Patriotism. Combustible rubbish ready to the torch of any one ambitious to illuminate his name.

Ambrose Bierce

In an election year, there tends to be a great deal of flag waving.  The brandishing of Old Glory seems obligatory for candidates; yet it seems wielded more as a weapon than a standard of love for one's country.  Beneath the banner of the Stars and Stripes, the promise of liberty and justice becomes superseded by a nationalistic fervor intent on the exclusion and vilification of one's perceived opponents, as if cherishing America is contingent upon despising political foes.  Abandoning the notion of reasoned discourse in pursuit of truth, this brand of patriotism demands a slavish conformity to party above country; and leads inevitably towards the blind ambition of power at any price.  It brands disagreement as degeneracy; thus any dissimilarity is recast as deviltry worthy of contempt and destruction.  In doing so, the fires of discord blaze, and the resulting conflagration consumes the country that is supposedly revered.

In the pursuit of notoriety, the torch of this patriotism supplies more heat than light; illuminating a darkness best left to the shadows.

The B vocabulary / beguile, bedevil, berate

 The B vocabulary consisted of words which had been deliberately constructed for political purposes; words, that is to say, which not only had in every case a political implication, but were intended to impose a desirable mental attitude upon the person using them.  

George Orwell-1984

The control of language supplies a power seeker with an integral tool for shaping thought.  To win an argument without the use of logic or reason may seem counter intuitive, but in fact, it can be far more effective, and easier to accomplish.  Simply by framing the argument in terms that preclude an accurate analysis of the issue, an advocate sidesteps a rational discussion that could lead to greater understanding, and substitutes instead a nebulous concept ripe for manipulation.  

Thus, when the term "groomer" is bandied about in the discussion of child welfare, the revulsion it provokes impedes dispassionate discourse. It instead ignites a fearful hatred focused on anyone who disagrees with the proposition that orthodox gender conformity is the only measure of true rectitude, and any other opinion is tantamount to child abuse.  Likewise, using the designation "woke" reframes hateful bigotry as virtuous; implying that concern and compassion for others and their differences is inherently bogus, and such, must be strenuously opposed.  

The employment of such terms imposes a mental state of willful ignorance upon the user; rendering them nearly impervious to persuasion, no matter how reasonable or judicious the argument may be.  The development of such term doesn't occur by accident; they are crafted specifically to bend and warp sensible minds to an unsound state, and thereby beguile the unwary.

The B vocabulary may be trendy, it may be convenient, and it may be ubiquitous, but beware; lest it becomes an excuse to bedevil and berate others, thereby bedimming the perception of truth and virtue.

Tyrant's alibi / welfare lies

The welfare of the people in particular has always been the alibi of tyrants.

Albert Camus

When seeking to exploit others, a common rationalization centers on portraying the group as inhuman; unworthy of the rights afforded normal people.  When depicted as unfit for compassion and respect, the marginalized faction loses the claim to equal treatment; and becomes vulnerable to abuse.  Achieving such a recategorization often depends upon branding them a danger to cherished values.  By portraying the targeted group as a threat to the common welfare and a menace to hallowed virtues, it becomes easier to justify vilifying them.  Converting conformity into rectitude designates heterodoxy as vice, allowing a righteous indignation towards those who differ and a plausible pretext for exploitation.  

Thus, the welfare of the people turns into the Tyrant's alibi for victimization of others, and the suffering inflicted becomes a source pride rather than shame.  

Turning truth to falsehood

The most dangerous thing you can do is to take any one impulse of your own nature and set it up as the thing you ought to follow at all costs.

C. S. Lewis

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Take one truth and follow it to the exclusion of all else- the truth becomes a falsehood, and the follower a fanatic.

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A single minded worldview is more than just limiting, it is an invitation to self deception.   The misconception that one particular fact, no matter how compelling, explains a complex situation leads to mendacity; no matter how earnest one may be in the pursuit of truth.  

Tunnel vision encourages a single minded track of thought; a course that invites haste and ignores alternative routes of travel.  Once set in motion, the headlong rush becomes inexorable; any delay or contemplation seems injudicious, if not malevolent in nature.  

Dissension invokes fear and anger, prompting attacks against any who would call for prudence, and leading to a rejection of temperance.  

