057 - On Division, Balance of Power, and Polarization
I've known I need to say something, but it's been difficult to find the words and find the proper sentences. Instead, I've had repeated phrases in my head, things that make sense to me but need evidence to be given in the real world - I've been left with an anger over a changing situation of the world that has likely long left my country behind. It's ironic, given that the US has caused so many civil wars and coups worldwide only to turn that behavior back inward on it's citizens once it becomes politically viable to do so.
It's important to speak out - I know what it's like to have your voice taken away, and to do so perpetually for all people I'm not sure the country can handle it. It's better to speak out, it's better to choose the route of expression because otherwise we will end up in a world where it's too late to do either. We live in a time where the surveillance technology pioneered in the early 2000s by governments are finally blossoming into mass adoption, and I do believe that social media is tracked. In the US right now, simply speaking out against the status quo or anything the government doesn't like will have you labelled a domestic terrorist. Our right to expression is being taken away, illusions are being cast down and in it's place we are left with one thing - control. I'm tired of people who make their careers about incitement, who lie about their roles in antagonizing situations and spend their time trying to expand their reach instead of trying to mend. I watched it first hand during the Brown Shooting where talking heads throughout social media were claiming the shooter expressed 'allah akbar' without evidence, it was simply to appeal to a base which believes the worst and seeks out evidence to claim it. These people are complicit in violence, they're complicit in a system made to antagonize and incite hatred rather than find a calm, peaceful solution. When it was shown the shooter didn't say that, they didn't admit they were wrong - they just moved on to the next story. The next engagement. Hatred and racism require a consensus to function, they require full conformity to see it fully develop - these things aren't developed in a vacuum, and they don't function well in a society that punishes it. Racism requires people to compromise, to give up their right of expression and choice of belief in favor of going with one side. This is why it feels like oppression for racists to not be able to freely exercise their beliefs, because the only way their systems can function properly is if everyone allows it to be consensus. Fascism requires a silent compliance, one where you believe that it's too futile to resist so submission to authority is the only way out. But it is better to live a life of speaking out, to resist, rather than submit until it's too late. I've spoken to a lot of conservatives and people on the right throughout my life just as much as I have people on the left. What I've seen is extreme polarization as a constant struggle, a back and forth that started in the smallest issues that rose to the bigger ones. The eventual goal is dominance, a dominance which expresses a power that the other side cannot rise from. For many people it seems admitting you're wrong is admitting vulnerability, admitting a weakness that erodes this eventual goal of power. This isn't me claiming 'both sides', it's me saying it for what it is - the eventual goal is control, the eventual goal is dismantling of systems to prop up the system that they've built up. Some people believe admitting your wrong is admitting vulnerability. It's a stubbornness that started in political arguments in comment sections that blossomed into world views of dominance, with polarization creating tunnel vision on where to go. It doesn't end well, history shows that polarization and division if pushed to extremes leads to violence - it leads to suffering, it leads to struggle. It doesn't lead to lasting dominance; it leads to one side being in power long enough to cause damage while eventually being crushed by God. The ultimate balance always returns in the favor of a stillness that betrays the history behind it. God always finds a way to return to his good, not humans. The more we're pushed to violence, the more we'll be held behind. We'll lose not only our privilege of expression, we'll lose our quality of life - life will change overnight forever, and the world will simply move on. If we do not uphold the very things that bind us together, we will dissolve into something else, and we will be forgotten. And perhaps, we deserve it.









