We have to start talking about DISCONNECTs. Most everyone who reads that will probably ask:
what disconnects? What
is he talking about? The answer should be obvious. I'm talking about the disconnection from reality exhibited by the followers of Donald Trump and Ted Cruz.
Let’s begin our explanation
with definitions that may help our basic understanding, although we must be careful
to find a fairly modern definition because DISCONNECTION now means more than
simple separation or severing of two entities.
And, it is more than disjointedness or incoherence. It’s more like an inability
to see connections between entities that coincide in their structure and their
meanings or their consequences and their results. It’s almost like a disassociation – an
inability to recognize or even allow oneself to see connections that exist
between ideas and concrete realities. There is a
strong element of denial involved in such disconnect from reality.
One of the most obvious denials of reality
that exists today in modern politics
is the denial of climate change -- the denial of evidence, of examples, of
scientific research, and of the effects of chemicals upon our own bodies
extrapolated to the basic elements of this earth like oxygen, food, water and the dirt
itself. The disconnect for most people
who are deniers of climate change is their acceptance of certain disastrous
effects of chemicals on themselves, but a denial that those effects can also
harm the earth, animals and the rest of our environment. So let me list a few of those disconnects
for you.
· Smoking tobacco is now considered to be one of
the worst things one can do to one’s body.
Every doctor asks that question of his or her patients: have you ever
smoked? Why? Because we now know more
clearly than ever that nicotine and other chemicals in 'smokes' are harmful to
the body. We have simply come to the
point where scientific experiments and research and testing have all shown the
connections between smoking and poor results for human health. Yet there are still those who -- in spite of
all the horrific ads against smoking and the results thereof, in spite of all the
evidence of what it does to shorten life and to bring dire consequences like
cancer – take up smoking, go back to smoking or just plain can’t stop
smoking. That’s called a disconnect of
denial. (it's also called "addiction.")
- But there is a greater disconnect, and that is the one that cannot extrapolate the truth about smoking harming the human body to the larger truth that toxic chemical emissions from factories, and coal-burning plants, along with contaminated sludge and sewage dumped into human water sources has the same harmful effects upon the earth and its flora and fauna as smoking tobacco has upon our bodies. The acceptance of smoking as harmful to lungs, heart, liver, skin and other aspects of bodily function, while denying that even more lethal forms of smoke and other chemical emissions negatively affect water, sky, rain, earth and other parts of our environment, is a DISCONNECT of the first order. Perhaps we need greater contact with religions and cultures that teach the oneness and unity of all life in order to overcome the denials by conservative radicals who tend to use that kind of disconnect to their advantage and profit. With much hype and duplicity, many climate change deniers (like the Koch brothers) continue to destroy the environment while convincing many consumers to buy their products made with materials such as chemicals, gases and hormones that threaten our very existence.
· Another disconnect suggested by
that last paragraph is the
DISCONNECT between our knowing that some products of certain industries are bad
for humans and our environment and yet we continue to purchase those harmful
substances and never think that we are thereby contributing to the obliteration
of our planet and the unhealthiness of our families and of ourselves, let alone
of others around us. It may be a matter
of convenience, or perhaps of laziness, or obsessive attraction to the
product itself. Who knows? For instance, how many of us are seemingly quite
content buying toys from China that are covered with lead-based paint? Or how many of us continue to purchase and
use chemical compounds for our lawns even though they contain hazardous
chemicals that mix with the soil, but rarely lose their potency? Remember Love Canal near Niagara Falls? People had so disconnected from the reality
of the chemicals spilled there and their toxic effects, that many continued to
live in that 'killing field' environment until it was no longer allowed.
How many of us still purchase beverages with enormous amounts of sugar
(and sodium) added in to satisfy our taste buds but to also hook us on sugary drinks
forever and ever. The lethal effects
of added sugar (and salt) on the average human being are not healthy, and more and more
scientific study is indicating the dire consequences that await us in terms of
strokes, heart disease, and even nerve damage.
Yet, we are all guilty of allowing disconnects to threaten our health
and our environment by buying in to the brainwashing techniques of modern
advertising and modern denial of facts.
·
But there are additional equally devastating
disconnects running amok. One that
rankles is a general disconnect between the evils of bigoted discrimination,
bias, prejudice, animosity; unequal treatment, and unequal justice that result
in the separation and denigration of certain individuals and groups of people
who are seen as “different" - inept, lazy or just not up-to-par for one reason or
another. Because of misguided definitions of what constitutes "normal” or “able”
or “acceptable”, we end up with a hatred of certain groups who are profiled (defined)
by certain individual characteristics imposed upon the whole group in a kind of
profile that is used to brand the whole group as somehow inferior to
the dominant majority. Because we
generally have difficulty seeing or believing in outside forces and
institutions (like schools, police forces, unions and businesses, laws and
customs) possessing certain built-in discriminatory practices, myths and tenets,
a strong disconnect occurs between the reality of discrimination and
denigration and the part each of us plays in that pattern. As a result, we fail to
attack the roots of the problems found in our history, our systems of
governing and in our everyday institutions that we so cherish.
· There’s one more disconnect that I would like to
mention, and it may be the most devastating of all, but then again, as we move
ahead on this topic in later Blogs, we may find others of equal import. I am speaking of the disconnect we are experiencing
every day because we fail to understand the consequences of another kind of
pollution and that is the devastating effects
upon heart, mind and body for the victims of poverty, discrimination,
separation, isolation, profiling and inequality. That disconnect is made ever so vast by the
refusal of politicians to act in a way that might help solve some of those practices and problems.
