The Road to Tyranny Is Paved With Good Intentions
As a socio-cultural anthropologist and futurist, I spend a lot of time thinking about what we, as a culture, choose to do. Or don’t do, as the case may be. Donald Trump’s sort-of election has flummoxed so many loving, caring souls. Why do so many people love and support such a truly horrible man, who seems hell-bent on leading our country down a road so many of us clearly recognize as fascism, tyranny, totalitarianism, and authoritarianism? We have seen this many times before, but never so audaciously in our own country. The writing is on the wall, but what do we do about it?
The core problem is that we are currently experiencing an aberration in thinking, one that divides us and forces us to take sides. It’s about an ideology of individualism that encourages some to always take the side of our own selves, relative to the larger population of people.
It is important for this country to make its people so obsessed with their own individualism that they do not have time to think about a world larger than self.- ― bell hooks, Black Genius: African-American Solutions to African-American Problems
We need to go meta and rise above the noise of political bickering, mud-slinging, and taking sides. I have enough faith in humanity to know that most of us want a better world. The key difference is that some of us want a better world for some, while others want a better world for everyone. What everyone seems to want is revolution and reform, and many of us are looking for leaders, indeed heroes, who might save us. What we struggle to understand is that the heroes are us. Those of us who want a better world for all and are willing to focus not on what makes us different, but what makes us the same.
Everyone knows this presidential race has been extremely contentious. But what particularly struck us is how incredibly difficult it has been for each side to see the opposing perspective. Clinton and Trump supporters are baffled by each other despite each group representing a substantial portion of the country. Unfortunately, when there is a lack of understanding people often jump to negative judgements. Many have decided that supporters of the opposing side must be ignorant, stupid, evil, or all three at once. — Spencer Greenberg
One of my mantras in life is that none of us are truly free until all of us are free. When I say free, I mean freedom from violence, poverty, persecution and a de facto culture that seems so willing to let people suffer and die. But Trump deflects the natural, innate inclination for conscience and altruism applied to everyone. He sidles up to our collective nostalgia about the America that we think once was. Except it never truly was. Except for those whom it worked for. ‘Great’ America is an illusion, but it is a compelling one. It’s notable that the average Trump voter makes 70k a year. They worked hard for that money, and they want to rid themselves of what they perceive to be leeches. People who think they are entitled to a sustainable existence without working tirelessly like they have (a myth that overlooks the hard work of other disenfranchised groups). Things used to be safe and we could expect to prosper — people who worked hard thrived. But that is no longer the case. So who is to blame?
There are certain myths that we tell ourselves — myths that are based on the politics of division in our culture. Some people are deserving. Many people are not. We must privilege those who work hard and thrive in our capitalist economy. There are those people who are worth more than others — worth saving, in fact. And there are those who aren’t worth the trouble, or worse yet, are taking things away from us, things that society owes us.
Why aren’t they worth the trouble? Because they don’t, some of us say, contribute in the ways that capitalist thought requires. Or perhaps they have come to our shores unfairly. In the U.S., many people have experienced the severity and austerity of a culture that is hard-wired for scarcity thinking. There are limited resources to be had, and good people must protect their families first, especially when the threat is an outside intruder. That is what good people who care about their families do.
The reason Donald Trump sort of won the election in our country is because he riled up those who have suffered and struggled during our recent economic depression. A depression, like so many others, that is not the people’s fault. What they see are people losing their jobs, their homes, their pensions, unable to pay their medical bills, and struggling to make ends meet in an unprecedented way. They need scapegoats, so rather than blaming a system of leadership that is not committed to attending to each and every person’s survival needs (at least!), they blame the outsiders who they think are taking away from them their own ability to survive.
The likes of Donald Trump rely on lies and fear to rally support. This is classic tyranny. We have seen those so many times before. So is creating a cult of personality around an apparently fearless leader. Indeed a god-like hero, who will fight for what is just and right for the minority of people he supports. What tyrants say is that there are unworthy, greedy, lazy souls who want to take everything away from those who have worked hard all their lives. It’s about unfairness. Well, that is true. But who they cast the blame on, say immigrants, women, the disabled, gays and lesbians, or people of color, are in the same boat as them. Again, we have seen this many, many times throughout history. The real problem is a system of oligarchs that denounces principles about taking care of anyone we bring into our world. That perpetuates a mythology that says there isn’t enough for all of us, and that we must stand divided in order to care for those closest to us. But no, we must stand united.
It might seem like a stretch to call the average Trump supporter a victim, but that’s what they are. Their good intentions are perverted in support of a system that is out to get them, too. They are conditioned to think that their conscience only applies to those who play fair. Along the way they forget the most important truth: we are all in this together.
The central issue of our times is our inability to surrender to what we know is right. The question is, can we change our minds fast enough? The hour is late, the clock is ticking. We will be judged very harshly if we fumble the ball. Let’s not whore ourselves to nitwit ideologies, let´s not give the control to the least among us! You simply have to turn your neck to a culture that has gone sterile and dead and get with the program of a living world, and re-empowerment of the imagination. – Terence McKenna
The Path Forward
What we need is a revolution of thought around notions of scarcity and visions for an abundant, prosperous future for everyone. What we need is a sense of unity, but we also need to go meta about the realities of our culture: what we privilege, what we denounce, and what we apply our collective effort to.
So what can we do? We need to change minds, which each and every one of us has the power to do. We need to challenge the fundamental mythologies of our time.
It’s clearly a crisis of two things: of consciousness and conditioning. We have the technological power, the engineering skills to save our planet, to cure disease, to feed the hungry, to end war; But we lack the intellectual vision, the ability to change our minds. We must decondition ourselves from 10,000 years of bad behavior. And, it’s not easy. -Terence McKenna
I have asked myself repeatedly over these recent months, how do we fight the scourge we all see? The writing is on the wall. Well, there are ways to change minds, but it takes a lot of effort. People need to understand that this isn’t about individuals, it’s about total system failure. We need to love and support all, even the apparently brainwashed masses.
About Lisa Galarneau, Ph.D: I am a socio-cultural anthropologist, futurist, US Army veteran, and mother. I am also the founder of the Planetary Liberation Front — A Revolution of Mind. We’re looking for contributors, so please contact me if you’re interested! Or join us on Facebook!
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