Letter to the Editor

DISCERNING THE TRUTH

OF THE SENSES

More than two million years ago, the human species fought for survival on the East African plains using a unique combination of perception, intellect, and action. Whenever hunters were away from their protective groups especially, the crucial actions of crawling, running, jumping, climbing, throwing, and jabbing could save one’s life from a hungry pride of lions or a competing pack of hyenas. But these actions weren’t always successful, and it didn’t take much short-term memory and intellectual judgement to reach the conclusion one should either avoid such situations or at least try to control the time, the place, and the circumstances. What one carried as a weapon, and as a shield, as simple examples.

Even then, this effort would have been mostly fruitless, because the big felines and canines were faster and stronger, and could see, hear, and smell better. What made the difference and allowed man to survive? His own perception, though inferior, wedded to the beginnings of an intellect always looking for solutions and planning courses of action, gave him the edge he needed. It all depended on his discernment—his ability to process and interpret what he saw, heard, and smelled. From there he could analyze, judge, and plan his course of action.

Will our nation continue to survive in the face of modern threats just as dire as hungry lions and much more complicated? To say that 40 to 50 percent of our nation’s electorate manifests a chronic inability to discern the basic truth of those senses required for survival is an understatement if I’ve ever heard one. Somehow Birthers were unable to both see the hospital records and hear the verbal testimony that verified that Barack Obama was indeed born in Hawaii. And when they saw their neighbors, the ones with the chronic medical conditions who had been told they were “uninsurable,” actually receiving lifesaving health care, they continued to rail against Obamacare. Even later, when they themselves were benefitting from the Affordable Care Act. These same individuals, older now, are still spreading misinformation about our vaccine programs, though many saw firsthand the tragically crippling effects of polio on their own childhood friends.

Another particular inability to discern, in Trumpers, seems to involve race relations. For example, they responded to Michelle and Barack Obama mostly from a deep-seated tribalism and fear of “the other.” They could have chosen, instead, to follow the teachings of Jesus and look for “the human connection” in us all, as pointed out in His parables during His Sermon on the Mount. Even if they were nonbelievers, they could have chosen the human empathy evoked by most American works of literature, for example, Stephen Crane’s poem “The Brotherhood of Man.” But instead they were blinded by skin color, so much so that they couldn’t even discern the stark contrasts between the Obamas’ obvious confidence, grace, and elegance, on the one hand, and the Trumps’ insecurity, clumsiness, and lack of taste, on the other. Family values? How could one miss the loving respect in one family and the obvious contempt and dysfunction, in the other? It is truly wondrous what the cheap sunglasses of racial bigotry can do to degrade one’s ability to see and hear clearly.

What may be the most distressing observation is Trumpers’ seeming inability to discern the truth of what they saw, with their own eyes, and heard, with their own ears, in the hours of video taken during the insurrection of January 6, 2021, at our nation’s Capitol. About 140 police officers reported assault and physical injury, and several officers eventually died, as a result of the mob violence clearly shown in those videos. Officer Michael Fanone, beaten mercilessly by angry rioters, has appeared several times on tv news venues to bear witness about the onslaught. In spite of numerous other testimonies, MAGA supporters have “stood back” but also “stood by” the most violent offenders in the Proud Boy contingent. Some are still claiming that ANTIFA (a “strawman” distraction if I ever heard one) staged the entire insurrection. Takes a lot of gall.

Now that our President Trump has pardoned his violent supporters, it will fall to community and institutional leaders to explain to our youth our blatant hypocrisy, as a nation, in terms of touting law and order. Some young people will ask which political party succumbed to Trump’s mania, and which party resisted. Let’s hope that local civic leaders, government administrators, businessmen, religious leaders, teachers, law enforcement officers, public service workers, attorneys, judges, social workers, and doctors are all well prepared to meet this challenge. As an afterthought, I should report that recently I learned that, at the district meeting of the Missouri GOP in Cape Girardeau last fall, participants—mainly local businessmen and professionals—were encouraged not to accept the word “insurrection” in their day-to-day conversations about January 6.

All of this political, social, and governmental chaos could have been avoided, however, if more observers of Mr. Trump’s behavior in the 1970s, 80s, and 90s had simply discerned his blatant megalomania—so blatant, in fact, that anyone who had been exposed to an introductory course in psychology should have recognized it. But many, perhaps most, individuals in our American culture demonstrate time and again a peculiar combination of fear and admiration for the wealthy neighborhood bully who can manipulate those around him. Academic experts kept quiet while the Trump cult phenomenon spread over much of the nation for several decades, like an insidious fungus slowly growing on a petrie dish of corruption. That corruption is a misguided set of values that not only places wealth and power above human empathy and even humanity itself but also encourages the deceit necessary to hoodwink the vulnerable in our society. Our worship of the Great God Mammon has blinded us to the forces that have learned how to use democracy to destroy democracy itself.

Trump supporters are about to run blindly into the wall we often call reality. They were warned, frequently and with plenty of evidence in terms of historical precedent, but they insisted on holding onto their misunderstood victimhood, their hatred of other ethnic and social groups, and their wish-fulfillment delusion. Now, just when they should have given thanks that they themselves survived the Covid pandemic and that our suffering economy bounced back from the instability naturally brought on by such a global calamity, they chose instead to spread misinformation about vaccines, often after taking the shots themselves, to write off with little hesitation over one million mostly elderly Americans, and to elect a demagogue who has shown again and again he has only his own selfish interests at heart.

As American citizens, keeping our eyes and ears open over the next four years will likely make the difference between democracy and dictatorship, between rule of law and blatant corruption, perhaps even between survival and extinction. I have to wonder whether readers discerned the real “Deep State” of high-tech billionaires sitting in plain sight in the privileged seats at Trump’s Inauguration, while the MAGA mob occupied the peons’ seats farther back in the galleries. One of these billionaires, Elon Musk, is almost a trillionaire and will soon have his own agency (DOGE) and office in the Eisenhower Building near Trump’s White House. This hierarchy of value and respectability will be expanded further during Trump’s administration as he distances himself from the MAGA mob he incited and returns to his real, original roots of privilege in the American oligarchy. The wealthy people he most admires, respects, and values. This is where his heart actually lies and where, after his own self-aggrandizement, his loyalties will be focused.

As I speak, the lions and hyenas slowly circle around the outside perimeter of our hunters’ nighttime encampment and look for an opening or a vulnerable straggler. Eyes focus, ears perk up, and nostrils flare on both sides as the confrontation becomes inevitable. The unrelenting tension is broken momentarily, as the metaphorical light bulb switches on in one hunter’s brain and he calls for the rest of us to bring out the sharp, polished sticks and the flint rocks we have prepared in advance for just such a contingency. Soon a raging fire is lighting the landscape, and through it we can see the big cats and dogs quickly loping away in fear and resignation. We have saved ourselves again, but they will be back. Next time, will we be vigilant, will we discern the danger, and will we know what to do?

Sam Duckworth

Caruthersville, MO