The case of deafness caused by embracing rugged conservatism
I was moved by the article by TheCriticalMind regarding the evidently catching syndrome of going deaf—becoming unable to hear properly. My reaction was stimulated by observing the behavioral consequences of persons not only to the noisy side effects of obsessive endorsement and embrace of the second amendment but also by their obsession with securing support for their personal objectives and a corresponding distinct resistance to endorse any respect for and appreciation of the personal objectives of persons who live in a different cultural, ethnic, social, sexual, and economic category.
Persons appear to go deaf when confronted with differences in the wellbeing of others who do not share their personal values and inherited sense of privilege. A constructed concept of how the world should accommodate this selfish assessment causes these persons to go deaf when policy considerations seem to be broadening to include concern for and relief to people who are different.
Persons appear to go deaf when discussions seem to suggest that including everyone in provisions that enable the pursuit of happiness and prosperity would be appropriate and sensible. The possibility of securing this appropriation causes these persons to go deaf so that they do not hear of how such a consideration would improve the situations of persons who choose a pattern of living unlike their own.
Persons appear to go deaf when there is a call for equal justice under existing laws which would result in everyone being treated in the same way for similar offenses. A history of having experienced a special standing that before placed these persons above the lawful reach of consequences that are applied to persons who appear and act differently than they do causes them to go deaf to calls for and justification of equality.
And what is the result of this deafness, this failure to hear properly the positive aspects of provisions that establish equality and respect for everyone alike who lives in the earth? The result of this deafness is a produced sense of fear, of competition, of anxiety. This deafness generates a divisive spirit within the community because of the quest for ownership. The quest for ownership opposes the alternative pattern of consciously living in relationship—sharing provisions equally. Deafness caused by rugged conservatism causes persons to be scared because they believe others will take something away from them.
Being scared is much worse than being afraid. Being afraid causes a person to proceed with caution and with intention. Being scared causes a person to act irrationally and to strike out at anyone who appears to be a threat. Deafness caused by rugged conservatism defines anyone who is different as being a threat. This deafness is the most pathetic deafness of all.
They have no clue of what it means to be an American
Those enthusiastic souls who claim to want to make America great again have no clue of what it means to be an American. They proudly fly the flag pretending to be patriotic and they rail against anyone who is different from them—LGBTQ+, liberals, immigrants, socialists, progressives, dark skinned persons who speak a language that is not English, Muslims and Hindus and Jews and Catholics and Protestants. They claim to guard the spirit of the Constitution yet it is doubtful that anyone of them is familiar with the Preface to the Declaration of Independence and if they heard it read somewhere or found it in a library book they would likely unite to have that passage banned altogether.
These zealots who claim to want to make America great again have no understanding of the dream that fashioned the United States of America, the aspiration of those persecuted persons—immigrants—who endured hardship and discomfort to make their way to the new world so as to have freedom of conscience and to worship as their spirits prompted them. Sure these idealistic persons later found a compulsion to take away from the native people ownership of the land and to establish their own brand of intolerance. And yet as the statesmen began to craft a description of their vision of what they wanted the country to become they enshrined principles and balances to protect the minorities from the rule of those having more power and influence, therefore to preserve the possibility of honoring the claim that all persons are created equal and have an equal right to liberty and prosperity.
Those persons who claim to want to make American great again have no concept of what it means to live daily under the threat of murder and the brutal treatment of their children, courageous persons—immigrants—who as a last resort undertake a difficult journey fraught with pain and suffering and loss and death to come to a place where they might, just might have a chance to live without the fear of impending tragedy. They cannot for a moment appreciate what America means to those who long for a place where they can live with others who have the heart and the spirit to strive for contentment and mutual respect and peaceful coexistence.
Those persons who claim to want to make America great again because of a self-serving spirit are incapable of feeling either empathy or compassion for fellow citizens who struggle to provide the essentials of daily living for themselves and their families, persons without the privilege of cultural prestige or ancestral inheritance or economic stability or social advantage. They are unable to relate to the circumstances of those people who have not had the opportunity to attain the provisions for earning a living wage as they serve the community in often times multiple so-called menial and unprofessional capacities, persons without whose labors the community would be poor, even destitute.
