History has consistently demonstrated that the individual persona is profoundly affected by its perception of the thinking of the societal mainstream and its moral compass.
Today, Germany is a peaceful and just nation. One can however, summon up the recollection of a Germany in recent history which was incomparably different. In a nation which had produced Goethe, Schiller and Beethoven, its people were imbued with despicable hatred and prejudice against certain categories of people, especially Jews, and successfully indoctrinated in an immoral and warlike nationalism.
Another illustrative example took place in a period, later known as “The McCarthy Era.” In this period of the 20thCentury, our American population, normally composed of reasonably educated and enlightened people, was generally converted into a paranoid, fearful society by the over-blown threat of Communism as espoused by, the later discredited, Senator Joseph McCarthy and his neurotic disciples. The unfortunate metastasis of this false and unsubstantiated alarm wrongfully ruined careers and reputations of many good people and for some years damaged the character of our nation and threatened the civil and legal rights of its citizens.
During an earlier period in our national history, a very substantial portion of our citizens, especially those who resided in the southern portion of our country, otherwise good and god-fearing people, actually believed that black human beings were mere agricultural equipment. The Supreme Court of the United States, the highest legal authority in the land, ruled in the the Dred Scott case, {the Sainted Judge Taney} that blacks were just chattels (property) and could legally be returned to their “legal owner.” Fortunately, in contemporary American society, civil liberties are, inarguably, the entitlement of every human being, although, at various times still not being applied to its optimum.
A dark, heavy storm cloud has recently settled over our nation, signaling an ominous roadblock to our continued progress toward our perennial aspiration for a perfect nation. A downplaying of the values of higher education and intellectual understanding of man and his environment has taken place, in favor of athletic prowess and populist diversions, such as games and inane game shows. Real conversation and human interaction has been replaced by electronic message; written correspondence has become a vestigial practice. Success has come to be universally understood to equate with the tally of accumulation of external goods, rather than the product of an internal analysis of self- worth value and rationally evaluated level of self- fulfillment.
Consistent with this coarsened atmosphere, it was almost inevitable that the election of a Donald Trump would result. Mr. Trump, an egotistical, ignorant, former host of a glitzy television game show, was the natural choice of the low information, flat- earth population that helped assure his success; many of which people were so mesmerized by his snake-oil demagogic promises of Valhalla, as to vote against their own vital interest, governmental assistance.
Predictably and factually, in the brief period of time since his inauguration, he has ignorantly caused embarrassment, internationally and domestically, and not unexpectedly has strategically abandoned his mesmerized, needy supporters in favor of billionaires and generals .He has eschewed all expected standards of proper behavior, speaking and acting in primitive fashion, on impulsive, rather than upon considered behavior. If more were necessary, he has chosen frequently to utter bigoted statements which wrongful action is felt to have served as a catalyst for the increase of late in hate crime.
The sole two traditionally protective institutions for the American citizen are the Courts (although somewhat disappointing of late) and of course, the invaluable media.
In this context, is it so very surprising, that at a Montana Republican Congressional election rally, the candidate publicly chose to “body slam” a representative of the media? After all, really, aren’t all of our national traditions, at present, being body slammed?
-p
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