Saturday, October 27, 2012

Lost in a Fog of Political Hate


There are times I feel like Johnse Hatfield; maybe not the real Johnse Hatfield, but at least the one played by Matt Barr in the History Channel’s miniseries Hatfields & McCoys.  There was a scene in that movie where Johnse is talking with his Dad as they sit by the river, Johnse with a line in the water, and his Pa sitting behind him, ready to blow his brains out for leaking information to one of the McCoy girls that got yet another Hatfield killed, and Johnse’s words, as they were scripted, resonated with me:

     Ya know I hate all this.  I always have.  I think all I ever wanted to do was play; just laugh and play.  It seems like nobody 'round here ever laughs anymore, ‘cept maybe when a McCoy gets maimed er killed.  It must be a trial for ya, Daddy; me not bein' like you… What I mean is, everybody looks up to you.  I mean, even your older brothers.  You know, there ain’t… there ain’t nobody look up to me.  I mean, hell, there are those that say Cottontop’s more use.  I don’t know how to be in this family.  I mean I got, I got all the memories, you know, I know all this happened.  I jus', I don’t have all the hate that comes with bein’ a Hatfield.
           
His words reach his Pa, who decides not to kill him, and I feel like Johnse sometimes.  I hate all the hate.  I hate all the division. 

     “A house divided against itself cannot stand.”
                 – Abraham Lincoln, which is derived from Matthew 12:25 and Mark 3:25

