We learned about it in high school. Therefore we could never fall victim to it, right? It is the tactics of corrupt and evil nations. We default to our idea of Nazi's rather than engaging our critical thinking.
American schools teach the word attached to specific agendas. Then they explain that we are free which lulls us into the belief that we are above this sort of mass manipulation by corrupt leaders. But does that notion hold true under examination?
When Adolf Hitler decided a superior race, what made him believe he was right? Intelligence? A generosity of spirit? Conscious? Fairness? No.
He was arrogant of race, deluded about victimhood, ignorant of his descent into evil and corrupted within his beliefs, both personal and religious. So much so, that he could carry out atrocities without blinking an eye. He acted on his anger and fear to a degree where he could de-humanize people. An entire race of people. Then he went further to add anyone who sought to help those people.
That one derived ability was built from years of biased information and refusal to acknowledge his own shortcomings. And then those casual attributes created the monster.
The terrible truth is that his sickness is contagious. We know it spread to an entire country and eventually bore the fruits of his evil on such a scale that all humanity was affected. Is America now falling into the same trap?
Instead of using our intelligent and civilized means of fixing broken laws and righting system failures we built prisons to detain the people and created our own moral rules these people broke to allow apathy to human suffering. People I know to have good hearts and kindness were suddenly tyrannical in their want to punish those people as if they committed some heinous injustice. Hung in the town square without trial or conviction. When good people see themselves as morally superior, they become able to justify grave misdeeds of humanity. (https://www.ethicalsystems.org/content/lucifer-effect)
There is no doubt that separating parents from children is traumatic and puts children at risk. None of us are so ignorant we believe this is harmless and by justifying our actions, we allow the stripping of their humanness. We have placed a lesser value on their life than ours in overt superiority and failed to see the commonalities between us. We criticized their decision without knowing the aspects of consideration. Whether directly or by inaction, we are all guilty of allowing this now.
American's have proclaimed ourselves the victims of these people rather than see that we are all the suckers of a defective system of government that is being inadequately run, choosing to villainize the easier target.
When American's talk about freedom, they often puff their chests and turn sentimental eyes toward our military. In that misconstrued idea, we lost track of what freedom means.
American freedom is not a commodity to be stolen by thieves in the night and it has not ever been fought for by a man in uniform on foreign land. To fight for American freedom is to demand fairness and dignity to all our citizens, to be governed by a body of people elected by, and put in place, to represent the will of the public.
War, unless declared on or by our own government to fight within our borders or to oppose a regime trying to enter our country and take over, has never been for American freedom. Let that sink in.
Freedom: 1. the power or right to act, speak or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint. 2. absence of subjection to foreign domination or despotic government. 3. the state of not being imprisoned or enslaved.
I'll wager that every American freedom ever lost was taken by those governing us, or by our fellow people.
Whether by our asking, or our leader's telling, we have allowed the erosion of our freedoms. Consider the misuse of our tax dollars, unwarranted searches, being demonized for taking a knee, and getting mowed down by police on our streets at ever increasing rates, we are sinking into oppression that should be alarming to us all. But many of us are failing to see or acknowledge it. Some of us are even hailing its demise. Why?
Cognitive Dissonance. In the field of psychology, cognitive dissonance is the mental discomfort (psychological stress) experienced by a person who simultaneously holds two or more contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values. This discomfort is triggered by a situation in which a belief of a person clashes with new evidence perceived by that person. When confronted with facts that contradict personal beliefs, ideals, and values, people will find a way to resolve the contradiction in order to reduce their discomfort. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_dissonance)
Gradually our declining awareness weakens us as a country and ensures the future degradation of even more of our liberty.
Already we sit by lax while our citizens have their passports revoked (https://www.snopes.com/news/2018/08/30/revoking-passports-us-citizens/) and immigrants and citizens who have broken no laws get thrown into jails and encampments. (https://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/14/us/measures-to-capture-illegal-aliens-nab-citizens.html) We turn a blind eye because we believe our system works-- and besides, the people of America are at odds, battling amongst ourselves. A ridiculous waste of time that takes the heat off the ones with the power to change anything. Foolishly, we argue and belittle each other as if any of us can call a shot.
We are playing in a game that divided we are sure to lose, and yet we cannot, or will not take the time to come to an agreement for the betterment of us all.
I hurt for all the many people who feel unheard and uncared for as the balance skews. The more attention these folks try to bring to their suffering and inequality, the more disdain and ridicule they get in our political divide. Thought of like delicate snowflakes, anyone seeking equality, protection, fairness, freedom, and justice are deemed weak and needy while the other side looks more and more like empathy lacking, bullies. Can we not find a place of strength that also allows humanity?
Much like the Homeowner's Associations that became so popular for a while, stipulations, rules, restrictions, and conformity seem admirable and safe until we begin to find the problems and constraints that go along with them. It starts with the marginalized but before we know it, the discomfort is looking us dead square in the eyes, and we realize, too late, the mistake we made.
I challenge you to acknowledge your transcendence? What, in your mind, makes you right above all others? In a self-assessment, find your justifications. Within this hunt, we can begin to battle back against the nature of our thinking faults-- and we all have them.
Are you on a moral high-horse of empathy and altruism? Are you a proponent of the "I did it and so can you," group? Maybe your superiority springs from a pious place, or perhaps you cannot bear to release your rose-colored, patriotism long enough to think critically about our nation.
If we want an America that we can be proud of, we have to take a critical thinking standpoint. Logically, we are all correct as much as we are all entirely wrong. Only when the means of our solutions are humane and determined by the specifics of the individual case can we tout freedom. For that to happen, we all have to back off our sureness of possessing the one true right and learn to compromise. Extremism in any direction creates an imbalance; Inequality, unfairness, and injustice are not the standard we hold for America, are they?
