By Patrick Robinson
I try not to despair for the world. There are so many that practice and through their actions promote love and compassion.
These people understand that toxic thinking patterns are what lead to dissolution, darkness and breakdown.
You can see those patterns in the minds of those who complain, without offering actual recourse. It’s not enough to simply claim that a vote invested in one person or party is the solution. It’s a mistake to assume that by controlling the flow of information you can completely correct or control behavior.
That’s never been true.
But we live in a time where systems of social control have been invalidated.
We live in a time of institutionalized lies.
Deliberate dissemination of false information for the purpose of achieving a particular goal or agenda is dangerous to more than America. It threatens the entire world.
When institutions that have a significant degree of power, lack of transparency and accountability quickly erodes public trust.It’s fundamental to how democracy works that we trust what we are being told.
But in recent years especially with so many voices clamoring for attention, so many strident voices insisting their extreme views are the only way we’ve lost the ability to discern what I would call a “middle ground truth”
It’s true that many issues we face are often about ethics, morals, or questions that present themselves against a background few are prepared to understand.
But when the intent is to lead people to some skewed perspective it can distort reality. That doesn’t make it easier to make informed decisions.
Institutionalized lying also discourages free speech. Those caught up in their own sense of privilege or position can easily choose to slap down those that disagree with them. But they do so at their own peril. When you create an atmosphere of fear and intimidation you have taken major steps toward authoritarianism, perhaps the most un-American of ideas.
When taken to logical conclusions, those who engage and promote this kind of dishonest dealing risk violating human rights and the rule of law. Many times in human history this has led to false imprisonment, torture, and other forms of state violence.
The passionate embrace of one political view, one politician, one world view has proven over and over again to be the most efficient way to destroy societies. It does not matter if your choice is right, or left of center.
If your ardent beliefs lead you to support one side of a polarized point of view to the exclusion of considering any other, you yourself are part of the problem.
