Listening to politicians speak these days brings all kinds of ideas and images up from the recesses of my subconscious.
But the most vivid one is an old TV show I saw, many years ago, with Dick Van Dyke portraying a businessman’s descent into hopeless alcoholism. It was the very definition of cliche. Van Dyke’s alcoholic was sitting in the shadows of a bridge — presumably because it was the only refuge left for him after having been kicked out of his house — holding his bottle of whatever-it-was (probably whiskey) for dear life, as if it were the only thing that mattered anymore.
I’m not suggesting that all politicians are drunks — though you have to wonder sometimes, when you hear them speak, just how many of them are intoxicated when they open their mouths. But I think the metaphor is pretty valid. Maybe we don’t all clutch liquor bottles like they’re the only things left in the world. But we do hold onto the things we hear, or read, or are told to us long after it’s been proven, or at least indicated, that there’s more that meets the eye on a lot of them.
For example, in my mind, there’s a lot about our current president to dislike — and most of it has to do with his temperament and his utter lack of impulse control. Every day is a new adventure when it comes to whatever escapes The Donald’s mouth.
However, if I hear, one more time, he was in collusion with the Russians I’m going to hit someone. A panel led by a man (Robert Mueller) who demonstrated extreme dislike for the president said he was not. I’d think that someone like Mueller would have given anything to unearth something, but he could not. So why keep bringing that up as the sole reason for distrusting Trump?
Similarly, Hillary Clinton was investigated five ways to Sunday about the tragedy of Benghazi, her emails, whether she wore different color socks or dyed her hair — and nobody has been able to even indict her. So what it amounts to is that outside of being one of those people who draws a visceral reaction at the sight of her, she’s in the clear, legally, to the best of the knowledge of the stadium full of people who don’t like her. Yet don’t we still hear about Benghazi and emails?
Even now, Trump (or at least his people) started clamoring over the weekend for the arrest of Hillary and Obama.
Why is this? Why do people continually perpetuate these lies and/or half truths when it’s so easy to suss them out as false or misleading? Why are we still reading post after post on social media hawking cures for the coronavirus that an army of scientists and medical professionals have not found?
There’s one obvious answer. People cling to what they hold near and dear in times of stress. Extreme agitation is not really the right state of mind to be receptive of new things and new ideas.
Oh, we all talk about how enlightened we are. But are we?
I’d say we are, at this moment in history, an agitated country. We’re beset with a pandemic on which nobody can get a handle, we’re in the middle of a contentious presidential campaign that offers a 180-degree difference on the nation’s direction, and — to boot — we are witnessing what can only be considered a blatant power grab, whether you support or oppose the people involved.
We are powerless, ourselves, to do much about any of it. If we’re honest, we’re not going to cure COVID-19. The only thing we can hope, with regard to the election, is that the guy we support wins next month. And it’s pretty certain that, on the face of it, we can kiss any progressive social legislation that comes before the Supreme Court goodbye for the next two generations.
So what do we do? We cling to what we believe and we don’t take kindly to people who tell us we’re wrong. Obama said something very similar to this in 2008 when he talked about clinging to guns and religion. We take refuge in that which gives us the most comfort and reassurance. If we’re conservative, we become more conservative. And vice versa. If you don’t want to wear a mask, you’ll come up with the one article out of about a thousand that backs you up.
I see this in myself. Like most everyone, COVID has hit our house. It’s been a grind, mainly because I’m in no position to get this virus and survive it. So, yeah, I have held certain people accountable for its severity, and yeah, I’m not really interested in hearing anything to the contrary.
Would I be so strident if I didn’t have a dog in the hunt? I don’t know. I do, though, so I’m not going to engage in hypotheticals.
So here we all are, clinging to our little fun facts, and bits of misinformation, and “fake news” like they’re our lifelines to salvation. I don’t see this ending anytime soon, regardless of who ends up winning. The ride is only going to get rougher.