We are trapped by lies
Can we regain our ideals?
by Mike Meyer
We are caught in a trap of our own devising. It seems as if there is no escape. How could this have happened is a constant refrain. Why did people actually vote for a known criminal, liar, sexual predator and business failure? It can’t have been real. It must be a scam. But still we are caught with no way forward. Everything is simply denied. Lies are presented as truth with the taunt to prove it isn’t so.
The complete lack of a way out of this trap has driven people into depression, anxiety, and rage. Why can’t we get out of this mess?
There is no trap. The trap is an illusion. The lies we are being told are not the lies that hold us. We have been taught to lie to ourselves for so long that those unquestioned lies are being used to entangle us while we cringe at the daily shouting of obvious lies.
The matrix of untruth that holds us captive has many levels. That we are apparently powerless to do anything is, itself, a lie. If we can overcome that lie all the rest will become obvious as the childish lies of immature and sick minds that they really are.
What is the lie that is making us powerless? The lie that we can’t change our government even when that government is broken and beginning to destroy everything that we have. But now it is beginning to destroy international trade and open markets, diplomacy, alliances against evil and dictatorial power, the integrity of our government, the integrity of agreements long established to maintain peace and security, and, more frighteningly, to foster racism and white supremacy, xenophobia, scientific ignorance and denial.
Why? Because these systems were not perfect? Because mistakes have been made in multiple country’s political systems ignoring the well being of the bulk of the citizens? Because we are in transition to a very different world with instantaneous collaboration and communication and some people have figured out how to use that to lie to millions of people? Because we are angry at those changes and want them to be fairer to us?
Is this something we’ve never seen before? What do we tell our children when they become angry and aggressive because someone else got the toy they wanted? Do we tell them to scream and shout and attack the lucky child? Do we tell them to start hating everyone who is in any way different from them? Do we tell them there is no truth and everything belongs to us?
I don’t think so. There are some that do that and we pity them and, if they can’t be corrected, we take their children so they can be protected.
If our neighborhoods and communities become inflamed with racism and hatred and allow lies and greed to replace our laws, what do we do? We either change the management of those communities or we declare them illegal and build new ones. If they are salvageable we reorganize them and make creative changes to prevent these things from happening again. We do that because we know what is correct and what the great majority of people want. Only the criminally confused find these things confusing.
Why aren’t we doing this now? (This applies to whatever country you are in.) I am speaking of America, though, and that was once a country based on a majority that understood these things and would act on them when needed. Why are we not acting on these now?
Perhaps I’m wrong and there is some great force that is trapping us in this terrible failure, but I think it is just our decades of telling ourselves that we are special. That our system is somehow the chosen one and cannot be changed but must be worshipped as sacred. Yet, I know that the majority of us know that is wrong. There was never any sacredness in America. There was respect of others and commitment to discuss and agree and to carefully act for the benefit of all while trying to do what we think is best for both ourselves and others. There was the commitment to support the majority.
Perhaps, most importantly, this was based on recognizing the rights of other’s opinions and the right to live the way they wished while they respected us and the way we lived. That failed from the start and failed repeatedly in many situations but it was always the ideal and the basis of action when others were being oppressed. And, however many times we didn’t act correctly, we were still proud of our attempts and willingness to fight for others who were being denied, oppressed, and murdered.
When did we stop holding that as an ideal? When did we allow the minority who built their world on greed, hatred, and manipulation to force us to renounce that ideal? I don’t remember ever doing that. Did I miss something?
That renunciation that never happened is the lie that holds us powerless. We allowed people to say that everything changed and it is all a lie so we can’t stop them from destroying not only us but our planetary safety and security.
We need to end the lie that this country is the golden city on the hill and only meant for white people of one or another obscure religion. That was never true and we know it. We are owners of a government, and it is ours alone, that was made to advance honesty, truth, and humility. That government has changed and needs to change again to meet those ideals. They didn’t end, they’ve just been buried in lies. The lies are piling up so fast we have lost our ideals under them.
It’s time to dig them out. Let’s put this in perspective. What do we have to change?
We have a president that, if he ever was, is no longer legitimate. The reasons are obvious and are well understood by the majority of our population.
Our Congress has been dominated by people who do not believe in any of our ideals. They are interested only in power and greed. Whatever ‘party’ they are they have lost our ideals. Not one of them has stood up to lead us out of this. They have all publicly or privately declared themselves powerless to act. We should take them at their word.
Our courts have been and are being corrupted by people who do not share any of the basic ideas or, in some cases, even the rule of law. They have clearly indicated that they want rule by the rich or the religious with power as the only justification.
The level of national corruption and its acceptance alone makes the entire system a criminal organization. Government is by the people, of the people, and for the people. That is simple and easy to understand. Our government is not for one group or another, the rich but not the poor, this race or that race, or only for the greedy. This is the basic idea from 242 years ago. I think it is solid enough to continue as the primary rule for our society. Can we agree on that?
What do we do? We declare that our government in its present form is in extremity. The current administration and the current Congress is failing.
We call on our former presidents, there are four, to form an executive committee to ask our Department of Justice, that is already investigating the major problems of legality and legitimacy of our current administration, and our Department of Defense take direct control of the administration and Congress and establish an interim government to make necessary adjustments and implement a full national election in two years.
The Executive Committee would create an administrative council to provide departmental management and all functions of the Executive and Legislative branch until a fully elected government can be formed. The federal administration would be handled by the professional civil servants who run then anyway.
This is how we break the paralysis and begin a new era to correct the old and worsening problems. To do that we put everything in front of the people and the planet to watch what we do. We have the ability, with hard work and care, to constantly ask and directly receive the opinions of the population. This would be a massive discussion over two years or longer.
We could think of this as Democracy 2.0.
Are we too small to be able to do this?
