Dark Dreams

Photo credit:  Mike Oblinski

 

 

Howdy Friends and Neighbors.  The Reverend Squeaky-Eye here, coming at you in a troubled state of mind.  "What is it that is troubling your mind, Rev?"  I thank you for asking good people, I surely do, because I need to share this thing.  You see, last night I had a dream.  Not a positive dream, not a dream of peace and harmony, but a dark and troubling dream.  In my dream, I saw things gone all awry, with the dark clouds of a storm gathering.  It was that kind of a dream.  It brought to mind the lyrics of that old song by Randy Newman:

Last night I had a dream
You were in it, and I was in it with you
And everyone that I know
And everyone that you know was in my dream

 

In this here dream, there was a man.  Now this man, all he wanted was power.  He didn't care how he got it and he wasn't particular about how he used it.  We know about these kinds of folks, don't we Sisters and Brothers?  Well, this fella, he was one of those kinds of men.  He just had to have power, not to do good with, you understand, just to have it over other folks.  He was a Downpressor, through and through.  Anyway, this man, he already had him a pile of money, and a heap of power, and he liked hearing a lot of things said about him on the television and in the newspapers.  He already had him a lot of power, but he wants more, see?  So he figures to get himself elected to a high office so he can lord it over even more folks.  The trouble is, this fella ain't suited for governing folks.  He just doesn't have the temperament or skills for it.  That was the start of the dream, and Brethren, it was frightening to me.

So this greedy fella, he needs a scheme to get himself elected to a high place.  It has to be a clever scheme, and a secret scheme.  This Downpressor Man finally hits on what he figures is a fool-proof idea:  He makes him a deal with the Devil.

Now in my dream, this Devil, it's not Ole Slewfoot himself.  No, Sisters, but for all intents and purposes it might as well be.  In this dream, the Devil is a real-life man, a man that lords it over a different country.  

 

Now, the way this dream unfolds, the Devil says to this greedy fella "Hey, lookey here, I can help you get this high seat your after.  It's not as hard as you think.  What we do, see, is we spread a lot of lies and tall tales around, lies and tall tales that will throw the dirt on the folks running against you.  We spread around a bunch of salty lies at just the right time, and to just the right people.  If we can scare them, sell them some of that good old fear, we might can get them to change their votes, change those votes in your favor, see?"

This greedy fella in my dream, he likes this idea.  So he says to the Devil "That sounds great, that could work.  But say, just a minute now, what do you want in return for helping me?"  

Now the Devil, he just smiles that slow sly smile of his.  "I just want one thing from you.  When the time comes, I want you to say some nice things about me.  Seems like folks in your country have the wrong idea about me.  I just want you to set them straight now and then.  That's all."

Our greedy Downpressor Man, he thinks this is a good deal.  He gets what he wants and all he has to do is say a few nice things about the Devil.  Heck, it's as simple as pie.  But of course, it weren't as simple as that.

As the darkness of the dream swirls about, it happens just the way the fella wants it to.  He gets elected to the highest office in the land, making him one of the most powerful men that there is on the whole planet.  He's just giddy with all that power.  But there's something that he didn't count on.  Sisters and Brothers, we all know how tricky and deceitful the Devil is, and this here dream is no exception to that.  When a man makes a deal with the Devil, the Devil always gets his due and more. 

 

This Devil, he was as smart as a whip and sneaky as a snake, just like the Devil always is.  Whilst he was making this deal, he kept a record of all of the goings on, real careful and secret like.  He even kept it a secret from the fella he was helping.  The Devil, he figured this secret might be leverage that would come in handy later on, might be a way for him to sweeten an already sweet deal. 

 

Storm clouds were gathering in my dream, blackening the sky.  The good people all over the world were in turmoil over this Downpressor grabbing all of this new power.  The greedy fella starts right off saying these folks are bad, those folks are bad, starts making proclamations about how things are going to be from now on.  For him, what's the fun of having a big pile of power unless he gets to use it?  So the good folks in his country are appalled and perplexed.  Like I said, this fella begins to cause consternation around the good green globe.  

