Be Not Afraid

 I've been thinking about the biblical Flood lately.

Or rather... thinking about how God must see us. Fallible, afraid, screwing up left and right (the Old Testament is full of stories where that happens. Even, or perhaps especially, King David.)

So much so that He decided to just drown everyone and start over.

And afterwards, gave us the rainbow to show He'd never go so far again.

You could say that He decided that drowning everything and starting over wasn't really a good answer.

And then we have the Bible, over and over again, tell us "Do not be afraid".

The more I learn and grow, the more I think fear truly is the mindkiller. Fear makes us small, fear justifies doing things we know is wrong. Scarcity politics come from fear - that the world is a zero sum game, and that if we don't fight for what's ours that we will lose out. That ourselves and our people could starve or die if we didn't secure access to the things we need.

Which easily turns into 'so if they succeed, I lose'. 

Alas, our society does not make it easy to live without fear. 

In some ways I think that's the worst part about losing the family farm. Losing small businesses. Losing independence. Sure... those aren't always ideal work environments and aren't always led by the greatest people either. But something happens when you have the large organization structures that dominate so much of our world today.

And I don't think it's always conscious, or even evil. It's like... think about how you ever act when dealing with your boss, or presenting information to a VIP. 

People will try to put their best foot forward. They might even research and learn how the target likes to have data presented. Do you build a complex graph? Do you give a quick executive summary? Do you delve into all the little details and have backup information ready in case they delve into the details?

Do they prefer morning meetings or afternoon? Do you check with a secretary or someone near them to see if they're in a good mood?

Do you provide their favorite snacks or drinks?

All of that can be pretty normal, but it's also the type of situation where people start self-censoring, which I think is part of how so many powerful people wind up surrounded by 'yes-men'.

'The boss' might not like your idea. Might fire you. Might ridicule you. So... people tone down anything that might not go over well. Maybe massage the data a little. Choose not to bring up certain topics. Make sure any loudmouths who might disrupt things is not invited.

The person being presented all this may not even realize how often this happens. Might not even ask for it, though they often have to work very hard to make it clear they prefer the truth (and demonstrate that they really mean that, every time they are presented with uncomfortable truths) if they want to avoid it.

Which is part of why I despise this current belief that 'truthiness' is fine. The minute you start letting your organization get away from accepting facts, you've doomed your decision making process.

But let's not go there right now.

The current situation in America is so depressing that I don't even know where to start. And yet it's still seen as a partisan issue rather than a bi-partisan and patriotic one. If you pay attention to the news you know what I'm talking about. A US citizen - an actual citizen!!! Not someone here on a visa, or here illegally (though a quick look at wikipedia shows he gained his citizenship after doing so).

Is that why they aren't up in arms? They think how someone gets their citizenship should make a difference? Or is it just that Kilmar Abrego Garcia doesn't have a name like John Smith?

There's a clear trend, to, amongst all the daily craziness.

Dissidence is punished. Norms are broken. Boundaries are constantly being tested. If one US citizen is allowed to be deported like that, how long before others are, too?

Does citizenship no longer provide any sort of protection?

The initial test cases are - well, they're obviously the type that typical Americans might not care about.

A US citizen with a clearly hispanic name, who originally arrived illegally.

Pressure on foreign students for speaking out on political matters that they disagree with.

There's no clear smoking gun, it's mostly ICE doing obscure and hidden activity, not the US Army being sent in clear violation of the posse comitatus act, nor even a calling out of the National Guard by some sympathetic governor (since they truly belong to teh state, and the president can only legally use them for specific reasons.)

But as guardrail after guardrail and institution after institution has folded like a wet paper tissue, it's hard to believe those legal protections matter.

After all, they didn't help Kilmar Garcia, did they? 

Perhaps the most disturbing part of all this, to me, is realizing that all those things I used to think we - as Americans - stood for are just not so.

Truth, justice, and the American way?

Puh-leeeze.

Nobody seems to care about truth or justice anymore. As for the American way - our history shows over and over again that that is muddy and murky. We can somehow be both xenophobic and isolationist as well as enlightened, engaged, and idealistic. I don't believe one view is true and the other false - they both are true, and have been throughout our history. Deciding which is more true today is part of what we, as a society, decide.

I am now grappling with the realization that all those values I thought we shared - in the Constitution, in the Bill of Rights, in the separation of powers and checks and balances, all the hard earned lessons to professionalize our civil service and get away from political corruption - are not as widely shared as I thought.

And, in fact, some of the people most loudly proclaiming that they love America and want it to be great, know so little about what they claim to love.

It is tempting to wish, like God, to just start all over. 

I suspect that's not the answer though, any more than it was in the Bible. That perhaps the right response is to remind people 'be not afraid'.

Which would be a helluva lot easier if I wasn't currently hunting for employment myself, and dealing with my own fears at the moment.