Mom's apple pie in troubled times
Ah, the 50s!
A time of Rock ‘n’ Roll, the Jive and the Twist, the Chevrolet Bell Air convertible, Mom’s apple pie – McCarthyism, the Rosenbergs, and xenotransplantation!
The Republican Senator from Wisconsin and the current incumbent of the White House prove that (Republican) political strategies never change – when in need of the vote, scapegoat!
If strategy remains the same, allegiances shift. Where once the GOP would hound American citizens out of home and employment for so much as a sniff of connection with the Soviets, today, they welcome all the Russian aid and assistance they can get – and no one need be executed. Not even the President’s term of office!
Scapegoating is nothing new, of course. From the literal use of a goat (cf. Lev. 16:10) to the victimization of any group deemed undesirable, scapegoating has always been about making a particular group feel better about itself at the expense of another. So basic a human need is it to feel good about the self that scapegoating works on any social stratum. Thus, inmates in prison, will have identifiable groups deemed less desirable – even a drug pusher gets to feel superior to some other more despised group.
The Red scare of the 1950s in America had its beginnings in a very real threat of Soviet espionage – the Rosenbergs were proof of that! Fear is an adaptive mechanism, warning us that what we do next could bring great danger down upon us. As I approach the edge of a cliff I can feel my fear building and as it does my senses begin to send warnings to my brain. So, I might feel as though I’m falling even before I reach the very edge. I have a choice: I can heed my fear and turn around and head back, away from the danger, or I can continue to approach the edge – risking a miss-step or a crumbling underfoot.
If I am consciously aware of my fear, I may control it and use it to my advantage in overcoming a difficult task or feat. If I’m not, my fear will control me. And any who know of my fear may use it against me to their own advantage. Senator Joseph McCarthy smelt the fear of America and stirred up a frenzy.
It’s a tactic that seems to work well in America: Salem, McCarthyism, Trumpism! It’s a trend that should make somebody sit up and take notice. It must be recognised that as a tactic it only works because of the level of fear average Americans have towards each other. It must also be recognised as the same tactic often adopted by totalitarian regimes – which doesn’t say much for America’s much vaunted self-image as the land of the free.
What Government wouldn’t use a time of national indignation or panic to best serve its own interests? Margaret Thatcher used the Agentinian invasion of the Falkland Islands to earn herself a most unlikely re-election in much the same way as McCarthy used the fear of Communism.
It is not an issue of whether the Government is involved in the cover-up of nefarious activities, but whether we are naïve enough to fall for their self-aggrandising propaganda. The threat to “totally destroy” another nation is but a logical expression of the politician who is confident in his ability to fool enough of the people to keep him in office.
A time of Rock ‘n’ Roll, the Jive and the Twist, the Chevrolet Bell Air convertible, Mom’s apple pie – McCarthyism, the Rosenbergs, and xenotransplantation!
The Republican Senator from Wisconsin and the current incumbent of the White House prove that (Republican) political strategies never change – when in need of the vote, scapegoat!
If strategy remains the same, allegiances shift. Where once the GOP would hound American citizens out of home and employment for so much as a sniff of connection with the Soviets, today, they welcome all the Russian aid and assistance they can get – and no one need be executed. Not even the President’s term of office!
Scapegoating is nothing new, of course. From the literal use of a goat (cf. Lev. 16:10) to the victimization of any group deemed undesirable, scapegoating has always been about making a particular group feel better about itself at the expense of another. So basic a human need is it to feel good about the self that scapegoating works on any social stratum. Thus, inmates in prison, will have identifiable groups deemed less desirable – even a drug pusher gets to feel superior to some other more despised group.
The Red scare of the 1950s in America had its beginnings in a very real threat of Soviet espionage – the Rosenbergs were proof of that! Fear is an adaptive mechanism, warning us that what we do next could bring great danger down upon us. As I approach the edge of a cliff I can feel my fear building and as it does my senses begin to send warnings to my brain. So, I might feel as though I’m falling even before I reach the very edge. I have a choice: I can heed my fear and turn around and head back, away from the danger, or I can continue to approach the edge – risking a miss-step or a crumbling underfoot.
If I am consciously aware of my fear, I may control it and use it to my advantage in overcoming a difficult task or feat. If I’m not, my fear will control me. And any who know of my fear may use it against me to their own advantage. Senator Joseph McCarthy smelt the fear of America and stirred up a frenzy.
It’s a tactic that seems to work well in America: Salem, McCarthyism, Trumpism! It’s a trend that should make somebody sit up and take notice. It must be recognised that as a tactic it only works because of the level of fear average Americans have towards each other. It must also be recognised as the same tactic often adopted by totalitarian regimes – which doesn’t say much for America’s much vaunted self-image as the land of the free.
What Government wouldn’t use a time of national indignation or panic to best serve its own interests? Margaret Thatcher used the Agentinian invasion of the Falkland Islands to earn herself a most unlikely re-election in much the same way as McCarthy used the fear of Communism.
It is not an issue of whether the Government is involved in the cover-up of nefarious activities, but whether we are naïve enough to fall for their self-aggrandising propaganda. The threat to “totally destroy” another nation is but a logical expression of the politician who is confident in his ability to fool enough of the people to keep him in office.
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