In this day and age, the tail has been wagging the dog of so long that we have forgotten that the rest of the beast, the body politic, still exists. There are very powerful interests keeping our focus on minutiae. In just one example, the 1.2 billion Muslims that do not believe in jihad (wiping out infidels) are overshadowed in the popular press by the 200 million who do. Less than 1/6 of the Islamic community is interested in justifying the atrocities perpetrated through terror based on their "religious" beliefs and the vast majority of attacks that are carried out in the name of jihad are on the other 5/6 ths of the Muslim community, not foreigners, not non-believers, not Europeans, certainly not Americans. We often forget that powerful interests are served by the lies, omissions and the absence of fact. It is not unusual that extreme minorities are often painted with the broadest brush or spoken of in the most prejudicial terms, but these practices tell us more about those who feel threatened by them than about reality.
The Shia Muslim community are similar in form and function to the Baptists that we commonly see in the X-tian community. Their beliefs and values are based more on ignorance, fear and hate than any sense of reality. The majority of the sect is complacent and made docile by believing the pronouncements of a very select group of poorly educated, often self selected (or proclaimed) and strident preachers. Rather than reading the scriptures and making up their own minds, they are told that all of the messages and edicts that they are handed have been painstakingly researched and well-considered by those who know more, are closer to "God" than they are, who have been guided by the hand of "God" to "serve" or who have been spoken to directly by "The Lord". In non-religious circles, speaking to those who are not there or hearing voices is a symptom of mental illness. To this tail wagging, we need to become savvy. I do not want to paint with the wide brush, which I spoke of before, because it covers and obscures many subtleties and I am sure that there are both free thinking and compassionate people in the majority of both groups, but their "leaders" seem bent on hastening the end times stories that they have been fed by those who pray for disruption, dislocation and strife.
In our current political state, there are smaller and smaller numbers of people, mostly oligarchs who wield unimaginable power and control over the systems we have developed to provide peace and security for all people. The "trickledown effect" from their power and control has led us to a situation in which 270 blacks are gunned down by police in America for every hundred whites. In fact, much like the disproportionate killing that goes on in the wider world, here in America in 2015, fifty-one police officers have been killed in the line of duty compared to 2105 blacks. Remember, in our system we are all innocent until proven guilty, so in essence, these victims were all innocent, according to our Constitution. In spite of this, there are a tiny minority of whites who feel that they are justified in their hate for the victims. The Calvinistic beliefs that still guid the majority opinion of whites is that the bad choices and immoral behavior of the "lower classes" is proven and that the institutionalized racism that exists is based on facts, not hatred. We have devolved to the point where even holding a copy of the Constitution at a Donald Trump rally can be viewed as reason enough to be kicked out of the place. In fact, if you are the wrong color, or are dressed in certain ways, you are also seem as a threat and removed, often violently from the premises. Freedom to hate seems to trump any semblance of decorum.
I have written about it before, but there is a growing tide of mathematically and statistically illiterate folks who are more than happy to carry water for those who would deny us our freedoms. The gun lobby who ignores the fact that more people are killed by gun accidents than terrorists, the people who forget that texting drivers kill more people than mass shooters and those who claim that the decline of religion is leading to the collapse of our culture, when the fact is that we are living through the lowest crime period in thirty years are all conspiring to have us live by a code of lies, not seeking or speaking truth. Ignorance of facts is no reason to claim you know it all. Some of the smartest people actually know that they are ignorant and spend time trying to learn. Fighting for or clinging to ignorance is called stupidity. Forgetting that there is a world outside the media microscope has led us to only see the tiny flea on the tip of the tail and to summarily forget the rest of the dog exists.
The Shia Muslim community are similar in form and function to the Baptists that we commonly see in the X-tian community. Their beliefs and values are based more on ignorance, fear and hate than any sense of reality. The majority of the sect is complacent and made docile by believing the pronouncements of a very select group of poorly educated, often self selected (or proclaimed) and strident preachers. Rather than reading the scriptures and making up their own minds, they are told that all of the messages and edicts that they are handed have been painstakingly researched and well-considered by those who know more, are closer to "God" than they are, who have been guided by the hand of "God" to "serve" or who have been spoken to directly by "The Lord". In non-religious circles, speaking to those who are not there or hearing voices is a symptom of mental illness. To this tail wagging, we need to become savvy. I do not want to paint with the wide brush, which I spoke of before, because it covers and obscures many subtleties and I am sure that there are both free thinking and compassionate people in the majority of both groups, but their "leaders" seem bent on hastening the end times stories that they have been fed by those who pray for disruption, dislocation and strife.
In our current political state, there are smaller and smaller numbers of people, mostly oligarchs who wield unimaginable power and control over the systems we have developed to provide peace and security for all people. The "trickledown effect" from their power and control has led us to a situation in which 270 blacks are gunned down by police in America for every hundred whites. In fact, much like the disproportionate killing that goes on in the wider world, here in America in 2015, fifty-one police officers have been killed in the line of duty compared to 2105 blacks. Remember, in our system we are all innocent until proven guilty, so in essence, these victims were all innocent, according to our Constitution. In spite of this, there are a tiny minority of whites who feel that they are justified in their hate for the victims. The Calvinistic beliefs that still guid the majority opinion of whites is that the bad choices and immoral behavior of the "lower classes" is proven and that the institutionalized racism that exists is based on facts, not hatred. We have devolved to the point where even holding a copy of the Constitution at a Donald Trump rally can be viewed as reason enough to be kicked out of the place. In fact, if you are the wrong color, or are dressed in certain ways, you are also seem as a threat and removed, often violently from the premises. Freedom to hate seems to trump any semblance of decorum.
I have written about it before, but there is a growing tide of mathematically and statistically illiterate folks who are more than happy to carry water for those who would deny us our freedoms. The gun lobby who ignores the fact that more people are killed by gun accidents than terrorists, the people who forget that texting drivers kill more people than mass shooters and those who claim that the decline of religion is leading to the collapse of our culture, when the fact is that we are living through the lowest crime period in thirty years are all conspiring to have us live by a code of lies, not seeking or speaking truth. Ignorance of facts is no reason to claim you know it all. Some of the smartest people actually know that they are ignorant and spend time trying to learn. Fighting for or clinging to ignorance is called stupidity. Forgetting that there is a world outside the media microscope has led us to only see the tiny flea on the tip of the tail and to summarily forget the rest of the dog exists.
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