2 Hours in an Alternate Dimension
As you may know, I am extremely progressive. I am not just “Liberal”, I am way out there, spinning out in Left field.
And then today, for 2 hours, I was in a completely different universe. Words had different meanings. People were nice and kind and polite, but there was little to no communication going on. I spent 2 hours with conservatives. I kept my temper. I bit my tongue so many times I think my ability to taste sweet is gone. I continued to hold my temper. And then I left. I am still trying to come to terms with the idea that there are nice, polite giving people out there who would happily send troops out and completely destroy the entire “Occupy” movement. These are the people who listen to Fox news and believe what they see and hear. They think that Bill O’Reilly is a sane man who is trying to help people and that Sean Fucking Hannity makes sense. They like Ann Coulter and see creeping Sharia Law where ever they go. These people are terrified. They aren’t bad people. They are just as angry as the people on the front lines of the Occupy Wall Street movement. They have been hosed by the same banks and they are paying the same bank mortgages and they can barely keep their heads above water. So, what’s the difference? These people are invested in the status quo. They see their life style eroding and they don’t know what to do about it. They are trying to hang on. They are terrified. Instead of yielding to the ebb and flow of life, instead of bending in the wind they stand fast. These people are not 1%ers. These are the people the 1% rely on. They are the bourgeois. The “petty bourgeois”, the ones who are trying to get their kids into a decent college and see their savings stolen by the banks. The ones who have had their retirement savings value dwindle because of those selfsame banks. And they don’t know what to do. They’ve gone into shock. They are in terrible, terrible, terrible debilitating chronic pain. And they have found an anodyne. Religion is a pain killer. Marx first said that, and he was absolutely correct. And for the shock victims, it works. These people are told by their religions that the they are correct for feeling pain. That it isn’t their fault. That they are not wrong, the world is wrong. And that if it still hurts after taking some religion that they need to take more religion. And they do. It becomes an addiction. It becomes a cycle: world provides shocks and pain, religion provides anesthetic. More pain, more anesthetic. It becomes a dependency. These are not bad people. They live good lives. They want good for all. They are being led by the 1%. They don’t need our hate. They need our compassion. Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile
And then today, for 2 hours, I was in a completely different universe. Words had different meanings. People were nice and kind and polite, but there was little to no communication going on. I spent 2 hours with conservatives. I kept my temper. I bit my tongue so many times I think my ability to taste sweet is gone. I continued to hold my temper. And then I left. I am still trying to come to terms with the idea that there are nice, polite giving people out there who would happily send troops out and completely destroy the entire “Occupy” movement. These are the people who listen to Fox news and believe what they see and hear. They think that Bill O’Reilly is a sane man who is trying to help people and that Sean Fucking Hannity makes sense. They like Ann Coulter and see creeping Sharia Law where ever they go. These people are terrified. They aren’t bad people. They are just as angry as the people on the front lines of the Occupy Wall Street movement. They have been hosed by the same banks and they are paying the same bank mortgages and they can barely keep their heads above water. So, what’s the difference? These people are invested in the status quo. They see their life style eroding and they don’t know what to do about it. They are trying to hang on. They are terrified. Instead of yielding to the ebb and flow of life, instead of bending in the wind they stand fast. These people are not 1%ers. These are the people the 1% rely on. They are the bourgeois. The “petty bourgeois”, the ones who are trying to get their kids into a decent college and see their savings stolen by the banks. The ones who have had their retirement savings value dwindle because of those selfsame banks. And they don’t know what to do. They’ve gone into shock. They are in terrible, terrible, terrible debilitating chronic pain. And they have found an anodyne. Religion is a pain killer. Marx first said that, and he was absolutely correct. And for the shock victims, it works. These people are told by their religions that the they are correct for feeling pain. That it isn’t their fault. That they are not wrong, the world is wrong. And that if it still hurts after taking some religion that they need to take more religion. And they do. It becomes an addiction. It becomes a cycle: world provides shocks and pain, religion provides anesthetic. More pain, more anesthetic. It becomes a dependency. These are not bad people. They live good lives. They want good for all. They are being led by the 1%. They don’t need our hate. They need our compassion. Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile
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