This trend of demagogue “leaders”, the right-winger conservatives who seem to be filled with more ignorance and hate than resolution and progress, appears to be on the rise.
Once ye olde Orange One surfaced to give a voice to the people who would rather walk everyone off, rather than grow, and emboldened those who act out of fear and insecurity, we saw far-right politicians sprung up in Canada and France and Australia… cue the ruffled feathers.
But I’m not buying it.
This is an old trick, used to separate people to perpetuate the political carousel… And, by now, we should know better than to fall for it.
But, what are we supposed to do about it?
It’s easy to say, “We have to love each other more,” and that we should fight against the evil forces.
But look where that – the oversimplification, the generalization, the Disneyfication – has gotten us.
Nowhere.
Spinning our society’s wheels, one side thinking the other is evil as evil as they are similarly perceived. Fighting symptom vs symptom, instead of curing the cause.
I can’t sit back and let these destructive and unproductive forces continue to plant insincere arguments and thoughts. I can’t abide that they sow the seeds of discontent, then provide no recourse. And I also can’t stand that the population at-large either can’t or won’t see what’s happening and, as individuals, decide to do better together.
I ask myself, “What practical things can I do?” Yes, I can be a kinder and more-loving person so that people don’t feel as if they have one more enemy.
I can remain strong in my mind.
I can use my voice, and any other resource I have at my disposal.
I can encourage people around me to explore the extents of their intellects, empathy, and humanity, to operate from a place of true goodnsss rather than of dogmatic obedience.
I can hope and ask more of us to become able to love and respect our own, personal diversity so that we may be able to appreciate the diversity of others.
And I can demand that everyone is extended respect.
We all just have to be the best of ourselves now more than ever.
We really have to transcend, and find our rational center where we can see right and wrong truthfully, and get in touch with who we are and what we stand for.