Doubling Down on Denial

You might think, with good reason, that this is about our politicians (I cannot in good conscience call them political leaders), who seem to think that if you repeat the same denials and falsehoods with increasing frequency and at higher decibel levels, eventually the actual facts will fade away. Sadly, this too often seems to be working, just as it did with Adolf Hitler.
But not so, because this “strategy,” if you will, is not their exclusive province. Strategy might imply more deliberation than is true in most cases, but we’ll just stick with that word. 
We humans have a proclivity to try to shape the world to our desires. Reality be damned, facts be damned, history be damed, science be damned, we’re damn well going to believe what we want to fit the narrative of a world like we want it to be. 
It is why we keep giving those who let us down, or even abuse us, innumerable chances. How many undeserved “last chances” have some of us given addicts, abusers, or offspring? How many times do we base our decisions on hope, not performance. “Wait ’til next year” is not just a sports cliché.
Whether those “last chances” are based on love, fear, or hope doesn’t change the delusion that motivates our decisions and enables their behavior. Sadly, the beneficiaries of our denial probably aren’t any more “telling the truth this time” than they were the last time, even if both they – and we – want that to reflect reality.  

Fear the Mob

– An Explanation, Not a Defense

I want to share a story. It’s one I’ve shared with numerous students over my career. Whether it makes anyone think differently or not, whether it will even give pause, I don’t know. But maybe it will explain how easily and quickly people can get caught up in a mob, in a moment.

It was the summer of my junior year in high school. I was traveling with some of my classmates on a church!-sponsored youth experience, working with other students from multiple European countries to rehab a castle in Untergruppenbach  Germany. We were, if memory serves (and, sadly, it’s not as good a servant as it used to be), the largest single contingent in the “camp.”

Conditions were, at least from an affluent American kid’s perspective, Spartan, although hardly something out of Oliver!, had it been filmed yet. We slept on cots in a room repurposed as a dormitory. But it was the food that became the bone of contention. Breakfast consisted of a kind of mush or oatmeal, mint tea, and bread. Our morning break was dark bread and more mint tea. Lunch was a repeat of breakfast. Not typical fare for us.

Our alleged leader, a young minister, apparently either took this “abuse” personally or took advantage of our complaining to try weasel his way into our hearts. (I freely admit that this is not an unbiased assessment of him; I didn’t like him, didn’t respect him, although, in my defense, his actions, and not just the one related in this anecdote, on this trip were the primary causes of my negative opinion.) In any case, about 3-4 days (as I recall) into the trip, he stood up at lunch one day, banged his bowl, and said, “We’re not taking this any more. Let’s go!”

It was, at that moment, I officially lost my mind... ...to the mob. Most (at least) of us also stood up, bowls of mush in hand, and, following his lead, stormed out the room, looking for the owner of the castle. Not sure what we were going to do when we found him; there were no chickens about, so “mushing and feathering” would seem to have been out. It didn’t take much stomping randomly through the building for some of us to decide, “Uh, this is stupid and embarrassing;” the mob lost steam and dissipated. We went from sheep to sheepishly returning to finish our gruel. 

That should have been the end of it, but it wasn’t, not for me. In retrospect, it remains one of the most frightening events of my life. I don’t pretend to be particularly modest about my intellectual abilities. But, for those brief minutes, my mind was not mine; I was not in control. I was just another anonymous follower. It is a feeling, one that strikes fear into my heart to this day, that I never want to repeat.

Imagine, now, had the grievance been serious, legitimate (at least in our perception), of long-standing, simmering on low-heat over a period of years. Cooks know it doesn’t take much more heat to turn a simmer into a raging boil, bubbling over onto the stove. If there’s no one there to turn down the heat, but instead add fuel to the fire (e.g., media and agenda-driven “leaders”)....

Think it couldn’t happen to you? Armies have relied on this semi-controlled sublimation of individual will for centuries. It’s the only rational explanation of the irrational act of charging to a certain death. Sports mobs, in and out of stadiums, are another common example. Mass hysteria is well documented. We all like to think we’re exceptional, to believe that we wouldn’t act that way, but there’s too much scientific evidence to the contrary for that to be true. Something to think about before we rush to judgment of others or absolve demagogues of responsibility.

Note: This sat in draft form for over two years, dating back to Ferguson and other events. The more things change....

Build the Bleepin' Boondoggle

Let me be clear. The proposed border wall* is a monumental waste of money and will do little if anything to stop illegal immigration. (According to some sources, at least 25-30% of illegal immigrants come in by plane and then overstay their visas; no wall will change that, although cheaper solutions for that problem actually do exist.) Instead it will be a monument to a narcissist's ego, so it does have that going for it.

You think I’m being sarcastic. Well, it is my nature, but in this case that’s only a small part of the picture.

Our government wastes money by the barrel, although you and I may disagree on what actually constitutes some of that waste. In the big scheme of things, a $25 billion wall is a relatively small output for what I expect we would get in return.

Wait, what? I just said it’s a monumental waste of money and won’t work. No, that’s not a Trumpian Truth (convenient shift of position). Because there are, in fact, benefits to building the stupid thing, just not its intended one. Incidentally, the money won’t be spent either up front or all at once, so it is quite possible the waste will actually be less than that. The wall will take years to build and construction probably won’t begin until 2019 at the earliest. Assuming we elect someone competent in 2020, such a project can stop faster than it started.

Much of the expenditure for this vanity project will go to pay workers (at least some of whom, I’m willing to bet, will be immigrants, dreamers, and even undocumented aliens). So that money feeds the local economy.

