I am making a strong attempt to not sound condescending or righteous
while I am writing this blog; I want it to be neutral. Something interesting is happening in the
world. People are hanging onto their
beliefs and even changing well known scientific fact or history to suit a
narrative of their own. Older people, Baby
Boomers and Generation X’ers, are more susceptible it seems. I spoke to my Millennial son about why they
don’t get suckered into this phenomenon as much and in his opinion it is very
simple; They know how to recognize
garbage when they see it and we don’t.
You see it’s simple; they have never lived in a world where
fact and fiction has not been the opposite side of the coin. They know movies
are fake (even the ones that claim to be based in fact) and they know that we
the older generation put a spin on everything to make people buy in. Well guess what – they ain’t buying what we
are selling!
However this bending of the truth has opened a sticky area
that feels like leaky gut syndrome to me… crap just keeps trickling out. If you repeat the lie enough, people
will believe it. They will send link
after link of information found on dubious sites as proof that they are right. Yet when historical or scientific facts are
stated, if it doesn’t suit the narrative, it is discarded as being the conspiracy
that we are being fed, by I am not sure whom.
The end result I believe is that we are getting sick and losing our
moral compass.
In general society has taken a step back. There is no longer “THE Truth” there is only
the spin you want it to have. What we
don’t understand is that every Tom, Dick and Harriett can now have their
opinion heard. This is a good thing most
of the time but when the ignorant starts leading the blind… well then I really
don’t know. Now when I say ignorant let
me clarify that I don’t mean uneducated, no, I mean the people who actually do
know better but are willfully misleading because they have decided that “commonly”
understood, well known facts no longer suit their narrative.
Why do I feel this is a problem you ask? Well, I had a very
disconcerting chat on facebook with a group of acquaintances from high school. Little did I know that they are Holocaust
deniers and I foolishly engaged. They sent
me link after link of facts that they have found on the internet to support
their philosophy, that Hitler didn’t give the order for “The Final Solution”
and that only one or two million Jews were murdered because it wasn’t possible
to murder more etc. etc. Even when
another person provided some alternative sites that speak to the number of
people including Jews that died in camps they just refuted it with the claim that
it was Jewish propaganda. I just left
the conversation but I was deeply saddened because to me it doesn’t matter how
many people died, six million or three hundred thousand (which was one claim)
it remains a terrible, horrific time in history and one that I hope we never
repeat.
But my real fear is
that I think we will repeat it. I fear
we have not learned anything from the past. We refute and dispute known
facts. We have people that believe the
earth is flat for crying out loud! When
did that become a thing? Why would our
planet be the only one in the Universe that is different? We sow division. Racism, Antisemitism, Misogyny
and Militant Feminism is blatant. The disenfranchised
are disregarded. People (Syria) are bombed
daily and no-one bats an eye. Children
are put into holding cells (cages) and nothing is done. Refugees are shunned and pushed to the margins of society. Have we have lost our ability to have or even show
compassion for all humans?
I don’t know how to fix this globally. Perhaps finding “better” people to vote for
will help, but power corrupts we have seen it many times. After that sticky conversation about the
Holocaust I spoke to my son about it and he looked at me incredulously. “Unfriend them, why would you want to be
friends with people like that?!” he asked. And that is when I realized the power is mine.
I can create my world in a way that it supports Sacred Life. I can share with an open heart and have
compassion for my fellow human beings. I
can refrain from judgement and I can fight against darkness by shining my light
far and wide. This doesn’t mean that I
will avoid people who disagree with me but if they are actively working on
creating division and hate… then they gotta go…
Love & Light
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