The single truth, bereft of all context, becomes at first distorted, and finally a falsehood; obscuring clear sighted vision and leading its followers blindly into a fanatical pursuit of a phantom reality.

Distilled Shades of Desire

Nostalgia represents an interesting illusion. Through nostalgia, humans wish for things that never were. The positive memory is the one that sticks. Over several generations, the positive memory tends to weed out more and more of what really existed, refining down to a distillation of haunted desires.

Frank Herbert

Nostalgia remains one of the most intoxicating spirits.  Readily available and addictive,  it distorts memory as it besots reason and perception.  The false recollections about the past distort the present, and taint notions of the future.  Desire crowds out reality, and delivers a contorted sensibility which easily disfigures truth.  Worse, it motivates individuals towards creating an existence based on illusion; and fuels fury when the recreation fails to live up to the dream.  

Phantom cravings create ghosts of paradise pasts; spectral images that bedevil the dark corners of human minds.  These dismal spirits frighten away reason and compassion; drowning hope and happiness in bitter dregs of haunted desires.

The pit fear full

The fearful are often holders of the most dangerous power. They become demoniac when they see the workings of all the life around them. Seeing the strengths as well as the weaknesses, they fasten only on the weaknesses.

Frank Herbert

The inability to face change and accept it as a natural progression of life breeds a fear founded upon ignorance that disables courage and engenders hate.  This pit of dread and destruction swallows not only those who spawn it, but threatens to devour those within reach of the afflicted.  To focus blindly upon only weakness denies the strength also present, and threatens to raze the entire structure of creativity.  

Creation depends upon the ability to build together; pooling resources to achieve something that didn't previously exist.  It relies on an acknowledgment that individuals produce better together; a trust that valuing the contribution of others leads to greater deeds.  Fear casts out trust; it seperates and isolates in a way that precludes cooperation.  This weakens community, and strengthens suspicious belligerence- a recipe for ruin.  

Digging the pit of fear ensnares not only others, but ourselves.  Once full, such a pit becomes a trap which hinders both hope and happiness; where despair seems inescapable.  

Faith in badness

If you live in bad faith, lies will appear to you like the truth.

Frank Herbert

For those who deceive themselves, their faith can not be anything but bad.  Truth becomes elusive, even expendable when desire for gain supersedes the value of veracity; and those who abandon impartiality abandon their integrity as well.  When the craving for victory overwhelms the hunger for fair play and justice; lies flourish and nurture a contempt for any disagreement.   Without an honest introspection concerning one's own motives, and an utmost desire for clear sightedness; lies become accepted as truth.   Indeed, moral cowardice demands a rejection of any objective scrutiny lest it upset the precarious fabrications necessary for self deception.  

One who lives in bad faith adopts a faith in badness- whether or not they allow themselves to recognize it.

Hardly thinking

He who thinks with difficulty believes with alacrity.

Ambrose Bierce

Cognitive functioning requires sustained effort and focus; it compels us to comtemplate the situational surroundings and analyze the relationships therein.  It is difficult, even for the most discerning and diligent  individuals, to think objectively about the dilemmas that confront us in our daily lives, and act rationally and responsibly.  Such behavior is anything but instinctual; it necessitates both instruction and continuing practice if it is to be mastered.  Unfortunately, many find expending such effort overwhelming; and rather than struggling to think, they would prefer the ease of embracing belief.  

The convenience of adopting platitudes rather than attempting contemplative reflection tempts the indolent mind; palatable bromides swallow easily when the desire for effortless consumption overweighs other considerations.  When such slothful habits are coupled with overweening prejudice; the mind petrifies into an impediment to logic and compassion.  Belief becomes synonymous with virtue, and a foolish constancy is deified.  

Eclipsing thinking hard by hardly thinking prompts belief with an alacrity both injurious and ignominious.

Principle freedom/free from principles

When I am weaker than you, I ask you for freedom because that is according to your principles; when I am stronger than you, I take away your freedom because that is according to my principles.

Frank Herbert

Whenever the talk turns to freedom, the principle behind the discourse tends to be hidden, for too often those shouting loudest for "freedom" are actually clamoring for power. Freedom to act without facing  consequences, especially when harming others, isn't the practice of a cherished virtue; it is an act of unbridled selfishness.  To insist upon such a right without accepting the responsibilities inherent in such a demand displays a contempt for the social contract between adults in a civil society.  