     And yet I seem to be mired in the middle of it all.  Can I see it all clearly?
    I see these videos on the internet in which right-leaning reporters interview people on the left, and these people don’t seem to have a clue.  When they are asked what fair and balanced, objective reporters they go to so they can make informed decisions, many of them made it a point to scream out “Not Fox News!”  Several others immediately shouted out the name “Rachel Maddow” and “MSNBC”, and still others like getting their “news” from Jon Stewart and The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, and Bill Maher!  When the reporter asked them if they thought Rachel Maddow would be a fair and balanced moderator during a presidential debate, they actually said “Yes.”  Check out this link:  http://www.mrctv.org/videos/where-do-liberals-get-their-news
     You know what though?  Our side is probably the same, or would probably be similar.  I can imagine that if these right wing reporters managed to speak with someone with an actual brain in their head, they wouldn’t have shown it, because the report was geared towards portraying these people as morons.  Ann Coulter will brazenly just come right out and say it.  And in a thousand different ways, there are little jabs happening back and forth, between the incumbents, in the political attack ads on TV, in all the political bickering on line and among even friends and colleagues, and calling to mind the fighting and the hate that visited such pain upon the Hatfields and McCoys.  Since I’m on the right, I’m almost automatically going to see all of it from that perspective.  It’s almost impossible for me to see it any other way.  But I realize that perhaps my perspective is not the best view to see the whole thing clearly.  Maybe it is, but who's to say?
     Yet even if I were to remove myself from this viewpoint, and attempted to get a clearer depiction of things from a non-partisan level, it still wouldn’t really answer all the questions that need to be answered, or provide a clearer picture.  That’s because everybody – and I do mean everybody – sees it all from a particular point of view.  Nobody is outside of it all, and even those who think they are can still only see it all from their limited position.  I don’t care if you happen to be a devout, gun-toting, righteous republican, a freedom-loving, all-inclusive liberal, or a peace-loving libertarian or independent who sees truthful shades of a Machiavellian nature in all government and big business!  Everybody is caught up in it, and there are no easy answers once you attempt to dive right into the middle of it all, and I’m not even sure I want to dive into the middle of it all!   I’m actually left in a bit of a quandary.  I don’t know whether I should stay my course, dig deeper, or step back.  My sister, and a lot of other people, would say "Dig Deeper", but sometimes it's akin to traversing a minefield!  
     Conservative republican columnist Ann Coulter has made disparaging remarks about those who are not either on the right or the left, but are “undecided”, saying that if you are not either conservative or liberal, then you are an idiot.  She goes on to describe liberals as horrendously evil people worthy of whatever hate and disdain she sees fit to throw at them, and in so doing, doesn’t do any real favors for the right by spewing such hatred and animosity.  In fact, one can see why some people might want to disdain from all of it.  In Ann’s black and white world, it seems you are either one of the good guys – conservative republican Christians – the bad guys – baby killing, homo-loving liberal democrats – or an idiot – everyone else!  The problem with someone like Ann is that this isn’t quite the truth of it.  Many – though not all – liberals are actually good people who stand for up for a belief in freedom and peace and love, and those aren’t bad things to stand for!  Many – though not all – republicans are good people concerned about where this nation is headed monetarily, militarily, and morally.  And many – though not all – of the others are people who don’t like what they see from either of the other two camps, and above all else, do not like seeing all this political fighting that masks what is really going on!  By the same token, there really are ill-informed or delusional people on all sides, and even those who aren’t with either the conservatives or the liberals and attempt to rise above the fray of politics can wind up just as “played” as everyone else.  Any of them can wind up believing wild, fantastical conspiracy theories, and it is difficult for anyone to be able to separate fact from fiction in this kind of atmosphere, especially with easy information at your fingertips, just a simple click away!  But just how much of it is real?
     For instance, those on the left have accused those on the right, particularly President George W. Bush and his administration, of actually planning the attacks on 9/11 so they could use it as an excuse to get backing for the military and to get their foot in the Middle East for oil money and possibly other reasons.
The right has accused the left, and particularly President Obama, of having secret agendas and ties to the Muslims.  Questions about his ring, and if there is a Muslim inscription, are all the rage these days!  (See the links here, here, and here!)  What's real here?  Who knows?  Those “above the fray” of politics have accused big business and banks of conspiracies involving the assassinations and attempted assassinations of Presidents who don’t tow their big business party line.  Apparently, Social Security was started when a group of big business fat cats were planning FDR's assassination; he got wind of it and worked out a deal!  Along with all of this, there are conspiracies surrounding everything from the space program (the 1969 moon landing was staged and aliens landed in Roswell, New Mexico in 1947) to international politics, and though some of it would invariably have to be true, just by the law of averages, just how do you separate fact from fiction?  This is a road we should tread very carefully, and not just jump on any information we happen to come across, or we’ll wind up like the reporters on MSNBC and the misinformed viewers who like being deceived.  And I must then ask myself the tough question:  Are my news sources the same, just from the other angle?
     It makes one ask another tough question:  Just what is real?  What can I put my faith in?  And in the face of not knowing anything for certain, not even empirical science, especially in today’s political atmosphere, and if you take into account the philosophies of people like Descartes and Kant, then that means the best you can do is to make as educated a guess as possible in what you choose to believe and follow that, because NOTHING is certain!  The scientists will tell you that science is certain, but it’s not, and the Christians will tell you that God and the Christian doctrine is certain, but it’s not either.  There’s a certain amount of belief in both.  God cannot be proven, but He can’t be disproven either, and if you put all your faith in science, ask yourself how different the scientific world of today is from the scientific world of 100 years ago.  They were saying the same thing about the certainty of empirical science then too, before Einstein and Hawkings came along with something completely different! 
            I hate to sound like an Eastern mystic, but everyone must make their choice to follow their own path.  Others will invariably see problems with it, in the same way I see problems with those on the left who are so easily deluded.  Everybody with half a brain will search for certainties in this world, and for a while, I did my searching in the dark, thinking that there would come a time when I could be certain about what I might find and could then, and only then, make informed decisions about what to believe.  But life isn’t certain, and I quickly discovered that I would never find all the answers that would remove all doubt.  I found out I would have to make a choice, even without being certain, and I realized that everybody has to make this same choice at some point in their lives, or continue in the dark.   
            No, my religion is not certain.  It is a belief.  But so is science, and so is political theory, and any philosophies or theologies you may choose to follow or believe.  And the one thing I chose to believe in – quite some time ago – was in the Christian God, and His perfect Son Jesus Christ, who is somehow separate and yet the same as part of a nearly incomprehensible Godhead.  I put my stock in that, and if it does not dictate the way I think and live my life, then I at least want it to.  When all is confusion, and I don’t know what to do, I step, once again, into what I’ve chosen to believe more than anything else.  I step back into Jesus.

Hail Jesus, You’re my King (Hail Jesus, You’re my King)
Your life frees me to sing (Your life frees me to sing)
I will praise You all my days (I will praise You all my days)
You’re perfect in all Your ways (You’re perfect in all Your ways)

Hail Jesus, You’re my Lord (Hail Jesus, You’re my Lord)
I will obey Your word (I will obey Your word)
I want to see Your Kingdom come (I want to see Your Kingdom come)
Not my will but Yours be done (Not my will but Yours be done)

Glory, glory to the Lamb (Glory, glory to the Lamb)
You take me into the land (You take me into the land)
We will conquer in Your name (We will conquer in Your name)
Oh, and proclaim that Jesus reigns (And proclaim that Jesus reigns)

Hail, hail Lion of Judah (Hail, hail Lion of Judah)
How powerful You are (How powerful You are)
Hail, hail Lion of Judah (Hail, hail Lion of Judah)
How wonderful You are (How wonderful You are)…

            - “Victory Chant”
               Bob Fitts, Wow Worship Orange

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