Most people know by the time they're adults that the world is not a black and white place. In fact, it consists of infinite shades of grey....and, as an artist I can tell you that the color 'grey' is anything but simple and straight forward. It is subject to subtle and endless shadings of other colors, i.e. pinkish-grey, violet-grey, greenish, bluish, yellowish...and, that is not even beginning to explore the various permutations of grey that are darker or lighter than 'normal'.
So, harkening back to a discussion of 'right and wrong', we come to the realization that life can be a complicated affair and has endless nuances and shades of meaning that only reveal themselves when we stop to really examine a particular situation.
In the field of ethics, likewise, nothing is set in stone and able to be counted on for consistency. Everything is malleable and potentially ready to change in response to external influences. So, here we are, in 2021, and our sense of what is right and wrong is being sliced and diced in a way that has many people confused. We are living in a time when, for a wide variety of reasons, people are making ethical choices that seem strange....at least, they do if one puts them alongside the conventions that have been in place for many generations.
I don't believe for a second that all the people who have taken up the cause of the far-right, Trumpism, and even QAnon....are aware that what they are doing is destructive. Quite the opposite, in fact. They are very certain that they are in league with an entire segment of American society that believes they are working to 'save America'. No, don't start looking for some logical explanation; you won't find one. How they got so far around the bend is a matter that political scientists and sociologists...and the mental health profession in its entirety....will, doubtless be discussing for a very long time, for generations, in fact.
It remains mysterious why QAnon has demonstrated such a strong appeal to as many people as it has. They--the 'Qs' themselves--might not think it is odd, but, the rest of the world is just watching and shaking its collective head. To recap just how far out there it is: high-profile Democrats, all of them Satan worshipers and pedophiles, gather in a pizza restaurant in DC to molest infant children, extract life-prolonging adrenal substances (whatever the hell those are....unknown to science, of course) and then they eat the poor babies.
Really?
As I have expressed previously, if I were creating a conspiracy theory that would be competing for the title of 'most unbelievable', it would be something like QAnon. It's not merely incredible, it's just off-the-scale FUCKING STUPID.
And, yet, I promise you that I could find a 'Q' without too much difficulty and when I asked why they have decided that this lame-brain idiocy is 'true', I would get the whole Tucker Carlson riff about how evil the left is and how the Brown Wave is here and about to steal any pretense of freedom from all white people. They haven't given themselves to this foolishness lightly; they conform very closely to a 'true believer' viewpoint. And, along with this flight from reality...they have also adopted some of the views that are now not just ugly and stupid...they are DANGEROUS.
Just this morning, on Alternet.com, an article reported that a GOP congressman from Michigan has grown very concerned that he's hearing people in his district talking about directing violence toward their neighbors who voted for Biden. Yes, it's insane, but that is what is reaching his ears and it seems almost...ALMOST....surreal. These Trumpers and Qs, and Proud Boys, etc. are actually contemplating SHOOTING THEIR NEIGHBORS...because they see them as the 'enemy'.
Holy Cow, Batman!!! How have we gotten to this place of trying to accept that this is even 'thinkable', much less 'doable'?
Just knowing that there are Americans out there who would even imagine for a brief instant that shooting their neighbors is a political solution.....to any-fucking-thing....is well beyond unsettling, and well into, "Okay, I'm really worried." The fact that this is happening across the land...mostly in deep-red states, of course....is a sign that our society is on the verge of collapse.
Yes, I know that is a strong statement, but, it is also not really an exaggeration. If we devolve to the point where such attacks are happening on a regular basis...we are one tiny step away from the second civil war that Tucker Carlson is calling for. He's not just one more far-right hate monger, with severe mental issues. He's got a very large following on Fox and they're not going to silence their cash cow, are they?
I occasionally re-visit Ernest Callanbach's essay: 'Epistle to the Ecotopians'. Here is a link, in case you would like to read, or re-read, it.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/epistle-to-the-ecotopians_b_1495948?view=print&comm_ref=false
And, another essay worth reading, that could offer some solace in at least deepening our understanding of what we face and what is happening to us now: Chris Hedges, "Welcome to the Asylum".
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/welcome-to-the-asylum/
This helps me to realize that I am not alone in looking at society and feeling that we are headed down the rabbit hole.
"At times when the page is turning," Louis-Ferdinand Celine wrote in "Castle to Castle", "...when history brings all the nuts together, opens its Epic Dance Halls! hats and heads in the whirlwind! Panties overboard!"
Referring back to the title of this piece, Good and Evil are the anchor points of any civilization. Either people are devoted to the idea that Good is preferable to Evil, or they are not. But, perhaps the greatest danger comes when people think they're doing 'good', when, in actuality, it is the opposite. So many on the far right have seemingly convinced themselves that up is down and down is up, that we are now on the cusp of having a society that, collectively, doesn't know right from wrong....or good from evil.
I fervently wish that I had hope that we are going to come to a mass realization that the only way a society can become 'whole', or beneficial to the greatest majority of its constituents, is for us to accept that we are all in this together. Nothing good is possible as long as there is this significant segment of us who believe that they are 'right' and that they're the only ones who deserve to be full-fledged citizens in good standing.,...and that the rest of us are so unworthy that we deserve to be executed. Amazingly, there are people on the right who have actually said this.....that anyone who has supported Biden is a traitor and all traitors should be executed.
I suspect they have managed to overlook January 6th as a somewhat bottomless supply of traitors who tried to overthrow the government of the United States by force. If they want to start putting such people up against the wall and perforating them, that is where they should begin. Of course, in our topsy-turvy world, the idiots who stormed the capital are painted as patriots and 'heroes', despite the actual truth that they are domestic terrorists. If you want a second opinion on this, I suggest consulting any of the capitol police who were on the receiving end of these 'patriots' rage.
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| A peaceful gathering of tourists who came to celebrate democracy.......oh, yeah. |
It beggars belief that some in congress have had the balls to claim that the capitol attackers were, "....just tourists", and that they were there on a peaceful mission to make their grievances heard.
OH....BULLSHIT!!!! Just stop it!
This is about as perfect an example of turning reality upside down and inside out as you are likely to find...anywhere in human history.
Once a society has lost it's moral grounding, and the very concepts of 'right and wrong', 'good and evil' have been decimated to the point where most people can no longer recognize them...that society is veering perilously toward total disaster....becoming a failed society where violence and depravity are the most common coin of the realm.
Those of us who never drank the cyanide laced KoolAid, can see clearly what is happening. It is scary and, at some point, will require us to make an effort to stay safe, even in our own homes and communities. In the meantime, all we can do is voice our opinions, our anger and our disrespect for those who are promulgating this ever accelerating descent into some kind of self-made hell-realm.
Can we hold onto hope that large numbers of Americans will stand firm and resist this onslaught? The answer to this question is not clear at present.
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