The just exercise of power rests upon responsible decisions made in the best interests of the whole community; not upon the rapacious desires of a select minority.  Limiting the rights of others to satisfy a craving for situational domination leads not to liberty, but to a subjugation of moral principles to ephemeral lusts.  

Rationalizing exploitation by invoking the principle of freedom reveals not a longing for liberty, but a covetousness for control.

In this vein, the pursuit of the principle of "freedom" leads to a freedom from principles.

Rebranding Bigotry

 The problem with hateful bigotry? No matter how cherished, the stench of such a vice can't be hidden.  Thus, whenever the realization dawns that a certain mindset reeks of this corruption, it must be obscured by rebranding to prevent piercing the bubble of willful ignorance.  

Harboring hate is problematic; especially when its patron wishes to profess allegiance to the virtues of love and acceptance.  Somehow, the loathing felt must be transmuted into an expression of concern and caring; a method is required to contort vile weakness to an acceptable, even admirable display.  

Thus, opposing hateful bigotry is branded as "politically correct", "virtue signaling" and "woke"; each phrase used until its nebulously defined term of contempt loses potency.  The function remains the same- denigrating compassion and open mindedness, and sanctifying prejudice.  

Pandering to willful ignorance and moral cowardice may be profitable, but it does require a talent for dissimulation and a lack of integrity.  Rebranding bigotry remains a tainted stigma; no matter how prettily the phrase is turned.

Worsen the better

Whenever we find that our religious life is making us feel that we are good - above all, that we are better than someone else - I think we may be sure that we are being acted on, not by God, but by the devil.

C. S. Lewis

Using religion to elevate oneself above others debauches the nature of faith.  A spiritual pride imparts not virtue, but a corruption of compassion and wisdom.  It obscures both the true nature of the observer and the observed; and serves to promote a venal mindset.  Selling integrity for self aggravation squanders morality and purchases the squalid comfort of feigned superiority; a bargain where only evil gains.  Humility demands a recognition  of one's own shortcomings, along with an acceptance that each person must deal with their own demons.  

One can't sanctify personal vice by the desecration of others; this only worsens the better of both.

Little big ones

Democracy demands that little men should not take big ones too seriously; it dies when it is full of little men who think they are big themselves.

C. S. Lewis

The smallness of stature prevails among many politicians.  This wouldn't be tragic, if they would acknowledge their diminutive nature, and act accordingly.  There exists, however, a breed of political animals that flourishes in the discordant and belligerent environment that dominates today.  These people have bloated themselves with self importance; forsaking humility in a mad pursuit of power.  Their willful ignorance blinds them to realistic self appraisal; and fuels egotistical behaviors based on an inflated self image.  As such, they reject compromise and accommodation as beneath their dignity, clamoring instead for ever increasing control over the civic policy by any means necessary.  

Thus, the process of democracy dies, killed by the aristocratic demands for domination.  In the pursuit of winning, even a the cost of chaos, a republic lies slaughtered.  Scavengers pick at the carcass; gorging themselves on the carrion that was a commonwealth.  

In the name of "freedom" the little big ones make the mountains of liberty into minuscule molehills of tyranny- and laud themselves as giants in such a land.

Tumor of the times

For pride is spiritual cancer: it eats up the very possibility of love, or contentment, or even common sense.

C. S. Lewis

Willful ignorance depends upon more that just a lack of knowledge; it requires a rancid pride to sustain it against the reality it denies.  Of all failings, pride remains the most pernicious, the most intractable, and the most destructive vice common to all humans.  It breeds contempt, it spawns both arrogance and indifference; it is a disease as infectious as it is persistent in the minds of the many.  Pride proclaims compassion weakness; it devours the capacity to empathize with others; and it happily exterminates the capability to forgive.  

When pride overshadows humanity, the ensuing darkness cloaks vice in an impenetrable gloom; obscuring self reflective considerations that might mitigate ignorance and hatred.  Allowed to spread unchecked, pride consumes faith, hope and charity; ravaging rationality and temperance in an ever increasing desire to obtain power at any cost.  

Pride has become the tumor of the times; a malignant malady of the spirit that must be excised lest it kills those who cherish it. 

