Power

This was originally posted in the comments section of a post at Bring It On:
***

“If you would rather kiss off any chance of winning the other over and would rather fight, by all means, call them names; use sarcasm, threats, shouting, ignore what they’re saying, etcetera. “

If that doesn’t work, why are the neocons in power?

I’m not saying liberals should endeavor to be like them. I’m saying we need to admit the reality of what we’re facing down. Hate is a very powerful thing, and a lot of the Right’s tactics are based on it—not greed, but pure hate and the desire to wantonly destroy. And that’s spoken to many people across America for the last 6 years. Perhaps they got sick of the PC thing and feeling like they had to “behave”; but I do remember a “cutting loose and misbehaving” kind of mischievous hatefulness that started after Bush took the big seat. I think everyone has the potential to be manipulated by fear and to act out of hate, but we all also have the potential to control such atavistic feelings with reason and conscience. Hatefulness can win control of any person anywhere if they fail to choose something else—Democrats and atheists can be hateful, as well as Republicans and religious fanatics. But it’s important to admit that some doctrines decry hate, and some promote it. What we have now in this country is six years of the cumulative self-indulgent hate of a country that ought to know better.

This administration has removed from the American people the need to have a conscience. They have decided that they are powerful enough to decree that. The effects of this administration can be seen in everything from foreign governments’ actions, to our own pop culture. And so we attack each other, and the harm the rest of the world. But like any pleasurable-but-ultimately-poisoning indulgence, America as a whole seems to finally be getting sick to its collective stomach. I see more and more people slowing down and asking “WTF?” We’re waking up to the hate hangover and beginning to see the real live, “it-affects-me-too-whoda-thunk-it?” consequences.

It would be a mistake to label this a “liberal” or “Republican” or even “religious” problem. It’s a hate problem, and we’ll periodically go through phases with it until we eventually decide that power stemming from giving a damn about people and fighting for them, is stronger power than that coming from hating people and trying to destroy them. Everyone wants power. Democrats need it. But they need to grab at the right kind.

I’m not part of any religion, and I’m not promoting any one moral code. But one thing that has to be valued if a person values life on this earth, is the willful attempt to deny the indulgence of hate. I don’t believe in blind “open-mindedness” or tolerating others’ intolerance, I believe that dogma has in part kept us from turning this tide before now. But the only way to fight the power that comes from something negative and shitty, is the power that comes from something good. If we can’t morally agree on what life-affirming things to fight for, then the false “culture of life” crust over a sea of tarry hate will continue to engulf us, even as we wake up just in time to watch ourselves drown.

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