Hate and Hope

The Nazi party was established in Germany on this day in 1920.

Sets the mind racing. At least it sets this mind racing…

I know that one of the cheaper tropes of our time is to liken one’s opponents to Nazis.

Looking at clips from Tea Party events and their pictures of the president with Hitler’s mustache says much about both that cheapness and its visceral power…

And, I can see the power of thinking of our times and those running up to Hitler’s taking over.

After all, here we are, our culture is driven by the market’s alternatives of greed and fear.

All of us caught up, I find, in one thought.

Then, as must happen, it collapses…

It just falls apart.

The world’s economies intertwined caught up in a deep recession.

And people start offering nostrums.

Various economists offer their versions of what to do. It appears the mainstream of pumping serious money into the system works. But there are those who have ideological issues with that. People who believe in some hidden hand that will, if the gloves were removed, take care of matters just fine…

And this serves those out of power who want to be in…

Thugs are in the streets. The seeds of discontent are thrown wide…

And those with power or who want it all are confident they can control the rage.

They fan the flames…

So, here we are, the world is a dangerous place. A very dangerous place.

Our republic is slipping from its place as the leading nation. Bad thing? Good thing? It is the way things happen, everything made of parts eventually comes apart. I suspect this isn’t the end of this nation’s place of power, yet. But, so many buts hang…

And, of course, nations themselves are contending with multinationals as the actual governments, the actual seats of power.

A friend passed an internet cartoon that showed the American Supreme Court, the Republican justices all sported badges on their robes from the leading corporations. The only false note was that the Democratic appointees weren’t also wearing those badges…

Fear, hatred, and crazed options, solutions that appeal to fear and hatred are being sold in the streets.

Scary times.

It is hard not to despise the Democrats for their inability to focus, to prioritize, to actually deliver. But its the Republicans I fear.

And the Tea Party activists. I was at an event a couple of months ago where two professors of Political Science lectured on the current state of American national politics. Someone asked about the Tea Party. They snorted, dismissed the movement as unworthy of serious attention.

I found that way too glib.

We have in our country a taste for the Know Nothings.

And I watch the scenes of the current incarnation, and know how easy it could be to slip away…

So, what is the solution?

What can save us?

At first I was going to conclude with the clip “Life is a Cabaret.” It is, after all, the siren song for those who have given up, who have decided to just go with the flow…

Right down the toilet.

Didn’t really work for me.

Then, of course, of course.

There is another option. The shift is small. But it makes all the difference.

If we’re willing to make ourselves naked.

If we’re willing to stand before the rage and the fear and the longing

without turning away.

If we’re willing to open our hearts and witness it all.

Something can happen.

The world will follow its course. The flow of consequences to actions persist. And who knows what empires rise or fall or whether we poison the earth itself and we as creatures pass from the globe…

But each of us have a choice. It isn’t much. There isn’t a lot of wiggle room.

But, it is enough.

When we, each of us, throw our hearts wide, become witnesses, become seeds of hope, we become the way things can be.

This way is small, smaller than that proverbial mustard seed.

But…