Eyes wide shut

One of the most cowardly things ordinary people do is to shut their eyes to facts.

C. S. Lewis

These are times where the "facts" are an alternative to truth.  When people are trained to disbelieve their senses for the sake of conscious convenience, they willingly embrace a cowardice that leads to destruction.  Life and liberty, concern and compassion, faith and fearlessness; all are cast upon the fire of fearful ignorance.  Steadfast refusals to admit a mistaken belief would seem ludicrous and laughable if they didn't involve a death sentence; individuals and families are torn asunder over the inability to concede that a mistaken course of actions has led to the termination of life. 

Trusting in magic potions and spells for protection may provide momentary comfort, but the reality of death brings "a peculiar clarity" to the most hardened believer.  Unfortunately, there will alway be those that pander to cowardice, mouthing platitudes about "freedom" and "independence " of thought, while stoking irrational fears into a conflagration of gutless hatred.  Painful as it may be, critical thinking skills must be deployed to learn the truth; parsing out the facts and acting accordingly is the kind of courage most needed now.

The task of ordinary people undertaking these deeds is nothing less that heroic; those with eyes wide shut to the facts embrace the most abysmal cowardice.

Numbly Comfortable

If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end; if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin, and in the end, despair.

-C.S. Lewis

As the nation debates the history of racial bigotry in America, voices are raised in apprehension around the teaching of this history in schools.  Some parents decry the attempts to instruct children in mistakes of the past; arguing that to convey the truth about white exploitation of people of color will make some uncomfortable.  

Sacrificing truth for comfort teaches contempt for truth; scorning veracity to alleviate cognitive dissonance numbs the mind and spirit to the harsh reality of the pain caused by a callous indifference to the suffering of others.  Humans tend to  accept such unshared misery as normal; blaming the victims for their adversity.  With this acceptance comes a diminished humanity; a wanton cruelty that numbs compassion.

In this state of disposable truth, nothing is strong; and the wishful thinking of the numbly comfortable leads to a despair of progress and improvement; a despair that ends in self destruction.

Who's driving the bus?

When religion and politics travel in the same cart, the riders believe nothing can stand in their way. Their movements become headlong - faster and faster and faster. They put aside all thoughts of obstacles and forget the precipice does not show itself to the man in a blind rush until it's to late.

Frank Herbert

Jaime Escalante: You only see the turn, you don't see the road ahead.

The quest to infuse politics with religion tempts the pious.  Looking at the depravity of power displayed within the gears of government disheartens even a sanguine citizen; graft and deception flourish in nearly every system and the repairs seem distant and difficult.  Revising a structure that debases elected officials and deprives their constituents of life and liberty would seem an obligatory task, but one that eludes even the most diligent seekers of reform.  In an attempt to rectify such a situation, many are drawn to the conclusion that adopting a religious basis for the state is both just and expedient.  The problem with such a solution is that it combines the power of religion- eternal, divine, and unlimited- with the temporal, terrestrial and finite powers of politics- to the detriment of both.  

The art of communal accommodation  that government seeks to embody often offends some religious mindsets. There can be no compromise when virtue and vice are concerned; thus political opponents morph into demons, vile creatures that must be destroyed.  In the pursuit of a truly good system, power becomes paramount; and laws become commandments.  Objections and reflective considerations challenge not earthy participants, but God.  In the rush toward directing the nation, those assuming control blind themselves to possible detrimental destinations, trusting that celestial guidance will protect the faithful.  

In the end, the bus is driven by desire, and the end is often terminal.  

Righteous wrong turn

God will not be used as a convenience. Men or nations who think they can revive the Faith in order to make a good society might just as well think they can use the stairs of heaven as a shortcut to the nearest chemist’s shop.

C.S. Lewis

In a society where convenience is worshiped, God becomes a tool to justify employing odious means toward loathsome ends.  Sanctifying cowardice, hallowing hatred, glorifying violence; all are easily accepted underneath the shroud of a deity designed to serve the depravity of human desire.  When Faith becomes subservient to sin, the best intentions lead ultimately to the stygian depths, and those who follow find themselves perdition bound.   Let us ensure the path we follow is guided by love, humility and courage lest we make a righteous wrong turn.