Why are Western politicos so panic stricken?
As the very wise Bill Moyers suggests, reality is always fearsome, and evading it makes it even more fearsome.
My reading of history is that we have a great tendency to slide over the unpleasant truths in favor of the comforting lies. It is a universal human affliction and we are all pre-programmed as flawed beings making the best of our situation. It is part of being human where we can oscillate between genius and lunacy and all the complex calibrations in between.
The simple answer to the question posed in the above title is that we do prefer the comforting lie over the unpleasant truth. We are fed a steady dose of them every day via the prestitute media and mendacious politicians. Lying has become deeply embedded in our societies. As journalist Bill Moyers has said: “Our media and political system has turned into a mutual protection racket”. In other words politicians lie and the media cover up these lies. We become the skeptical and cynical consumers who have to constantly question what is fake news, propaganda, or some where in between. Since WW ll propaganda is a mainstay of our societies where there is so much to hide and too many skeletons in the closet. Just as we have become so inured to war and violence we are reduced to passive zombie cultures.
A favorite medical analogy of mine is that our societies are riven with symptoms but nobody wants to name the disease! How would we feel if we went to our doctor, they do their diagnosis and send us home, not naming the disease or prescribing treatment? Western civilization has become a perpetual motion machine, a collection of neurotic societies stumbling from one disaster to another. There are many complex reasons we stumble; but I suggest a fundamental cause is we have recklessly adopted too many ruinous ideologies that create a matrix of self-destruction. As the world becomes more complex and integrated our ability to manage them is beyond our ability as our systems of governance are obsolete and corrupted.
You might say we’re drugged up on too many harmful ideologies. Years ago, a friend’s father was on fifteen prescription drugs. He sought a second opinion from another doctor, who reduced his medications to nine. He suddenly felt much better. It’s made me think that we live in “over-medicated” societies, run by snake oil salesmen whose least concern is fostering healthy and just communities. Current events consistently reaffirm this notion. Doctors must be acutely aware of how drugs interact with one another. Yet politicians could care less how ideologies inter-react and their potentially devastating social impacts.
"When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. When the government fears the people, there is liberty."— often attributed to Thomas Jefferson
We can have endless debates as to where the fear lies with governments or their publics. We might conclude the fear instilled by governments is active and toxic. Fear in populations is passive and stoic.
Fear in government is a measure of the lies they tell, the suppression they impose, and the magnitude of the secrets kept. Fear of being exposed is now rampant in governments of the West. The persecution of Julian Assange was a panic attack where the inner soul of government was revealed. The Ukraine conflict has been pivotal as war is also revelation. It has revealed the rot within the empire. The Gaza genocide is another panic attack of despicable barbarism ongoing.
But if we really want to dig deep for the greatest of unpleasant truths— possibly of all time— it is that the politicos of the West refuse to accept they live in a rapidly changing world. For too many decades they presumptuously assumed it was their right to rule the world. Now all that is gone. Change has never been more dynamic than now, and the revanchist West, more so than ever, is ill-equipped to face the challenges of the 21st Century. It cannot accept the cycles of history or the stark reality that, in a world of eight billion people, it is destined to be in the minority.
The present administration in Washington rather than providing real leadership indulges in its delusional comforting lies when it urgently needs to address the unpleasant truths. There is growing universal rejection of its irrational rogue agenda. The profound mockery and hostility directed at it mount, and the crisis only deepens.
As the very wise Bill Moyers suggests, reality is always fearsome, and evading it makes it even more fearsome, and more chaotic. These truths challenge us to reflect on how we can adapt and what lessons history offers.
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This issue we cannot ignore.
From the MOON of Alabama:
"Yasha Levine helped me to get a grip on it:
.. I came across this…a brief statement by a celebrity Chabad rabbi about his thoughts on the proper way to wage a war in the Jewish style. I wanted to share it with you.
I don’t believe in western morality, i.e. don’t kill civilians or children, don’t destroy holy sites, don’t fight during holiday seasons, don’t bomb cemeteries, don’t shoot until they shoot first because it is immoral.
Yasha Levine helped me to get a grip on it:
.. I came across this…a brief statement by a celebrity Chabad rabbi about his thoughts on the proper way to wage a war in the Jewish style. I wanted to share it with you.
I don’t believe in western morality, i.e. don’t kill civilians or children, don’t destroy holy sites, don’t fight during holiday seasons, don’t bomb cemeteries, don’t shoot until they shoot first because it is immoral.
The only way to fight a moral war is the Jewish way: Destroy their holy sites. Kill men, women and children (and cattle).
The first Israeli prime minister who declares that he will follow the Old Testament will finally bring peace to the Middle East.
...
Rabbi Manis Friedman
Bais Chana Institute of Jewish Studies
St. Paul, MN
It is a cult.
As Levine explains:
Rabbi Manis Friedman is well known in the Jewish world. ..
...
[H]is views on the right way to wage a war on Palestinians were published in 2009 in Moment, a mainstream Jewish magazine that was cofounded by Elie Wiesel.
...
Now fifteen years later Friedman’s views are basically mainstream in Israel and in Jewish communities around the world. What he described as the only proper, godly way to wage war against the enemies of Israel is in fact what Israel is currently doing in Gaza and beyond…with total support from the United States and the Europeans."
"...with total support from the United States and the Europeans."
This is the primary threat behind our politics! Canada is also included because of passing "Anti-Semitic" legislation, therefore it is ILLEGAL to criticize the above statement. The existence of Canada isn't worth a hill of beans if Canada must not criticize psychopathic murderers.
A very loose translation from a German saying: these politicos are starting to realize that the water is reaching their throats. They are faced (finally) with having to confront the mess they have been creating.