 

Well, in the midst of this hill of trouble, what do you think happened next?  I'll tell you, Friends and neighbors, but it is a troubling thing.  Quick as a rabbit comes the time when the newly-elected Downpressor Man gets called on to say something about the Devil who runs the other country.  Now, instead of saying he's the Devil, which has been the traditional response for decades, he starts saying how the Devil is actually his friend, someone he has respect for.  These are just the sort of words the Devil was looking for.  The Downpressor, he's okay with this.  After all, a deal is a deal, that's how this fella sees it.  He has always called himself a deal-maker, and this particular deal is no different than all the other deals he's made.  That's how this Downpressor figures it.

 

Here is where the storm just opens up all over everything.  Thunder is crashing and lightning is flashing.  The Devil, he's mighty pleased with all the mischief that he is causing, but he's not done yet, not by a damn sight.  No Sir, he is not.  The Devil figures now is the time to play the trick that he was planning all along, planning from the first time he set his baleful eyes on this greedy Downpressor.  Now he's going to play his real cards.

 

The Devil lets slip to the world the details of the sordid deal that was made, lets slip the very proofs that tie the Downpressor to the Devil.  Now the storm breaks in earnest.  The good folks band together and throw the greedy Downpressor fella out on his ear, throw him right out of the office he was elected to.  But the Devil, that was surely his plan, because we all know how much the Devil enjoys causing fear and hurt.  The Devil was the enemy all along, of course.  Always is.  That's one leopard that never changes his spots.  He only smiles that oily smile and waits.  

 

As the end of the dream came on, the Devil was sitting back in his chair, laughing his greasy laugh.  He was relishing all of the commotion that he had wrought in the world.  While all of the good folks were busy trying to clean up the mess that the poor foolish greedy Downpressor had made of things, the Devil had lots of time to get about his own business.  Then the storm became darkness and the dream was over.

I don't need to tell you good Brethren and Sistern, I woke in a cold sweat.  It was a profound relief to see the humble walls of my own room round about me.  I wish I could say that the shadow of that dream has passed from me, but that would not be the truth.  Even now, as I'm talking to you, I can feel the dread of it.  But it will pass, won't it?  What I mean to say is, Friends and Neighbors, it was just a dream, wasn't it?

Credits:

Photo -- Mike Oblinski

Song Lyrics -- Randy Newman "Last Night I had a Dream" from Sail Away

 

 

 

 

Selling Fear

The Faces of Diversity are not the Faces of Fear

Howdy Friends and Neighbors.  The Reverend Squeaky-Eye here, coming at you from the fine nation of Austria.  I hope all of you Brothers and Sisters out there are prospering and dispensing kindness to one another.

Today I want to talk to you about something that is troubling me, troubling me mightily.  That something is the practice of selling fear.  Why anyone would knowingly sell fear to the good population of our planet is a mystery, but it is something that is happening as surely as toast falling butter-side down.  The thing is, if we take a closer look at the wily mechanics of the Downpressor Man, we can see that it is not so much of a mystery after all.

If we study history, we can see that those who aspire to authoritative rule over a people or nation tend to employ similar tools to achieve their nefarious ends.  One of the primary tools that these Downpressors use is that of trying to make one segment of the people fear another segment of the population.  The example that springs to mind, of course, is that of Hitler preaching a doctrine of fear about our Jewish Sisters and Brothers.  We all know the horror that resulted from his doctrines.  That is a heinous example, true enough, but it is not the only example.  These sorts of people, the people that have a desire to rule rather than govern, they know that one way to achieve a state of control is to cause a division amongst the people.  One effective way to divide the people is to sell them the doctrine of fear.  

Now the Downpressor, he is going to sell fear based on any number of things.  He may tell the good people the idea that folks of a certain race are to be feared.  He may tell the good people the idea that anyone of a certain religion is to be feared.  The Downpressor, he looks around and tries to find a place to drive a wedge, a wedge to divide the people.  A people divided are an easier group to bamboozle.  Those that would seek to hold us down, they're playing a shell game.  They want to create a diversion, a trick, a sleight of hand.  The aim of selling fear is to distract attention from the real shenanigans that the Downpressor wants to foist off on the people.  Don't be fooled Sisters!  Don't be fooled Brothers!

