Morning Thoughts
I Really Do Wake Up Thinking About Such Things
Good morning! It’s mid-morning, and I just finished making a pot of chicken soup for the day. The outdoor temperatures are in the teens, and my house feels like the perfect place to hibernate. Yet, I’m not completely at peace this morning. You see, I’ve been cursed with an overactive brain. It finds something every day for me to worry about, try to solve, or fantasize about. I kid you not.
So, I write.
Today, my thoughts were triggered by a few posts I saw on Facebook. Ugh! I try to avoid scrolling, but once in a while, I succumb, and without fail, it sets off a train of thoughts that force me to sit down and sort through them via my laptop keyboard.
Today the theme is a bit cloudy, as two or more stories converge to create a tangled mass of thoughts in my head.
One story was about a woman who claims to have given birth to Elon Musk’s 13th child. The other story was a post by a person contemplating becoming an expat. Both set off a firestorm of responses from ordinary people — some who could barely string a cluster of words together to form a sentence, others using the platform to release built-up anger, and others enjoying stirring the pot. I didn’t know any of these people making comments. Why I even cared what they thought amazes me. I should know better than that.
Yet, before I knew it, I was mentally drawn into their discourse, which was actually more of a spat than a discussion.
The Musk post produced a mix of people — some who thought Republicans were hypocrites for pushing traditional family values while praising a man who can’t keep a family together or his penis in his pants. Then there were those who praised him for being a great dad. Why not have as many kids as possible if that’s what he wants? He can afford it. The divide was so obvious. We either had admiration for the man or disgust.
The expat was concerned as to whether anti-American sentiments were on the increase in Europe.
This was a private group I belong to, so it wasn’t open to the public. The expats who lived abroad were clearly divided as to whether Europeans hated Trump or loved him. They seemed to view the answer through their own narrow lens of personal preferences. The arguments became so virulent between the two sides that the admin chose to remove the comment.
In either case, one thing was clear to me: We are two countries, whether at home or abroad.
We can’t agree on anything. Nada! Not one blessed thing. The responses were so emotional and hateful in many cases that I envisioned a village gathering in the center of town with pitchforks, knives, and rocks to fight it out. There was little to no chance that the two groups would solve their disagreements peacefully.
This is what it has come to, and I’m not surprised.
There is always a plan to manipulate the masses. Always. And nine times out of ten, it works. The best way to manipulate the masses is to divide them. Keep them arguing among themselves. Give them misinformation to fuel their anger. Drive them to violence if need be. Control their thoughts and emotions. I must say, the division has reached perfection at this point. We can’t agree on anything.
No matter what it is — small or big — we are ready to meet in the center of the village and tear each other apart.
I’m not surprised, but I am disappointed. I had hoped that societies were more evolved than this. But it is what it is. We are where we are. Protests and lawsuits aside, it looks more and more likely that we’ll resort to violence to try to solve our differences. The masses have a long history of fighting for the oligarchs. We have sent our sons and daughters into one war after another with little to no reservation. It is part of our DNA.
So, a civil war is not unimaginable. It is, in fact, where we’re headed.
Something could sidetrack us, of course. No one can predict the future with precision, but we now have the social climate that’s conducive to violence. Our rhetoric has already devolved. There is no room left for diplomacy.
It makes me sad.
Yet, I understand how this works. The masses have always been manipulated to turn on one another rather than attack the oligarch, the king, or whatever we might call those who have the power. By power, I mean the money.
Money, money, money.
That’s all that matters in America. Everything is about money in the United States. He who has the money has the power. And those who have the money stick together in a way that the masses never do. They may not love one another, but they definitely understand that if they want to keep the power, they need to convince the masses to turn on each other. They know that we outnumber them. We don’t seem to realize it, but they know.
Trust me, they know.
Unfortunately, the psychological elements that drive the masses to seek a leader they can lay their lives down for are almost overpowering. We want a hero, a big daddy, someone to solve our problems. We give up our power and fall in line over and over again.
So why think that this will turn out differently?
Oh, my! I just looked at the clock, and I’ve got to get on with my day. There isn’t enough time to write about every thought that has passed through my head this morning. I have a long to-do list. Duty calls.
I’m sure you have things to do, too.
Teresa is an author and professional myth buster. You can find her books on Amazon.
