 2012
“The tone of this year’s Republican presidential
primary (which now seems destined to last much longer than Mitt Romney had been
planning) seems sort of, well, fearful. One after the other, these would-be
presidents have warned of looming threats — war with Iran, economic collapse,
class warfare, social disintegration, illegal immigration — and have sought to
position themselves as the best candidate for the job of protecting America.
“Their political advisers must understand a
psychological phenomenon that researchers have been studying for some time now:
conservatives appear to be motivated by fear in a way that liberals are not. An
expanding body of research suggests that Republicans and Democrats differ on
some fundamental level in how they respond to positive and negative stimuli. A
new study, published in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal
Society B, adds even more evidence to the theory that these two groups quite
literally see the world differently.”
To
spot this kind of fear mongering, all I have to do is look at the boogey-man-under-the-bed
words that are used to frighten me: Socialist; Muslim; Unpatriotic; Non-Christian;
Pacifying; Unbiblical. When I see or hear these kinds of words, I am reminded
of the story of an old country preacher who had died. He was very well-known
throughout a 7-State region, often invited to preach at revivals and speak at
conventions. His children were looking through his handwritten sermons thinking
maybe they could get them published. Many of his sermons had marginal notations
and the most curious, repetitive notation they saw was: “Very, very weak point.
Be sure to shout!”
The
relevance of the marginal message in the preacher’s sermons? If you have little
to say, then focus on invigorating the perceived fears of your audience. Once
you have your audience scared witless, then hope to high Heaven they don’t
actually begin to really think about what you’ve glossed over.
For
example, after the State of the Union speech, Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels
delivered the Republican rebuttal. During his speech he referred to Steve Jobs
(Apple’s late CEO) as creating more jobs than the Stimulus package, which was begun
by Bush and continued by Obama (although Daniels forgot about the Bush part). It
was a very misleading statement. It all depends on what considerations are
chosen to be considered in calculating the numbers. He went on to say, however,
Apple had created over 700,000 jobs. True. Then he stopped. What he didn’t say
was that only about 62,000 of those jobs were created in the USA. Well over
600,000 were created overseas, primarily in China. Please note: my numbers may
be a little off – I’m writing from memory.
Politicians
of all persuasions want to give some accurate facts, some misleading,
tangential information, and lead us in a way that we arrive at an erroneous
conclusion. This way they can say they didn’t lie to us – we simply misunderstood.
The
Republicans are making all these accusations about socialism, venerating capitalism
in all its forms, painting every Muslim as a terrorist, marginalizing
Hispanics, decrying the death of a potential baby via abortion, while cheering
mass bombings and executions and booing references to Jesus’ 2nd
Commandment – the Golden Rule. What they don’t say is how this is any different
from the Republican platform under 8 years of Bush II – a period that led us to
the most devastating economic meltdown since the Depression. They seem to be
implying that the same policies that broke the system 4 years ago will now fix
the system. But they won’t address that. They know it’s a weak point – so they
shout! Their shouting aims to demonize Obama enough that we’ll be so frightened
we’ll vote for anyone but him – without really thinking.
I
don’t buy it. Neither should you.
As
I said earlier, I’m not just picking on the Republicans. It’s just that they
have the main stage now. Later, as the General Election heats up, I’m convinced
we’ll see similar rhetoric from the Democrats. Both parties will be counting on
the fact that we will be so scared we will not notice what they’ve glossed
over.
I
think the point I’m trying to make in this message is to be aware and to be
careful. I do believe the Conservative side of the election equation will be
more blatant in the use of fear-mongering. They’ve gotten very good and
effective at it. For conservatives their politics have become meshed with their
religious beliefs – good conservative republicanism is virtually indistinct
from Christian morals. The danger in this is that religious fervor opens the
door to a policy of “the end justifies the means.” For example, in Tennessee
the conservatives want to return to the Constitution so badly they have passed
State laws (to prevent voter fraud, which has been demonstrated to occur about
0.01% of the time) to restrict voting rights, which violate the Constitution.
But,
rest assured, this is not just a Republican issue. Both sides will use it. Be
alert.
I
have my own political persuasions, as do you, and I’m not here to debate these.
I am aware that my attachment to my political beliefs – I am right. If only everyone else could be convinced of my view, the
world would be a better place – only gives tremendous power to the world I
perceive – the world of my Ego; the world of Fear and Judgment. This reinforces
my ego-belief that I am a human being who has a soul, rather than the Truth: I
am an already loved eternal spirit, currently having a human experience.
I
will vote, as I hope you do, but I will try my best not to vote based solely
on my fears or my attachment to the universe I’ve created between my ears. This
is not easy and my answers for me will not be your answers for you. As we watch
the election process unfold, it’ll be tough to decide what it means for us to
be IN the world without being OF the world. [It’s always okay to ask the Holy Spirit for guidance – then still your
mind so you can listen for His whispers]
Thanks
for listening, as always. Please share this message with your friends or
family.
Don
#2
February 2012
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