“The evil in this world is not done by those who commit it, but by those who stand back and watch it happen.”
~Albert Einstein
Einstein’s words may as well be etched on the Statue of Liberty or included in the National Anthem. A more modern version of patriotism sounds like, “The USA may not be perfect but at least it’s better than almost every other country in the world.” It’s a country that boasts “liberty and justice for all,” while leaving off the last two words, “white men.”
Yet, in modern times, so many will insist, “we’ve come a long way” or “it’s a lot better than it used to be,” without being able to state the simple core truth – It’s a country run by white men, set up by white men, for the benefit of white men; and it’s so replete with oppression, that fascism is the norm and the government doesn’t even come close to providing liberty and justice for all. The USA is the country with the most people incarcerated.
So the first problem with the current infighting amongst Americans (desiring social unrest due to political divides) is US citizens are fighting each other for opinions and they’re not fighting for their own freedom. Civilians are in denial about the reality that they are not living in a free country. Most remain in denial about a system of justice that is unjust. This is mostly because men in power use misinformation to persuade an ignorant public. This has been going on all throughout the history of mankind, in various forms of governing.
With modern day technology in our hands, and information at the click of a button, it’s no longer justifiable to remain ignorant, yet the majority do. The vast majority of infighting now takes place on social media, and the vast majority don’t take the time to do their own research and backgrounding to check the credibility of their argument. People are arguing just to argue, some seem to live for it, and most don’t seem to understand it isn’t beneficial to anyone. Some people literally spend hours arguing in posts with bots. Arguing with computer robots, who are created to antagonize and to get you to waste your time and energy arguing.
Americans are addicted to it. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen a time in my lifetime where there’s been so much division among grown adult American citizens who are acting like little children with name calling and lies on top of juvenile excuses and accusations. Two ways of seeing how convoluted we are as a society these days can be seen in two current hot topic arguments: NFL players kneeling during the National Anthem in protest of social and systemic inequality, and an onslaught of accusations of sexual assault and harassment by women toward Harvey Weinstein, a film producer.
The United States is so messed up right now we can’t even get people to agree that social inequalities do still exist and they are bad, and sexual assault and harassment still exists and it is bad. No matter who is doing it. We can’t even agree on that.
If we can’t agree that bad is bad, how can we possibly know what’s causing the bad to continue and how will we ever fix it?
Police brutality, excessive use of force, abuse of power – these things are bad. These things don’t exactly make a country look as if it offers freedom and justice for all citizens. Pretty straightforward. Until the country has a large population of folks that think peacefully protesting these injustices by kneeling before a flag is unpatriotic. When did kneeling become a sign of disrespect? At that point, you have a maddening argument that goes in circles and is just like arguing with a bot. The prisoners defend their captors, the slaves defend their masters, any chance to argue and step all over another is cherished and any chance for equality is squashed because there can be no discussion about how to make it better.
Sexual assault, rape, sexual harassment – these things are bad. The fact that these kinds of instances are so prevalent and can be carried out again and again by the same person doesn’t make the USA look as if it offers equality and justice for all citizens. Pretty straightforward. Until the country has a large population of folks who think that staying quiet about it, and letting it happen again and again to others without using the platform of celebrity to make a big deal about it every single time it happens, is somehow justified by #metoo. At that point you have a long history of “that’s just the way it is” arguing against “well that doesn’t make it right” and nothing changes. The worst criminals often go free.
America doesn’t want to wake up. For some reason, people would rather fight one another than fight an oppressive government. People would rather fight one other than fight oppressive employers. People would rather fight each other than fight fascism. People are more comfortable when everyone knows their place. A scape goat here or there seems to be the glue that holds together the machine. The rich get richer and the poor fight over their scraps. Both allow evil to continue.
We go on with our devices, with access to everything, and we continue to witness evil, and we continue to stand back and watch it happen. The technology is advanced, but the people are not.
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