Agendas and Stories
The Means by Which We are Misled
I sense something about the mood and feel of our culture right now. Righteousness is the preferred state for lots of folks. Whether it's the indignant or the absolute sureness variety, people like things to be simple, even when they're not. They like there to be a victim and a perpetrator, even if those labels don't stick or even apply. And you can guess which character everyone enjoys embodying.
Choosing sides, gearing up for battle, no room for nuance, no time for reflection. These are the hallmarks of the amygdala, the reptilian brain. These are survival instincts. These instincts are being plucked like guitar strings by certain characters and media outlets.
And yet, in a modern civilization, these instincts don't foster survival. They foster war, division and mistrust. And we know that war seldom benefits the citizenry. Wars are championed and led by strong men. So if you look around and see any strong men talking tough, you can bet that they're one of the few beneficiaries of an internal/civil war. They gain or cling to power in times of confusion. Most everyone else has something to lose.
So we either fight the usurper and risk his/her wrath, or we jockey for position to fawn and speak praise. The jockeys do so under the guise of the victim or the proud patriot, or the lover of law and order. A return to tradition, simpler times. States rights. These are all window-dressing: the stories willingly lapped up by lambs being led to slaughter.
The greatest foible I see being manipulated is weak-mindedness. The ultimate battle is for one's capacity to perceive. The tension, the cognitive dissonance can be crazy-making. To give in to the fantasy, however false and destructive, is easier than fighting a pitched battle for one’s sanity. Beware those who would flatter you for they offer the scaffolding upon which your self-deception will be built. So many who fancy themselves intellectuals have long since capitulated to obvious lies and fallacious thought. I see folks falling for (among many other traps) a bandwagon fallacy coupled with peer pressure. I have found my unwillingness to play along to result in social isolation in certain circles.
It's so sad how ease and freedom lull us to sleep. We can so easily believe that it couldn’t happen here, that our institutions will always hold because they seemingly always have. But our nation and our experiment in self-government is so young and our bulwarks against usurpers are not foolproof. Our capacity to make sense is not impervious either. Beware the stories you hear in your head. For many of us, they are manufactured and self-limiting.
Perhaps the way such movements indoctrinate is to flatter us in ways that counter our internal stories of lack: like the cigarette commercials of old. Find the weakness, flatter the recipient and, presto!, you have a willing follower. I am finding the need to let go of the boring stories I have about myself. Stories of desperation, lack, age, poor me, arguing for my limitations and such. As well, I want to relinquish all the boring and needy agendas that come from these limiting stories. I don't even know where they originated. Maybe some from family, some from cultural institutions like schools and religious endeavors. TV, internet, social media. Who knows. But they have been like shackles. And this life is so fleeting.
Drop the stories, drop the agendas and dramas. These agendas can involve getting stuff, making people like/respect/envy/love us, feeling or looking younger, seeming accomplished and on and on.
Let’s root out the small thinking and talking and believing. And not because we have to be positive all the time, but because it's just plain boring and soul-sucking to believe everything your mind says. And because it's just not true. Don't believe the hype. Break through any way you can. Not only to lead a better life in the micro, but to galvanize oneself against the onslaught on the macro level from those who would enlist us into their agendas.