The politics of fear and hate are alive and thriving March 18, 2010

Regardless of your political affiliation, this will almost certainly enrage you:

The easy knee jerk reaction is “Those Tea Party Douchebags – see, it’s true that they’re all hateful morons”. You’re free to think that, I’m not going to stop you, but that’s not really something I want anyone partaking in here.

The reason that this is terrible, above and beyond the complete lack of respect and denigrating behavior towards the Parkinson’s sufferer, is that it’s a symptom, a warning sign that fear is ruling the day, and has the stage. And that really scares me, because through the constant application of fearful messages depicting outlandish and unrealistic nightmare scenarios, you will create an ever-growing mob mentality. And the application of logic, of reason, of nuanced debate is simply doomed in the face of hysteria.

And all of the constant application of fear and hate find fertile ground now, because when you are hurting and already scared – be it the loss of employment, of retirement, of basic dignity, will you listen to someone who says that now is the time to work together, admit our faults, be responsible, and move on, or will you listen to the person who tells you that it’s all the end-result of a socialist agenda, and but for them, you could stand proud and in a land of prosperity?

The latter is seductive. And it’s so easy to seduce even the best when they are tired, weary, and ground down.

I don’t have an answer – and really, it would be so much armchair quarterbacking if I did. All I can say is that I’m sure of one thing: This is going to get worse before it gets better, and the scene above will play out again and again, in even more vicious and humiliating circumstances. Because even if you have nothing to lose, someone convincing you that you do will put you in a place where you’re capable of anything.

And there are a lot of those people out there.

I don’t like where this is going.