Friday, October 7, 2016

Follow the Fold

   Preaching to your own political choir of devotees who already believe and need little persuasion because you tell them what they want to hear regardless of fact or reality is a fine way to succeed, temporarily, in guiding and leading a political movement.
   But sooner or later, reality has a way of crashing the party and taking away the punch that intoxicates the True Believers.
   Truth can be defined as that which conforms to fact or reality. But some Great Truths, while outlining a fine goal, do not always conform to reality. For example, it may be that "we hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all are created equal." But as George Orwell noted in his book, "Animal Farm," some believe they are "more equal than others."
   It is a fact that many believe some people are inherently, biologically or culturally "better" than others. Taken to an extreme, this leads to a dogma that stipulates a "master race," thus enabling its members to dominate and even eventually to exterminate those who are not of the same ilk.
   History contains numerous examples of this reality, perpetrated by those who believe in a "truth" that some are more equal than others.
   America was founded on the principle that all are created equal, but to follow a leader who claims that others are inferior in some way and therefore "don't belong here" is not only contrary to American ideals, but frightening in its consequences.
   Don't go there.

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