The Root of the Madness

[ecosophia]

It occurred to me yesterday, while mulling over various symptoms of our ongoing national nervous breakdown, that there's a very simple explanation for it all:  a very large number of people in our well-to-do classes have accepted the New Age notion that they create their own reality, and taken the next step -- the step that leads to madness -- and convinced themselves that they create everyone else's reality too. 

Do you remember, dear reader, the aftermath of Trump's election in 2016? A great many of his opponents immediately insisted that those who voted for him could only have been motivated by racism. I originally put that down to Democratic propaganda, but it was more than that. When I pointed out to people who were spouting that particular line that they were wrong, and offered them a good deal of evidence that they were wrong, they didn't argue or challenge the evidence or anything -- they just got a thousand-mile stare in their eyes and insisted again that the people who voted for Trump could only have been motivated by racism.  It was eerie. 

It took quite a while for me to realize that these people thought that they, not Trump voters, got to decide why Trump voters voted the way they did. The reality that Trump voters are human beings, with their own values, needs, concerns, and motives, simply didn't exist for these people. The bleak economic landscape created by policies that benefit our well-to-do classes didn't exist for them either, and articles that talked about that harsh reality -- here's a recent one, and here's another -- made no impression, because that wasn't the reality they chose to live in. 

I had another brush with that during the debate I had here on Dreamwidth with Michael M. Hughes, one of the leading figures in the soi-disant "Magic Resistance." One of the points I tried to make in that discussion was that the magical workings he was teaching people to do were bunny-slope stuff, inadequate for the purpose he had in mind. His response was to insist loudly that no, they were powerful magical rituals. At the time I was baffled, because they weren't; there are plenty of technical details that you put into a magical working to make it powerful, and his had none of those; furthermore, he was limiting himself to techniques that can be used by complete beginners, which again is a pretty fair demonstration that we're talking about the bunny slope. I realize now that he seriously thought that his workings were powerful because he said they were.

Take a look across the battered and smoking wasteland of our national consciousness and you'll see the same thing over and over again: a good many members of the comfortable classes have lost track of the fact that they don't get to decide what the universe will be. Violent rioters and arsonists are peaceful protesters, for example; why? Because we say they are, that's why. 

I was about to write the words "that way lies madness," but we're much too far along the curve for that. A significant fraction of the well-to-do in today's America have lost their last fingernail grip on reality and are insisting that the universe is whatever they want it to be. Since reality doesn't know or care in the least what they think about it, this will not end well. 

Comments

I want election week off work

[(Anonymous)]

I want to take that whole week around the election off of work. I work in a mostly liberal progressive environment and I remember all the people who called in sick and just acted crazy at work the day after the election in 2016. I want to avoid the inevitable meltdowns.

Turquoise Squamous Octopus

Re: I want election week off work

[ecosophia]

I'm going to make sure my wife and I have plenty of food in the pantry and no errands to run for that week, with that in mind -- I work from home, but I have no idea just how bizarre things might get.

Re: I want election week off work

[robertmathiesen]

I'm planning on doing that, too.

Re: I want election week off work

[(Anonymous)]

I work nights in a hospital in a college town. It's going to be ugly.

Re: I want election week off work

[methylethyl]

Ditto here. Not planning to go anywhere for at least a couple weeks, in case things get weird. Living in a deep-red area, I don't expect much, but... you never know.

Re: I want election week off work

[(Anonymous)]

Well, I just put in my request. I decided to take just the first three days off, wanting to save some time for other things later in the year, and in October. Speaking of October. The Halloween full Moon is just before election time. Could be crazy. I will also stock up on things for my wife and I. Making sure we have some extra groceries and the pantry is full. Also toilet paper because, well, people are in mad hatter mode.

Turquoise Squamous Octpous

Re: I want election week off work

[(Anonymous)]

Full moon right before election day? With things as crazy as they already are? Yikes!

A police officer once said to me "lunacy is real". Ask any cop, firefighter, paramedic, ER doctor or 911 dispatcher and they'll tell you a disproportionate number of calls come in a during a full moon and that's when they tend to see their craziest, most bizarre and most disturbing cases. Add a full moon to the batshale crazy TDS we are already seeing, and then having the Dems lose another election they were assured they would win easily? I will definitely be stocking up and try to stay indoors at home as much as possible that week.

Re: I want election week off work

[kevintaylorburgess]

Good idea. I might try to make sure I don't need to go anywhere for November though: I'm far from sure the insanity here will end after just one week....