I accepted the reality of Big Brother decades ago, so I’ve never allowed watching the puppet show to distract me from thinking about the puppeteer. From my lowly social position, I’ve never been privy to who actually calls the shots but understand that our elected officials work for them, not us. The salaries aren’t the major consideration in running for office–it’s the perks. The money spent financing a campaign is an investment in hope of future returns. While it’s true there are altruists in the world of politics, few of them make a big impact on our society. Most campaign money comes from people who believe in a candidate’s ideas or those with an agenda they expect to be realized by the elected. Recent events have shown how little consideration most elected officials have for the people they supposedly serve. Even while drafting legislation based on humanism, they insert other agendas into it that are designed to control our morals, freedoms, behavior and movements. Using the current crisis as an excuse to rescind certain constitutional guarantees will solidify the goal of turning this country into a theocracy where women’s right to control their reproductive health will disappear along with same sex marriage and any aberration from religion-based law.
Personally, I’m glad I don’t believe that Jesus will save people from an invisible enemy. It keeps me from being delusional. Good safety and health precautions will dictate who lives or dies. Science, not faith will prevail. Meanwhile, church is cancelled, (lack of faith in Jesus’s healing power?) pastors are dying, and instead of begging God to intervene, medical professionals are the front line against the current boogey man. The little people are stepping up and shouldering the load while the puppet show drones on and on about how hard they’re working to save our world. The fact that many of them dumped their stocks instead of pledging money to food banks, the Red Cross and local charities is testament to their selfishness. It’s heartening that the few officials who really care are making their voices heard and doing all they can to rally support, but the power blockade in Washington thwarts the majority of their efforts. Maybe some of the bible thumpers who want to control our sex lives will get sick and discover why they should have supported disaster preparedness for everyone instead. It saddens me to think that only the death of someone they love might point out what the rest of us endure on a daily basis, but maybe their hearts are so hardened by avarice they’ll never embrace empathy and simply cut their losses and buy a new yacht.
Though it’s true we’ve had our activities curtailed for good reason, it’s become a lesson in how a totalitarian regime works. Once this crisis passes another will follow and freedom will never be completely restored. Culling the herd and indoctrinating the young are only part of creating a caste system wherein the elite benefit from the labor of millions whose lives are meaningless. The greatest part of this process is mind control. Instilling the belief that we deserve our fate and that it has always, will always and should be this way. If we cannot change and grow, then what exactly is the point? Forcing women to continuously gestate cannon fodder or hands to push the wheel? Filling the world with more starving orphans? Killing each other so the war machine makes more money for the rich?
I’m among the vulnerable by being a senior citizen with respiratory issues but hope to survive by using common sense. If I don’t, I leave behind a lifetime of work that could be considered incendiary and subject to deletion since my mind is unwilling to be controlled by the desires and beliefs of others. Whatever happens I will face each day with a smile and love for my fellow man. I don’t like a lot of them, but I don’t like rutabagas either. That doesn’t mean I would ever ask a farmer to not grow them. I, like Dylan Thomas, will not go gentle into that good night. Mizeta