Belonging

Many conversations in news media write as though the trends toward fascism are chosen by the people. But the media writes as though it includes democratic activity yet it doesn't. It writes about catastrophe even though it seems normalized. So I want to note here some things reveal we are not stupid, selfish and greedy.

David Leonhardt, of The New York Times, writes of Florida's Amendment 4, a ballot supported by a majority of voters to restore voting rights to 1.4 million people convicted of a felony in their past but who could not, because of poverty, pay off their fines. But the state legislature, controlled by Republicans passed a bill that undermined this amendment and the Governor signed that bill. This is a case of the legislature rescinding the wish of general voters.

Last night The Lions Club of Gabriola put on a show, Concert on the Green, to raise funds for social programs that help families and children. Hundreds of people attended. Hundreds volunteered to put this show together. We enjoyed the afternoon and evening together celebrating community.

I tell myself to remember that big institutions like government, media, business — may preach theories of what people want but it doesn't include all people. It includes those who are trying to survive in a constructed community who have lived on the theories created to affirm their views. 

Media must make a profit to survive and so its headlines will come from its own needs — sensational to win readers. Governments must win the most votes to be in power but once they are, the voters needs will be replaced with whatever they think will keep them in power.  These are constructs of self-interest not public interest.

Yes we need governments and media, but mostly we need community. Mostly we need people who care and who are willing to let their members of parliament know.

The Post-Trump World

Roger Cohen's piece "The Trump Possibility" in The New York Times articulated a list of why it is possible for the world's most powerful nation to elect

a fascist. These included fear, anxiety-multipliers, the crash of 2008 which rigged the global system and granted impunity to an elite, growing inequality, abandonment of the working class, and the perennial folly of blaming those who have the least power.

But is it because we are so impressed with media we cannot see how we are being manipulated into believing that we have elected this man rather than the system presenting the "winner" before the elections?

"We are on the wrong track if we imagine that ideas put forth by political leaders contain, or are intended to contain, some form of “truth”; that ideas correspond to some aspect of “external reality.” The coin of the realm in politics is fantasy: the leader’s ability to express his own fantasies, and to induce or seduce others to share those fantasies. The leader presents ideas that resonate with his audience. His utterances allow followers to externalize inner states of being." writes Richard Koenigsberg in his post Ideology as Shared Fantasy.

I do not know enough about how this works but those in communications and advertising may be familiar with it.  I have mostly felt we are being manipulated by institutions and business who have learned how to work on the most cynical levels of human nature. 

George Orwell's 1984 is an allegory that takes place in the future but based on the horror of fascist societies in Europe, while its victims believed they were willingly driving the fight for freedom.  

Then the fifties and sixties flourished with consumer fashions and we thought we could express who we were with clothes, make-up and cars - the fantasy was about endless stuff.

Now that the economy is rigged to benefit only a few, most of us don't have that opportunity to spend our lives away. 

My current fantasy is that we shall find a way to preserve our water, the environment, and justice - so we won't need to carry placards on the streets forever. How to convince others? Many are already doing it.

The idea that our fantasy is wanting to find its way out is both intriguing and terrifying.