3-23-2010 On Mindless Anger

Today I exercised, went to Organ class then went to the caucus meeting. We learned some new techniques at the first- "Bob" from Chicago was there and showed us how to change presets while playing, change octaves, and change the “Genie” and “Orch+” buttons.

At the political caucus (which Utah has instead of primaries) Lorri (my wife) got elected delegate and I got elected Chairman and Lorri Vice Chairman. Michelle (daughter) didn’t go but I offered to make her secretary or treasurer; she didn’t respond. How much more work all this will involve will probably be in our control. I explained to Lorri, who is very angry with Jim Matheson, that he may not vote the way we want on certain issues but his presence as a Democrat means we are more likely to be the majority party in congress and thus have more power. She realizes that is important. We also learned that his opponent is not likely to win the congressional seat. So we are stuck with a difficult choice. If he is in the House it is probably better for us than if a Republican is there, but it is still unsettling since he doesn’t vote or speak for our point of view.

The big event this week was the Health Care legislation passing the congress and being signed into law. The Republicans (or Repubpubs or Refoxicans) are furious. A Lou Harris poll shows that 57% of Republicans think Obama is a Muslim, and 24% think is may well be the antichrist. 45% say he is doing the same things that Hitler did…. What kind of place do we live in? What are members of the human species really like? How much reason and how much violent-gang-emotional thinking is there? Previously I was aware that the bond is primal among humans and easily overrode reason. I got additional evidence for this notion when a story in the paper talked about a woman writer who joined a fundamentalist church and described how the members have a very strong friendship bond that runs amazingly deep. They do not, however, think about the political positions and other teachings their leaders give them. They simply act –and donate money—as the leaders tell them. They will even mistreat children to follow the dictates of their leaders.

The most recent example of the people following without thinking was to see some people being interviewed about the passage of the Health Care bill. They simply repeated the concerns and points of view of the Republican leaders. They are angry about the supposed loss of freedom, supposed government takeover of Health Care, etc., parroting Bannor and McConnell. Passage of the bill was, to them, the worst thing to happen in American history. It is also disturbing that despite some minor outbreaks of violence the Republican leaders make no effort to tone down their followers. They seem to believe that the most extreme of the followers are the one who hold their futures in their hands, so they must not contradict what they say, no matter how absurd. Oh people, what are you but brain-dead organisms sitting in a mind numbing echo chamber. It is depressing and discouraging even though the majority got something accomplished. The anger is a disturbing element, the high level of anger. I remember when I first saw that level of anger when the vote recounting was going on in 2000 in Florida. At that time I thought that, well, if they are that upset maybe we should let them have their turn in the White House. Now I realize that they are always that mad and giving them power is not the answer.

Alas!