November 22, 2016
I have no doubt that if I were one of Jesus\’ disciples I would have joined Thomas the Doubter in demanding to see his hands following his resurrection — and had I seen nail holes — I\’m sure I would have believed that he had been crucified. The scientist in me demands proof. Trump backers on-the-other-hand — have seen the holes in their Emperor and the fact that he is politically naked — but still wish to believe and have faith in the fantasies he has promised. Why is this? Why is seeing not believing?
I have watched Oliver Stone\’s \”JFK\” on the anniversary of the assassination every year since the movie came out. For the past few years I have been viewing the film with Neighbor Andre (the retired lawyer) — because up until this latest viewing — he believed Lee Harvey Oswald to be the lone assassin (despite the mountain of evidence to the contrary).
Andre surprised me this anniversary, however — suggesting he now realizes that Oswald could not have done the shooting — his new belief is that the Mafia took out JFK, and, that I continue to be a conspiratorial nutcase. I countered by suggesting that the Mafia would have had to be in cahoots with a number of entities (and hence be part of a conspiracy) to have had everything unfold as it did.
So I again mounted my evidence — which I felt was shooting holes in Andre\’s new defense — to no avail! He stuck to his new guns: JFK was the victim of a Mafia hit!
Andre is no dummy! He\’s learned. He\’s well-read. And he has spent countless hours in the courtroom…yet he refuses to consider all the facts and variables pursuant to the JFK assassination case…he is much more comfortable believing an explanation that keeps him in his comfort zone: an explanation that doesn\’t rattle his belief system. Because it is our belief systems that provide our organizing principles, and therefore, the meanings to our lives.
The extra credit question that I gave to my contemporary sociology theory students on their mid-term exam was: Explain the outcome of the 2016 presidential election using one of our contemporary theoretical perspectives. Many of my students chose to explain Trump\’s victory (I don\’t refer to Him as The Emperor in class, yet) using Phenomenology — which in layman\’s terms suggests that our reality is socially constructed through our experience with it. And we necessarily seek to sustain the meanings of our reality by successively reinforcing them — because a life without meaning is a dark, depressing life indeed. Give me the Devil that I know…
So what the Emperor did during His presidential run was to rekindle a meaning for living for many racist, misogynist and otherwise disenchanted Americans — who in their perceived disenfranchisement — were losing their belief systems to a politically correct and infinitely more tolerant social environment than the one they were originally indoctrinated in: it was difficult for them to be haters! But the Emperor poured gasoline on that smoldering hatred for others who are different — thereby restoring meaning to the lives of his fervent followers. They can once again believe in what they grew up seeing and hearing! Hillary further galvanized them by calling them a basket of deplorables.
The Emperor believes what He says because He\’s saying it. His followers, who have taken to saying \”Heil Trump\” believe him without critically examining the probable outcomes of his deranged promises or contentions (like Thomas and I would)…
But I guess He has done some good for the country, because He has restored a reason for living to a sizable chunk of the American voting populous — and helped me to finally figure out why people don\’t believe what they see…I now have an entire year to convince Andre of seeing things differently.
Next Installment: Bitch Slappin\’ is Back!