Political pressure will almost certainly require the actual wall components, unlike most other Trump brand merchandise, to be made in this country, using domestic materials and suppliers, again fueling our economy.

Again, I’m not in any way suggesting the wall is the most, or even a, critical infrastructure need, but from a “trickle down” perspective it will serve the same purpose, creating jobs.

I’m a pragmatist. I do not think our immigration “problem” is the most pressing thing on our plate, certainly not in my neck of the woods. Its costs and alleged dangers are overblown and exaggerated, using isolated anecdotes, rather than research, to make things seem far worse than they are. But perception trumps reality, and this seems to be a front and center issue for the president and the trumpet section, one that is getting in the way of finding solutions to real (more important, IMO) problems, including a shortage of workers in jobs filled by immigrants on temporary work visas (that Americans will not take).

“….If we don’t truly secure our borders, you can say goodbye to our country.

[Senator Schumer] needs to understand that this isn’t just my demand. These are the non-negotiable demands of the American people!” (victory.donaldtrump.com)

Now I don’t trust either President Trump or Senator McConnell to actually KEEP their promises (both have demonstrated a complete lack of trustworthiness), but if the stupid wall is TRULY the obstacle to solving that mythical problem, it’s time to call the bluff, move on, and take this stupid idea off the table. Sometimes, as all parents know (to our chagrin), you give the toddler the damn piece of candy so you can get him in the carseat and move on down the road.**

* You might read The House of the Scorpion (2004) for an interesting take on a dystopian future prominently featuring a wall between Mexico and the U.S.

** Yes, I am aware of the dangers of such a strategy when the toddler is already a spoiled tantrum-throwing brat, that you are reinforcing that kind of behavior, but I’m pretty sure that ship has already sailed in this case.

Can the Center Hold?

Beliefs caveat:

       • Liberal ≠ Democrat

       • Conservative ≠ Republican

       • Both camps have members who are:

              ° mean-spirited

              ° racist, prejudiced, or bigoted

              ° self-centered or selfish

              ° just plain dumb        

                  ° all of the above and more

Each pole is flawed. Each side has its own conceit and each side spits out the opposing label like a foul epithet. Mean-spirited and unfair memes exacerbate the problem. Conservatives often seem likely to think that if something is not their problem, it’s not really a problem at all and, therefore, doesn’t need a solution, or at least not one that shouldn’t be supplied by the individuals for whom there actually IS a problem. Liberals, on the other (left?) hand, seem to tend to believe that EVERY problem everywhere is not only a crisis that must, MUST I tell you, be solved (with an overarching grand(iose?) program), and right this minute, no matter how long that problem has been in the making, failing to realize that problems of long standing are never solved quickly or simply.

Simplistic Metaphors: The conservative safety net is an old rope with a sign at the bottom: “Climb on up, you can do it. Others have,” followed by a pious sermon on self-reliance. The liberal safety net is a hydraulic memory foam mattress. “You know you have a problem, right? Good news, we have the solution! Let us make you comfy and fix everything for you. No, really, just relax, we’ve got this,” followed by a soothing talk about how nothing is your fault. 

Those selfish conservatives like to think everyone ought to be able to better themselves (many, it seems to me, operate under the illusion that they, and they alone, are responsible for their whatever status or success they have and see every playing field as level); if one can’t find a path to success, it’s their own fault or weakness. No better are the busy-body liberals, who seem to think no one can better themselves without the help of an extensive (usually expensive) program, implemented by an overburdened, and some would argue (with at least occasional legitimacy) overreaching, and, too often, incompetent, government.

All of the above are exaggerations, of course, pushing stereotypical perceptions to the extreme, although I have, in fact, actually seen essentially those descriptions as the “other side” is being vilified or decried, all too common in our world today. And what I am seeing even more often today is a seemingly ingrained belief that those who do not think like we do are evil or stupid, not even entitled to basic respect. Contrary beliefs, legitimate criticism of ideas or philosophy, are not only rejected out of hand, but vilified as, at best, the ravings of a lunatic fringe not worthy of even cursory consideration.

It is an ongoing and familiar theme of mine, but we live in a complex society that continues to evolve in increasingly complex ways. Nothing is that simple, neither the problems nor the solutions. If a solution can fit on a bumper sticker or be reduced to a slogan or 30-second commercial, it’s a fraud, and a simplistic fraud at that. Back when I used to teach American politics, one of the things I tried to emphasize was that the solution to every problem creates a new problem or even set of problems that then seem to require new solutions, in a never-ending cycle. However, I stressed, that does NOT mean that we, as a society, should just ignore problems and hope they’ll go away. They will not. Like sores, they will fester and eventually demand immediate attention. Is it not better to anticipate problems and be proactive than to be forced into a panicked reaction?

As polarization expands and strengthens its depressingly vise-like grip on our society and culture, I perceive a serious danger and threat to our future. Politicians on both sides of the aisle are trying to exploit that polarization for their own benefit and power. Instead of encouraging respect for those with a different perspective and a different life journey, they instead discount and demonize. However, even as a left-leaner, while I personally do not think we need a new government agency (Committee to Reduce American Polarization?) to deal with it, neither do I think we can just pretend this increasing polarization is not really a problem.

Here’s a truly radical notion; we could communicate with each other, respecting and giving each other credit for being people of good will, to find a solution that can, if not fully solve the problem, at least ameliorate it and allow us to find other areas where we can continue to work together (which involves that dirty word, “compromise,” of course) for the good of all. There is room in the middle of the poles, but we must be willing to take the first step in that direction and not wait for the other side to go first. Let it start with me – and you.  Kumbaya!