It is not the opposing views but the lack of real thought about them that is
destroying our country.
We seem to be living in a time of superficiality and
unthinking acceptance, as if cowed into abject obedience by powers beyond our
control. But the only reason such
powers become beyond our control is that we relinquish our control over them to
those who would control us.
Sergei Dovlatov was a writer unpublished in and expelled by
the Soviet Union. He was a colleague of
Joseph Brodsky who later, after his expulsion from the USSR, became the poet
laureate of this country. They, along
with writers, artists, and other brave souls, had the courage to think and to
stand for what they believe is right, despite every effort by their government
to suppress them and their individuality.
We have people with that courage today – Senators Sinema and Manchin
come to mind, and we see the hell that their own party is putting them through
for having the courage to think rather than just blindly follow.
In authoritarian countries, one is officially punished for
not speaking or behaving as told.
Thoughts and beliefs contrary to the official ones are kept secret to
oneself. But in this country we do still
have the ability and the right to think, to question popular and party beliefs. Yet we are allowing more and more control
over our thoughts, relinquishing more and more of our individuality to others.
Perhaps we’re so conditioned by being able to google or ask
Alexa, get an immediate answer and move on, that we have forgotten how to
question anything.
We used to use our minds:
if we were concerned about the upcoming weather we might have gone
outside and looked at the sky, seen a storm coming, deduced that it was likely
to rain this afternoon. Now we just ask
Alexa: “Will it rain this afternoon?”, accept her answer, and move on.
But the bigger issues in our society are not subject to such
simple, one-word answers. Whether we
should improve America’s existing structure and cultural core or completely
dismantle and then re-envision it is a question that is not subject to a simple
yes or no response. Yet that is what we
are doing when we simply align with Left or Right without truly understanding
the concept or consequences of their ideologies.
What are the opposing Ideologies?
During his long, meandering news conference last week Pres.
Biden, while trashing Republicans once again, asked “what are Republicans for?” The Republican Party of New Mexico answered
that question. Here is their response:
What we generally learn from the above is that the Republicans
essentially are for improving the existing constitutional democratic republic
structure of America.
What the Democrats are for is nowhere stated as succinctly
as the Republican statement above. Their
national website (democrats.org) relies on the 2020 lengthy anti-Trump platform
to describe who they are and what issues are important to them.
Reading the Democrat platform, one will be met with many
lofty and lovely words, but little detail and no real specifics. However, one can read the lengthy platform in
the context of the actions of the President and his party over the last year to
arrive at some concrete ideas of what the Democrats are for.
Based on their platform and actions, the Democrats are for:
Essentially, the Democrats are for completely dismantling
and then re-envisioning America as we know it.
They would alter, reinterpret, or
ignore the Constitution. Their weakening
of individual and state rights while expanding federal government control over
all aspects of existence is a process which is essentially creating an
authoritarian power structure.
The existence of opposing views is not the problem
These two views (improve vs. remake America) are in opposition. That is OK; indeed, in America the idea of
competing positions on issues is fundamental to our democratic system. Strongly
held opposing views need to be openly and civilly debated in depth.
What is not OK is:
- When someone supports one or the other platform
without fully understanding what it means or entails; and,
- When those in charge of one or the other platform achieve their goals by intimidation and silencing of those with opposing views.
When either of these two problems exist, democracy is in
peril. Today, in America, we see
both.
We as individuals are fully in charge of averting the first. We do not have to follow blindly after nice
sounding words. We have both the ability
and the right to enquire further into the meaning of those words, to use our minds and think about what they
mean, not only immediately but in the future.
Too many people are not doing this, but are rather following
and accepting without question what they are told as true, right, and what they
must do. That is what people do in a
totalitarian society. That is not what
we should be doing in America.
Of course, and this is also a key to American democracy, we
must have access to relevant information to do the necessary thinking. This is where the second part comes in, and
this part is not fully in the individual’s control.
Let’s look at some of the tactics of the Democrats. First, they have learned that a safe way to
survive controversy is to blame someone else.
We hear the Democrats as well as those who support their agenda blame
not only former President Trump, but Republican policies and law makers, and
even the American people themselves for any and everything that is wrong with
our country.
Moreover, the Left loves to accuse its opponents of everything
that they themselves are actually doing.
(Best example of this is racism and its use to divide the country.) They repeat unfounded attacks over and over
until they become commonly accepted.
