Post by Josh on Jan 16, 2021 14:06:01 GMT -8
Posted January 9th on facebook:
As insidious and inarticulate and fear-based as it is, the populist conservative national angst of millions of our fellow citizens ought to tell us something.
I guess I kind of think of it as referred pain. The pain of a heart attack often registers in the neck, face, or back, making an immediate diagnosis difficult. But the pain IS coming from somewhere and it warrants attention.
Much of the angst of the right is perhaps simply the pain of losing dominance. I don’t have sympathy for that because it’s high time for the dispossessed to take their full seat at the table.
But I think there also is some legitimate fear of a world in which government and tech companies increasingly micro-manage our lives. Some legitimate fear that cancel culture is a slippery slope. Some legitimate fear that when any side gains ascendancy, power corrupts.
Do this collective angst a favor by holding the incoming administration to scrutiny. Speak truth to it, don’t give it a free pass because it seems so much more “normal” than the circus before it.
I’m not saying we will or even should all agree on what the “pain”’ is really telling us. But try to pay attention to it so you aren’t caught blindsided the next time things going the rails.
Also, with all these fears remember that the only real antidote to fear is love:
There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. We love because he first loved us. Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.
1 John 4:18-21
As insidious and inarticulate and fear-based as it is, the populist conservative national angst of millions of our fellow citizens ought to tell us something.
I guess I kind of think of it as referred pain. The pain of a heart attack often registers in the neck, face, or back, making an immediate diagnosis difficult. But the pain IS coming from somewhere and it warrants attention.
Much of the angst of the right is perhaps simply the pain of losing dominance. I don’t have sympathy for that because it’s high time for the dispossessed to take their full seat at the table.
But I think there also is some legitimate fear of a world in which government and tech companies increasingly micro-manage our lives. Some legitimate fear that cancel culture is a slippery slope. Some legitimate fear that when any side gains ascendancy, power corrupts.
Do this collective angst a favor by holding the incoming administration to scrutiny. Speak truth to it, don’t give it a free pass because it seems so much more “normal” than the circus before it.
I’m not saying we will or even should all agree on what the “pain”’ is really telling us. But try to pay attention to it so you aren’t caught blindsided the next time things going the rails.
Also, with all these fears remember that the only real antidote to fear is love:
There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. We love because he first loved us. Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.
1 John 4:18-21
