Last year, could have been the spring of this year, there were a number of tiny bumblebees that had just hatched (Do bees hatch?) buzzing around my monkey grass. I thought that was a sign that there would be plenty of bees for pollination. Maybe not!
On this hot August Monday, there were reports of two mass shootings. People died and I’m quite sure that the shooters were not members of a well-regulated militia. Interpretation matters and the interpretation of the second amendment that allows every Tom, Dick, Harry, Penny, Sue, and Jane to buy and carry weapons, especially semi-automatic weapons, has done so much harm. But the profits of the gun manufacturers and dealers are all that matter in this greed obsessed society.
It must be devastating to a narcistic ego to desperately want the adoring worship of all and to know that only insecure, greedy, vengeful, prejudiced, evil people like oneself are in the sparse crowd of worshippers. And instead of retreating to lick his ego, the narcistic ego sinks to pathetic lows to garner attention, any attention, like begging for awards they do not deserve.
Watched this comedy show that aired circa 2011 to 2014 set in Alabama. Greatest rewrite of southern life since Gone With The Wind. Premise northerner relocates as doctor to small southern town. Northerner dresses like a prostitute, but hey, she’s white and a doctor. All the townspeople get along just find…a Black ex-football player is the mayor. Oh, Black mayor has a thing for blonde southern belle royalty of the town. Black residents happily dress up as colonials, etc. and they all sing Dixie together. The fake southern accents were grating on the ear. When will Hollywood learn that no one talks like Hollywood’s idea of southern vernacular speech? Get my drift. And, guess what, everyone goes to the same church. Remember, church in the South, is one of the most segregated institutions and most people have heard that Sunday service is the most segregated place to be on a Sunday. Everyone is having sex with everyone else. And the much used trope of the big Black buck debauching the southern white belle whore is ubiquitous. Don’t get me wrong, there were some laugh out loud comedic moments, but the false impression it gave of the modern day south was criminal. However, this was the Obama era and seems like a lot of white people drank the Kool-Aid labeled post racist United States.
Many small southern towns, and I’ve been in a few, have boarded up windows in a downtown that looks like there has been no modernization since the 1950s or 1960s. The people look like they have no access to healthcare and duct taped cars with one headlight are considered the norm. The people who live in these small towns are xenophobic racists who would burn out the stranger rather than accept the benefit the stranger brings to their sad existence. They wouldn’t know Shakespeare or Broadway plays or Jane Austen or anything outside the bubble of their xenophobic, homophobic, racist existence. People in the modern day South are ignorant. Look at their standing in education in all the rankings.
White incompetence is now being celebrated over Black competence. Why is white incompetence given jobs, good jobs? I wrote about the Black college that hired an incompetent white male as president, knowing that the white male was incompetent. But, he should be given the chance to prove his competence the Board, the majority Black Board, said. Would they give that same opportunity to an obviously incompetent Black male? I don’t think so. But at least the white supremacists are showing us that there is no such thing as white excellence, intelligence, or exceptionalism.
Mind Doodle incoming! In the last week or so, I read book entitled The Monarchy of Fear by Martha C. Nussbaum. Subtitled–A Philosopher Looks at Our Political Crisis. She’s professor of law and ethics at the University of Chicago. The book is about fear, especially the fear that drives people to hate, to belittle, to devalue other humans. She is not a biologist, so she only mentions the role of the amygdala in our fear response. The amygdala, this primitive part of our brain has not significantly evolved and is often referred to as the “lizard brain”. It is the part of our brain that reacts to danger in our environment, that helps keep us alive.
Apparently, when the amygdala is reacting to danger, the brain has little or no access to the prefrontal context where the ability to reason resides. Wikipedia says this about the prefrontal cortex–Executive function relates to abilities to differentiate among conflicting thoughts, determine good and bad, better and best, same and different, future consequences of current activities, working toward a defined goal, prediction of outcomes, expectation based on actions, and social “control” (the ability to suppress urges that, if not suppressed, could lead to socially unacceptable outcomes).
White people in the United States and elsewhere appear to be stuck in what the author calls infantile/primary fear which is a “deep underlying anxiety, a root level painful insecurity where people engage in zero-sum competition and hate the people who succeed”. These people have little or no access to their prefrontal cortex or to the part of the amygdala that would produce pleasant emotions. This appears to evolutionary, but it could be situational and triggered by the environment. As I have stated before, wherever white persons are, they are delusional, they are greedy, they devalue anyone who does not look like them, they steal, they have no compassion, they are selfish, they are barbaric. If they are controlled by the fear inducing part of the amygdala with little or no access to the executive functions of the prefrontal cortex, it would explain a lot about their behavior. These people cannot consider or imagine consequences to their behavior. They cannot plan for the future. They cannot think of alternatives. They cannot face their fear and name it, in order to discover whether or not the fear is based in reality, i. e., all sticks are not snakes. They are frozen in primal fear and such fear forecloses reason. End Mind Doodle.
We have a group of people, who unfortunately are in power, who are blatant hypocrites. Law and Order, the rule of law, are just phrases to be bandied about when it suits them. However, they are letting loose on the streets murderers, rapists, child molesters, the dregs–but that’s okay these deplorables are white. Throw a sandwich at a law enforcement officer that’s terrible, throw the book at him. Physically assault and kill a police office trying to protect legislators and government property, give them a pardon. Tell the truth about the state of the United States, lose your job. Don’t want one’s criminality exposed–lie, obfuscate, and divert until the behavior is buried under other hyperbolic propaganda.
I’m glad D.C. sued and the judge, who still believes in the rule of law, ruled for D.C. However, I read where the MAGA states are sending contingents of National Guards to D.C. We know why. These National Guardsmen are more than likely MAGA and will try to instigate violence to prop up their leader’s lies that D.C. is a crime ridden cesspool. The statistics say otherwise. Hypocrisy alert–when the insurrection of January 6th occurred, no National Guard were called. Lawlessness that serves their purpose has no consequences is the message that has been received loudly and clearly.
I’m glad that Newsom, the governor of California, is trolling this administration. I’m glad the Texas Democrats left the state and that Pritzker, the governor of Illinois, supported them. Every little bit helps, especially when some institutions have rejected resistance in order to curry favor with an administration that will stab them in the back and demand more submission. I thought that the remedy for bullying is to never submit and fight back or the bullying will only get worse.
Over 300,000 Black women have lost their jobs in the last six months due to blatant racism. As I’ve said before, government jobs were our gateway to the middle class as corporate jobs were few and far between. The white boy network prevailed in the private sector. If hired, one could count on an hostile environment more often than not. One’s corporate tenure was often characterized by sabotage, neglect, and ludicrous expectations. The destruction of the middle class has been the point of the Republicans since before Reagan’s presidency, but his presidency provided the impetus.
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When elephants fight, it’s the grass that suffers. Alkebulan Proverb
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