This has happened time and time again, in Afghanistan in the late 1970s, in Germany in the 1930s, Russia at the turn of the century, the 20th century was a time of the rise of the dictator, born of fear, in steps just the leader to take advantage of the turmoil, and another authoritarian regime is born from the chaos.
Regimes ride in on waves of righteous indignation, from a distance they view the past through their Utopian lens, towards a dystopian future they fear bearing down on them, preaching of criminality, immorality, poverty and lawlessness, devoid of hope, devoid of faith, devoid of the values they hold dear, they blame the ‘other’, the refugee, the migrant, the desperate amongst them, hidden, doing all their dirty work.
They feed off the chaos, they believe they are the ONLY way forward, and that all their cruelty and bending of the laws are for JUSTICE, the rule of law.
Eventually people turn away, they isolate themselves in their bubbles, ingest the propaganda they are spoon-fed, and believe the rhetoric and hyperbole the regime proffers to the masses hungry for this pablum, this bland sustenance.
“You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is like an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.”
Mahatma Gandhi
Yeah, so, fairly obvious why I spend my time on the stoop, the distractions, interactions, the sounds, the sunshine or the rain, it is calming. Yet, I still read, I still follow along via twitter, read the news, on Medium, Politico, YouTube channels, comment, peruse my Facebook feed, still, but often put aside for other more pleasing delights before my eyes, such as the sunshine that whispers through my garden in the morning light.
Out on my stoop, I can process my rage, my anger at what I see, my sense of frustration and helplessness, as I watch the 45th obstruct justice, again and again and again. As I watch the 45th dangle dangerously close to war, first hawk, than a dove, than a dolt, and no one believes anything this administration says, no one trusts their judgment on ANYTHING – well, except for those who just don’t want to see the truth. World leaders scoff at any Intel they spout, as few have any faith in any of Trumps toadies and minions and acting stooges – they know better, they’ve seen enough, we all have seen enough.
Don’t look away.
But I can’t look away, can’t be blinded by my anger, can’t ignore the product of this chaos, because even on the fringes, at the heart, in the trenches, there are those who still hold the light up for us to see, but we can’t look away, we can’t become blinded by the rhetoric, the lies, the cruelty.
I still look, I still read, and I see that the administration is burying Climate Change research, and with wild abandon assigning corporate lobbyists to head government departments aligned to their corporate interests deepening the swamp.
This week we see that this administration is still separating children from their parents, and placing them in conditions that go completely against UN conventions, of safety and security, even upping their cruelty and brutal conditions of these detention camps, that look an awful lot like concentration camps, denying children soap and toothpaste, and even going to court to make the case.
Oh, by all means, lets bicker over words as hundreds of children are treated like chattel at the United States border in the 21st century in a country that spends TRILLIONS of dollars on their machines of war, can spare not one more cent for some soap and toothpaste?
We ALL know where this leads, or can lead, if we turn away.
As if these children are some kind of threat, toddlers sleeping on concrete floors are a threat, crying themselves to sleep in clothing soiled with their tears and snot, as the world turns their weary eyes towards this shame, and as some Americans turn their indifferent eyes away, starry eyed from the glitter of a 1% increase in job numbers over the Obama Admin, hurrah, hurrah, they say, we win they lose, what’s the problem here?
So the economy in the U.S. is beginning to sputter, as New York Times columnist and Nobel Laureate, Paul Krugman on twitter proclaimed – “right now it looks as if the general election will be waged against the background of a weak economy, with Trump’s claims of having turned everything around sounding like a sick joke”.
So I wonder what happens when the one thing all the loyalists were chirping about becomes merely some mythical reality that only exists in the eyes of their commander of chaos and cruelty?
Please don’t look away.
A few days ago I read this thread, read it all the way through, right to the end, than went out on to my stoop, watched the evening light dance along the sidewalk, from leaf to leaf, and tears trickled from my eyes, and I wonder at the cruelty in this world.
Please do not look away… read full tweet here…
by PaulaB 