Brethren, I am here to tell you that fear is a powerful tool.  Fearful folks will do things that no right-minded citizen would ever contemplate.  When we give in to the pull of fear, we can find ourselves justifying actions that we would normally abhor.  Again, we do not need to look too far back into history to find examples of what fear-based thinking can do.  In the 1940's, Japanese-Americans were interned in ten camps across the western United States.  About 62% of the folks interned were citizens of the United States.  It was, and remains, a travesty of justice.  Fear in action, that's what it was, pure and simple.

The Downpressor Man, he's not really selling.  What he is actually doing is buying.  First off, the Downpressor, he's going to paint a picture for you, a picture of a bogey-man that purports to threaten us, our family, or some segment of our way of life.  Once he gets that hook of fear set into us, set in deep, he's going to offer a solution to the fear that he created in the first place.  That's where the selling comes in, the trick, the three card monte.  The Downpressor, he is going to offer up security, a false security, as a snake-oil cure for the whatever fear he's selling.  But like we said, Sisters and Brothers, he ain't selling.  He's buying.  And what he is buying is our complicity in his shell game.

Now it is true that we are all citizens of our respective nations, but we are also citizens of this lovely planet Earth.  Through the phenomena of social media and globalization, we are more closely linked to every other human being on the planet than at any other time in history.  This trend is only going to continue.  I am privileged and blessed to have traveled to many fine nations in this world.  I have met many fine folks who inhabit those nations.  What I have discovered during the course of my travels is not how different folks are, but how much the same we all are.  Most of us want pretty much the same things.  We want enough food for ourselves and our families, we want adequate shelter, and we want our children to have a better life.  I have yet to meet anyone who wants to be afraid.  So how do we push back against the fear that the Downpressor Man is selling?

When someone comes to us preaching a doctrine of fear, I believe we have to ask ourselves "What is he selling?"  If some Downpressor tells us, for example, that 23% of the fine folks on this planet are bad people, what is he really after?  I think that he is looking for a place to drive that wedge, make us afraid, and make us complicit in his grab for power.  When I hear a man selling fear, instead of solutions, I see a man trying to pull the wool over our eyes.  If we are to believe this hate-mongering, then we would have to fear one out of every four of our neighbors.  No, Friends and Neighbors, No!

Show me a man preaching fear, and I will show you a snake-oil salesman, a trickster, and a Downpressor.  It makes no never-mind whether he is blaming this group or that group, this race or that race, this religion or that religion.  If someone is selling us fear, fear of our neighbors, I believe it is incumbent on each and every one of us to ask ourselves why.  Why should we be afraid?  When has fear of the "Other" ever benefited a society?  The answer, of course, is simple:  Never.

Pissing Off the Neighbors

There are Kangaroos in Australia.  

There are no Kangaroos in Austria.

Howdy Friends and Neighbors!  The Reverend Squeaky-Eye here, coming at you from the grey winter wonderland of Wien.  Like many of you, I'm sure, I have been watching recent events on the world stage with a certain amount of trepidation.  Honestly, a great deal of trepidation.  Just about the time I reckon that things can't possibly get any weirder, they go and take a cosmic leap further down the old weirdness scale.  

What's troubling Yours Truly today, puzzling the hell out me actually, is this notion that it's a good idea, a smart play, to make all of the neighbors angry.  Now neighbors can be a mixed blessing.  Those of our Brethren that came up in a small town know what I'm speaking of.  The same is true for our Sisteren that might have grown up in an apartment building with neighbors on both sides.  The thing about neighbors is that there has to be some give and take.  All take, and the balance gets upset, so then do the neighbors.  When the balance with the neighbors gets tilted, strife enters into our happy communities.

Now this big beautiful world of ours, it's not really as big as we sometimes think.  There used to be this concept called the "Six Degrees of Separation."  Simply put, the idea is that no living thing on the planet is more than six steps away from any other living thing once we begin a chain of connections.  It works like this:  I know a fellow in a small village in Laos.  You know a gal in Kamchatka.  You and I know each other.  There you have it, only three degrees of separation between that upstanding villager in Laos and that gal in Kamchatka.  Now, I use the past tense about the Six Degrees because anymore, it's tough to get further than four or five degrees.  We can emulate our Jungian Brethern and call it Synchronicity, or use the beautiful Buddhist metaphor of Indra's Net, it really doesn't matter.  When we look at our world as a series of interconnected folks, we get a clearer understanding of just how much neighbors matter.

