“Is there any point in public debate in a society where
hardly anyone has been taught how to think, while millions have been taught
what to think?”
Peter
Hitchens
“In the end the Party would announce that two and two
made five, and you would have to believe it. It was inevitable that they should
make that claim sooner or later: the logic of their position demanded it. Not
merely the validity of experience, but the very existence of external reality,
was tacitly denied by their philosophy. The heresy of heresies was common
sense. And what was terrifying was not that they would kill you for thinking
otherwise, but that they might be right. For, after all, how do we know that
two and two make four? Or that the force of gravity works? Or that the past is unchangeable?
If both the past and the external world exist only in the mind, and if the mind
itself is controllable—what then?”
George Orwell, 1984
“Most people do not have a problem with you thinking for
yourself, as long as your conclusions are the same as or at least compatible
with their beliefs.”
Mokokoma Mokhonoana
_______________________________________________
I sat with my elderly friend
as we talked about days gone by
of long lost fathers, and brothers, and sisters
of her husband
gone these many years
attendants came and went
with eye drops and pills
and then through the air
unrelenting
came the sound of a TV
turned up to the thunder level
as an elderly man sat
literally 2 feet from the screen watching the news
the hosts were pleasant and chatty
happy folk in their extreme whiteness
and they overwhelmed the space
with a reality I did not recognize
an alternative truth
and it hit me
profoundly
to what degree we shape our own realities
or allow others to shape them
Listening to the hosts of the show
I came to understand that if I trusted those voices
I too would see the President as the savior of America
A gifted leader leading us to greatness
If I trusted those voices, as they talked about
immigrants
and democrats,
and liberals
I too would fear the immigrants, despise the democrats
and hate the liberals
It struck me so powerfully
That if I had not had the experiences I have had
That person in front of that TV could be me
What I saw was a man who
I am sure
Loves his country
Loves God (as he understands God)
Loves his family
What I saw was a man who probably worked hard
And was generous
And a good neighbor
What I saw was a good person
Shaped by the family that raised him
The preachers who preached at him
The teachers who taught him
The people and the culture that surrounds him
And, those voices…
Coming loudly, out of that TV
I could see how that reality
That I see as false, alternative
Could be his total reality
How there could easily be no hole in the bubble
No crack in the wall
I cannot accept this alternative reality
Where I believe
Good is called evil, and evil is called good
I cannot accept this reality where greed is accepted
Corruption is ignored and excused
And others are see not only as less, but without true
value
(Even as I write those words I realize that
Those inside that alternative reality do not see greed as
greed but success and power
And see corruption as “the art of the deal”
And do not understand that they are caught up in
privilege and even supremacism)
So I struggle to understand
To have compassion
To love
While watching the hate roil
And the waters become poisoned
And the earth wither
And people, so many people, be harmed
By poverty, injustice, hate, racism, exclusion,
And in this painful place I struggle to remember
That I too have been shaped
I have been shaped by my Mennonite, pacifist heritage
By my father who served his patients and community so
diligently
By my uncle, a Wake Island survivor
Who hunted down the Japanese commandant who brutalized
him and almost killed him
And reconciled with that man, on the 50th
anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing.
I have been shaped by my education (I admit it, my
amazing times at four great schools have shaped my capacity to gather facts, evaluate
them, and think, critically)
I have been shaped by my time as a pastor
By time sitting in hospital rooms and by death beds
By time sipping coffee, an extravagant gift, in a house
touched by poverty
By time working with the poor
The mentally ill
The addicted
I have been shaped by time in Northern Iraq, Azerbaijan,
Israel, Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, and Romania, responding to war and natural
disasters
I have been shaped by holding a dying Kurdish child in my
arms
And looking a decimated villages
And ravaged people with empty eyes
I have also been shaped by my whiteness
Maleness
And economic privilege
So I have a reality shaped by many things
And I know my grasp of reality is not perfect
I know I do not see everything clearly
I know I am biased
I know I may well, all to many times, be wrong
And so I have to be honest about how I am shaped
And who shapes me
And I have to constantly, daily, even hourly
Return to my center
To that place where the Sacred dwells
To that place where the Spirit
Advocate
Comforter
And Guide roams
And I have to let the Spirit help me sort out
The fine line between opinion and fact
Truth and that pesky alternative truth
Do I always succeed in finding the truth?
Of course, not but I try
I try
And I listen to many voices… not just one
Not just the same ones
And the truth is
I fear too many people have be told what to think
Rather than taught how to think
I fear there are “People of the Lie” out there
Who are peddling lies for profit and power
And I fear some very good, decent people
Are actively supporting evil, unawares
So what do we do with this?
Here are my meager thoughts…
Turn on our hearts
Become open to the Spirit
Use our brains
Keep humble
Keep kind
Keep loving
And pray
That we can be mustard seeds
That we can be yeast
And help all of us
Together
Find truth and love, and
Build the kingdom
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