Of their own people the Left demands unquestioning loyalty
to their views and severely punish those who do not fall in line. They ban opposing voices and remove all
influences that do not support their narrative including literature, history,
arts, and, most importantly, facts. They
are decidedly unprincipled as they see no problem with their continual hypocrisy
and repeated lies. The list of Biden
lies alone reaches several pages and he may have a record for receiving the
most “4 Pinocchio” ratings in fact checks.
Without actual facts, with only lies and narrative, it
becomes more and more difficult to find, let alone understand, the truth underlying
our issues. We become conditioned to
simply accept what we are told, either because it is easier, or because there
is no other option.
This is a dangerous place for our country to be: acceptance without question. That is the making of an authoritarian
society. One where opposing views are
suppressed, where facts are omitted or
manufactured, where the narrative is more important than the truth.
The silencing is all around us and is growing
Why do so many not see this happening around us? Censorship of minority or unpopular views
exists not just on social media. The mainstream
media is no longer objective or interested in mere reporting. When was the last time a reporter asked a
difficult follow-up question? It was
when they were using their admittance to press conferences to attack President
Trump. But for the last year the Democrats,
from President Biden down, have not been held to account. Meanwhile, the President weaponizes the DOJ
and its hunt for “domestic terrorists” to silence those common citizens who disagree.
When a person in power makes a statement and it is accepted
with no questions asked, that leaves the person in power the opportunity to
create or omit facts as he or she sees fit simply to further a particular
narrative – usually one designed to retain power. And beyond simply restating the narrative
without question, the Left-leaning media often actively attempts to construct
it.
Consider NPR’s respected Supreme Court reporter who created
an argument between Justices Sotomayor and Gorsuch about masks, and then, even
when presented with the actual facts by those two justices as well as the Chief
Justice, refused to retract or correct her false allegations. Because, for the Left, it has become OK to
create narratives and the facts be damned.
Consider the continual overplayed horror and prosecution of
Trump and others’ questioning of the 2020 election as some sort of coordinated anti-democratic
attack upon our country. Meanwhile, downplayed
if not ignored by the media are the very same assertions by Democrats (Stacey
Abram’s claim and belief that she won the Georgia governor election; Hillary
Clinton’s claim that the 2016 election was illegitimate; and President Biden’s
assertion and prediction that if the Democrats “voting rights” bill was not
passed the 2022 elections will be illegitimate, at least in red states, thus
giving Democrats a green light to challenge as illegitimate all 2022 results
they do not like).
At least in the case of the 2020 election there is evidence,
if not of fraud, of the strong and possibly swaying effect that social and
mainstream media had on the voters and thus the outcome of the election, not to
mention Zuckerberg’s actual funding of liberal groups to infiltrate election
offices in key swing states, effectively taking over governmental roles.
Indeed, this was celebrated by that media following the election, including in
Time Magazine which bragged and rejoiced about “the conspiracy behind the scenes” that gave us
President Biden.
If it works for the narrative, then the Left will continue
to assert it as true, whereas if it is not part of the narrative, they will
ignore and deny. Consider the
filibuster, a core democratic safeguard within our government that helps
protect us from mob rule. The Democrats
at one time, until they wanted to pass their far-Left agenda, supported and
defended the filibuster. They even used the
Senate filibuster earlier this month to block a bill by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX)
that would have sanctioned companies associated with Russia’s Nord Stream 2
pipeline. The bill had 55 votes.
Democrats for some unknown reason did not want the bill to pass so used
the filibuster to stop it. Yet when they
cannot pass their “voting” bill they call those who support the filibuster and
its important protections the equivalent of segregationists.
The Left, concerned with its own power more than the well-being of the country or its people, will use any means necessary to achieve its goals.
Think before relinquishing your power to do so
We have rival ideologies in this country. That is nothing new. What is new is the extent to which the Left
would use any means whatsoever to silence opposition and award to themselves
full power over life in these United States.
Those who are old enough may remember the words from the
opening of the Patty Duke show: “[Y]ou'll find they laugh alike, they walk
alike, at times they even talk alike - You can lose your mind.”
That is actually what the Left would like to see: all of us walking, talking, and thinking
alike in accordance with the mandates of the Left. No individual thought. No individual mind – at least not that one is
willing to speak. This is a totalitarian
authoritarian existence, and it is where we are headed.
We must use our minds now, or we will indeed lose them.
The words of Davlatov are as relevant today as they were in
1970s Soviet Russia.