The major disconnect is this: every time
Congress delays, obstructs, obfuscates or makes draconian cuts on necessities or critical needs, the people,
the nation, our families – adults, children and seniors – suffer loss. Every time Congress delays action on
repairing roads, bridges, water systems, schools and other necessary
infrastructure, our country suffers losses.
Every time Congress cuts programs like Head Start or various items of
research, or fails to fund such common-sense and proven positives like
universal pre-school and more effective day care, the country suffers
losses. When the Republicans, many in
state legislatures - pass laws that deny voting privileges for certain groups
or deny fundamental rights like right to effective legal representation, or right to be free from
invasion of one’s home or the right not to be stopped and harassed for no
reason other than skin color (and when police are not held accountable for unjust and lethal actions), we all suffer a great loss.
It is a disconnect that radical RIGHT-WING conservatives have always
chosen to ignore because they don’t believe that persons who are poor, or who
have a disability, or who are people of color or have a foreign accent, or who
look different in some way – they don’t believe that they deserve the same
justice, opportunity or boost that the rest of us have come to expect as a
matter of course. They simply cannot
see, perceive or fathom the losses that such attitudes bring upon our
society. They just don’t get it, and all
of the Republican candidates for President have shown they don’t get it
throughout this crazy few months of debates (?) and primary elections.
And now, we have to face the fact that the followers of Donald Trump and
Ted Cruz (and all the others) don’t get it either. They simply are unable to connect the
dots. They cannot discern the
devastating losses we are taking as we fight battles on all the wrong fronts
and for all the wrong reasons (voter 'fraud', Planned Parenthood, the IRS, etc.). When the Vietnam
War became unbearable in terms of loss of life for no good reason, the People
finally got it – they demanded an end to the carnage and they got it
(especially after people were scrambling to leave the embassy in South Vietnam
by helicopters as the enemy was closing in).
Is that what it will take to connect the people once again with
reality? Will it take catastrophes of
several kinds to once again help us recognize the connections between
policies and practices; between words and actions; between rights and stability
and fairness; between equal justice and good citizenship; between top-notch
infrastructure and the prosperity of the middle and poorer classes?
Will it take more natural disasters – blizzards, tornados, floods,
hailstorms, beach erosion, earthquakes; more people dying of diseases
caused by our own neglect; more citizens being forcibly pushed into poverty;
more children dying from gun violence - to finally realize the connections
between all of that and the losses we suffer because of the ideology and obfuscation
of hyper-conservative Representatives? [If you haven’t already heard, let me bring to you the latest from the Congress: they are refusing to act on an epidemic that could very well be headed our way, and that is the disease carried by certain mosquitos that could ignite world-wide loss of functioning in affected children and adults as well. One elderly American has already died of the disease caused by the Zika virus, and as summer approaches it could get much worse. The Radical Republican Congress has chosen to delay extra funds needed to combat this threat even though the Zika virus was declared a global public health emergency and it has been confirmed that the Zika virus does cause a rare birth defect called microcephaly – a neurological disorder that results in babies being born with abnormally small heads and developmental issues].
We
are losing millions of good people through prejudice, neglect, discrimination,
and an unjust justice system, as well as environmental pollution, and we are losing millions of young people through
neglect of our public school system. For every negative and stupid concept--
like deporting millions of undocumented immigrants or incarcerating millions of persons many
for minor non-violent transgressions like possession of marijuana -- we lose human
potential. Some of those victims might have
produced a cure for a disease, or founded a new company that produced
affordable energy with alternative fuels; or perhaps attained more mundane but worthwhile achievements like graduating from college, paying
taxes, contributing to a community, raising a good family, and helping others
achieve because they cared enough to do so.
Our losses are small, medium and large, but they are accumulating and
the sum total of those losses of people and rights and jobs and community
service are driving us in a direction from which we may not recover.
We the People cannot go on believing in
demagogues or bought politicians. We
cannot go on allowing disconnects to lead us toward oblivion. We have to come back to the progressive
realities of a Hillary Clinton and revolutionary fervor of leaders such as Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth
Warren. We cannot build upon
disconnects. We have to see the
consequences of what we are allowing to happen and allowing NOT to happen.
We cannot live disconnected from reality and from the consequences of our
actions, our attitudes and our built-in institutional flaws and
prejudices. Every time we allow a
disconnect to occur, we risk the loss to our society of lives full of potential. If we were involved in a war – like the one
in Iraq – and we saw that it was producing nothing but loss and devastation, we
would as a People, want out (just as we have done). We ARE IN A BATTLE right now against the
extremist forces of the right-wing who see no connections between their
policies and the losses we are experiencing.
In fact, they are more prone to the exploitation of those losses than to
the reversal of them through investment in lives and people rather than in
businesses, tax breaks and profit for themselves.
It is past time to take the steps necessary to prevent further loss of
our planet, our children and our people and society as a whole.
We must connect the dots once again so that we can invest in every
citizen rather than turn our backs to them and lose them to a lesser purpose. We can begin by pledging to vote for
progressive candidates for office who will invest in people once again.
BUT, what if our brains are captive to something that prevents us from accepting
new realities, global truths and concepts?
What if we are captive to certain biases that prevent us from seeing a
way forward? What if we suffer from a
tendency that reality is equivalent to our own beliefs? In our
next post, we’ll take a deeper look at some of the causes of DISCONNECTS.