Those persons who claim to want to make America great again have only the aspiration to establish a private state where rugged self-acclaimed christian nationalists are in charge and can make the rules to benefit themselves isolated from the presence of those they view as a threat and a competition for resources that will take away the consequence of their greedy and self-centered agenda. They do not want America to be a great country. They want America to be a great country club. These parochial souls search for a way to be separate, set apart, removed from the community of inclusive domain which the fullness of the creation presents.
And if successful it will only be a matter of time until they realize that in isolating themselves from the fellow humans they despise and judge as inferior they will have proceeded to ensure their own demise. For without the blessing of inclusive community they will continue to flounder in their own self-pity and then discover that they did not survive as human. They will have become perverse inhabitants of a sparse and desolate wasteland.
Let the rest of us then—whatever you may or may not call yourself—let us all continue to live forward toward the homeland that was there in the vision of those who had the wisdom to dictate the provisions that would establish a place where all persons could live together in peace and with the freedom to act limited only by the restraint to act irresponsibility and disrespectfully toward any other human being. This is what it means to be an American.
May it be so. May it be so.
Behind the need to alienize another
The word alien represents a living being that is apart, removed from what is understood and experienced, a being that is out of place and unwelcome, a being whose presence raises suspicion because of their unknown origin and capacity, a being to be feared and displaced, a being existing outside of familiarity and comfort. All of these assumptions that see the other as a threat need not be actual consequences of the presence of the other, the stranger, for them to be called an alien. To treat another in this way whether or not they are called an alien is to alienize them.
What is real and actual about the fact that the other is designated as being an alien is that the concept of ‘an alien’ is a projection of the unease and discontent of the one who is observing and confronting the other—the other who is seen to be out of place and unwelcome. The character of the strange one cannot be known. That another being is called an alien reflects the nature and character of the one making this claim.
Classifying the other as an alien reflects the conception of one who is beholding the outsider. Beholding the being who is considered to be an alien places the observer in a position of disengagement and separation, a position that refuses to acknowledge and include the foreign other. Being in a position of disengagement and separation means that by defining the other as alien the observer will always feel the need to construct some agenda to maintain an advantage over what the alien might attempt to accomplish.
Defining another being as an alien reveals the character of the definer and not anything about the character of the one defined. Defining another being as an alien reveals the disease and anxiety within the nature of the one advancing this description of the other.
The disease and anxiety within the nature of someone who defines another as being an alien results from an inner sense of discontentment, of having not yet arrived at a place of being able to trust and accept the state of and purpose for the other things around them. There remains a sense of uncertainty, of inadequacy, of not yet having acquired the ability to be comfortable with the unfolding mystery in which they are immersed. Therefore the one who judges another as being an alien will respond to a rational impulse within them to maneuver to maintain an advantage over the functioning of the other.
And as long as this defining judgement continues there can be no common manner of existing with the other—the alien. It is not the alien who must change, it is the observer, the one who makes the designation, the one who holds within themselves the inadequacy that prevents them seeing the other as an equal presence in their world. This inadequacy to see the other as an equal presence reflects a juvenile delinquency, a lack of maturity within their human nature. And no amount of instruction or condemnation can change this character of their nature.
The only response that will serve the pursuit of community—including everyone who is present—is to provide safeguards to protect and affirm the legitimate presence of the other, rules and laws to restrict violent assaults by those who feel they are threatened by the other whose presence they assume is a danger to their existence; …and to wait until those who see the other as an alien develop the capacity to be content with the established order innate to the world around them. Until this transformation takes place there will be among the human family conflict that results in unrest and distress and frustration.
This condition seems to be the consequence of a deficiency in the nature of being human, a condition that will never be resolved because humanity cannot rise above the complication caused by suspicion and fear of what is unfamiliar. How we individually choose to live within this condition seems to be the intention of human life in the earth.
How we individually choose to live within this condition seems to be the intention of human life in the earth.
Honor Freedom of Conscience 