It is exhausting. Every day, there’s a new outrage, something that pleases the MAGA minority, but offends others’ sense of decency. The longer official misbehavior goes on, the more we can begin to accept it as normal. Will faceless troopers in the streets replace hometown police?
“The best way to bring folks together is to give them a real good enemy.” — The Wizard of Oz.
Many people in power, knowing that, create a common enemy, even if there isn’t one. The most prominent historically, of course, was Hitler. He knew the Jews had been unpopular in Europe for millennia, and that made it easy to blame the Jews, or “the Jew” for everything that wasn’t working properly, or just seemed unfair.
Many Jews were dressed and groomed differently than other Europeans. This made it easy to caricaturize them by exaggerating those differences, and then adding mythical characteristics, such as horns or tails, to emphasize their difference between “the Jew” and a good Aryan.
Communism demonized the wealthy and even the middle-class, bourgeoisie, as enemies of the people. That’s why communism’s symbol is a hammer and sickle, tools of the lowest level of workers, the proletariat. This played on the misconception that the workers could do anything without the intervention of the managers or other specialists, who inevitably made more money.
In Cambodia, Pol Pot demonized all thinkers and stretched that definition to include the 80% of the population that he had murdered. Evidence of literacy, such as owning a pen or a book, or wearing glasses was enough for sentencing.
Blaming the rich is an old routine. It goes back at least as far as Robin Hood — “Rob the rich and feed the poor.” In Robin’s day, the rich who were being robbed might be wealthy noblemen or just the town people, millers, merchants or barbers who were a little better off than a peasant farmer or serf. However, Robin of Loxley was just an out-of-favor aristocrat. Legends get blurry.
The money changers at the temple were reviled in biblical times, yet what they were doing happens at every national border: exchanging foreign currency for local currency so the next recipient knows the value. How many shekels to a drachma?
Republicans used communism to separate us in the ’50s. Remember the McCarthy hearings that created an enemy that wasn’t there?
Today, we have a dichotomy. Most people believe the country is headed in the wrong direction, but that doesn’t mean they’re all thinking the same wrong direction. Depending on whom you speak to, the enemy is either the oligarchs or immigrants.
Oligarchs, who are shamefully wealthy, even if they created that wealth with hard work, useful products or popular services. Immigrants’ worst crime was crossing a map line, even though no one was harmed by that act. These are immigrants who prepare our food, clean our houses, collect the garbage, service our cars, and perform many other services that don’t pay well.
Instead of common enemy to unite us, we have two vaguely defined opposites to divide us into two factions. We are at the point where a true invasion by a foreign enemy might be the only thing that can bring American back together. China and Russia look willing to oblige. Either one alone would be formidable, although Russia isn’t what it once was.
We cannot afford to be a house divided against itself. We need to overlook our differences and concentrate on our common needs.
Faction (division) was the greatest fear of Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay when they wrote the Federalist Papers in 1787-88 to promote the Constitution.
Now, our so-called leaders, fail us. The vast majority seem more concerned with their personal advancement, power and wealth, than building the stronger America promised by the Constitution.
“Form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.”
The so-called leaders could start by mingling at the State of the Union Address instead of sitting in factions. Maybe alphabetical order, or seating by lottery. Congress might try the same thing.
The aggressive enforcement path we are seeing is reminiscent of the last days of dictatorships in eastern Europe, South America and Iran.
Our so-called leaders need to get closer together before the division becomes irreparable. “A stitch in time saves nine.” — Benjamin Franklin.
Ken Obenski is a forensic engineer and safety and freedom advocate in South Kona. He writes a biweekly column for 91直播. Feedback is encouraged at obenskik@gmail.com.