In our little village of a world, there are about 196 individual countries, or neighbors.  Like any other neighborhood, there are agreements and squabbles.  Unfortunately, countries tend to let things get out of hand, doing things that good neighbors should never do.  Regardless of the squabbles, any country is inextricably linked to a greater or lesser number of other countries, either through shared borders, trade agreements, alliances, or a combination of these links.  

"Yes, we see your point Rev, but what has this got to do with Kangaroos?"  Right you are, Friends and Neighbors, right you are.  What Kangaroos have to do with this is that Kangaroos come from Australia (not Austria). 

The true and brave soldiers of Australia have stood shoulder-to-shoulder with those of the United States for a good long time.  Heck, I don't know how a country could ask for a better ally than our pals the Aussies.  The Aussies have fought alongside the USA in World War I and II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, in Iraq, and in Afghanistan.  The Australian armed forces are currently involved in the conflict in Syria.  That is what makes the actions of Donald Trump so puzzling.

In one of what became a bewilderingly stream of antagonistic contacts with the neighbors of the USA, Trump hung up on the Malcolm Turnbull, Australia's Prime Minister.  That's right, Folks, Trump hung up in the middle of a phone conversation with the leader of a foreign country.  Regardless of the nature of a conversation, hanging up on someone just doesn't make it any better.  In the case of foreign diplomacy, it is simply not done.  The result is strife in the neighborhood, and with one of our very good neighbors.

This was after Trump so angered Mexico's President, Enrique Peña Nieto, that Seńor Nieto cancelled a scheduled state visit to the USA.  Again, strife with the neighbors in our little village.  The USA shares a very long border with Mexico.  More than that, we share huge cultural and trade ties.  The total dollar amount of two-way trade between the USA and Mexico was 583 Billion dollars in 2015.  That is mucho dinero my Brethern.  There is also, of course, Trump's ludicrous idea to build a wall along the entire US-Mexico border, but that is the stuff of another post.

While Trump was casting stones, he managed to anger a good many more of our close allies.  China, for one, is not happy.  Not happy at all.  "Well Reverend, why should we care about that?"  I'm glad you asked, Friends, and doubly glad that your question is merely rhetorical.  The answer, of course, is trade.  The combined trade between the USA and China totaled 482 Billion in 2015.  Look at that electronic device on your table.  Turn it over.  Where was it made?  Yes, indeed.  China.  

The United States has a fine neighbor to the north, our friends the Canadians.  A helpful and courteous people if ever there were such.  And yet, and yet Brothers and Sisters, even the Canadians are mad at this man Trump.  He has angered the Canadian government, which actually takes some effort.  And guess who is the second largest trading partner of the USA?  Of course, Canada.  Trade totals for 2015 between the two nations equaled 662 Billion dollars.  I believe we are starting to see a pattern here.

Then, just today, a poll was released in Germany that showed that seven out of ten Germans feel that the USA is not a trusted ally.  That is a drop of over 37% since November of last year.  Based on this most recent poll, German citizens feel that the USA and Russia deserve about the same level of trust, and that level of trust is very low.  And why should we care?  Because Germany has been one of our staunchest allies for over half a century.  Germany is one of the most important countries in the European Union.  And, just to keep a theme going, the combined trade between the EU and the USA amounted to 1.1 Trillion dollars in 2015.  

Sisters and Brothers, as our global village get smaller and more interconnected, it just doesn't pay to  stand out in the yard in a wife beater and threaten the folks in the next yard.  No one takes kindly to that, particularly if the next day you ask them to watch your house whilst you are away.  Angry words, once unleashed in the neighborhood, take on a form and consequence all their own.  

It is our neighborhood, Brothers and Sisters, and we can make of it what we will.  As always, keep a helpful hand out for those in your village, and a sharp eye out for the Downpressor Man.  I will leave you with what I believe are the finest words ever written about throwing anger and pride into speech. 

"Primer Lesson" by Carl Sandburg

Look out how you use proud words.
When you let proud words go, it is not easy to call them back.
They wear long boots, hard boots; they walk off proud; they can't hear you calling--
Look out how you use proud words. 

 

Sources:

 

The Local :  news@thelocal.DE

 

Office of the The United States Trade Representative

 

PoemHunter.com