Rage Against the ‘Socialist’ Machine – Killing in the Name

Teenage angst is something every parent has to deal with. As adolescents struggle with identity and their initial exposures to the evils of the outside world, they have these feelings that something’s wrong, but they have trouble articulating these emotions. They tend to be filled with a paranoia that the world is out to get them, exacerbating their anxiety through exaggerations and misattributions. To the average 16 year old male, it’s a dark world with big brother watching your every move. When individuals grapple with their own identity, it is easier to cope with troubles and shortcomings by shifting the responsibility and blame to others since we don’t really know where we stand. It is easy to be fearful of the unknown, and we become quick to believe any expert claiming to have answers.

The current populist rage in America is a lot like teen angst, and the self-proclaimed savior with the solutions is Ms. Sarah Palin. We all were once rebels without a cause, but did the same Tea Partiers raised in the '60s ever grow up? Liberals had their chance to protest in the name of love and civil rights, now conservatives are protesting in the name of guns and individual rights.

Without a question, Health Care Reform exemplified the complexity of government, so when the leading conservatives both in Washington and in the media demonized the Bill and its supporters, no one should be surprised that a large portion of their constituents believed them. If the average politician struggled to fully comprehend health reform policy, how could the average American without objective information? It’s much easier to lead a clueless flock of sheep than an educated and informed group of enlightened Americans, so keeping the objective information to a minimum serves the GOP’s interest. Check out this abridged version of a pre-tax day rally by the nation’s best fundraiser to see how typical rally rhetoric works.

What started with a response to the health-care system, which closely emulates the one proposed by Republicans in 1993 in response to Clinton-care, has expanded into an anti-government movement. Instead of real applicable answers, Tea Party advocates like to talk about the principles and ideologies which perpetuate the previously-held sentiments of their constituents. Instead of being driven by information, these pep-rallies, just like the high school days, are meant to build party spirit, but instead of cheerleaders, band members, and student athletes driving the motivation, it’s Sarah Palin. Sometimes she sparks just passion, but other time it turns into rage and violence as discussed by Effective Response . A recent Harris Poll has shown how the name calling of the Glenn Beck’s of the world have affected public opinion.

“57 percent of Republicans (32 percent overall) believe that Obama is a Muslim 45 percent of Republicans (25 percent overall) agree with the Birthers in their belief that Obama was "not born in the United States and so is not eligible to be president" 38 percent of Republicans (20 percent overall) say that Obama is "doing many of the things that Hitler did" Scariest of all, 24 percent of Republicans (14 percent overall) say that Obama "may be the Antichrist." These numbers all come from a brand-new Louis Harris poll, inspired in part by my new book Wingnuts. It demonstrates the cost of the campaign of fear and hate that has been pumped up in the service of hyper-partisanship over the past 15 months. We are playing with dynamite by demonizing our president and dividing the United States in the process. What might be good for ratings is bad for the country.
The poll, which surveyed 2,230 people right at the height of the health-care reform debate, also clearly shows that education is a barrier to extremism. Respondents without a college education are vastly more likely to believe such claims, while Americans with college degrees or better are less easily duped. It's a reminder of what the 19th-century educator Horace Mann once too-loftily said: "Ignorance breeds monsters to fill up the vacancies of the soul that are unoccupied by the verities of knowledge."

The violence and threats that occurred to congressmen immediately following Health Care Reform’s passage may be just the tip of the iceberg. When the leader of a gun-toting mob says "Don't Retreat. Let's Reload!” and has targets on her website over the political battles she wants to hit hardest, one can, and should, be concerned. Republican leaders say they aren’t promoting violence, only advocating the rage against socialism. It’s like handing a teenager and their friends a plastic bottle of vodka and telling them not to drink it.

Don’t believe me? The Hutaree Christian Militia planned on murdering a police officer, and then bombing the funeral in order to provoke a Holy War against the government. If you really believe that Obama is the Anti-Christ, it makes a weird sort of sense to want to go to war against him albeit incredibly foolish and ignorant. As discussed by Nanashi, it would be wrong to condemn those who oppose Obama of treason, outliers do exist, and they are dangerous. And when public support is raised for their causes, they have more incentive to strike.

Yes, everyone is entitled to their free speech, and by no means would I want that right to be limited, but I would encourage these powerful public figures to consider the consequences of their actions. Indirectly inciting violence doesn’t benefit anyone, nor does it play out well politically. Are one’s personal aspirations worth more than a human life? Instead of invoking rage through your passionate rally cries, use this opportunity to promote meaningful civic engagement through objective education instead of sensationalization. The current Pep-rally strategy might increase the quantity of your supporters, but it’s hardly developing the quality of your movement.

I would hate to wake up one morning and read that America’s first African-American President became a martyr for social justice.

Killing in the Name of…

Slow-Cooked Cultural Change

There are very few occasions when people are willing to admit that they are wrong. It is human nature to defend the principles and values that we deeply believe in, and when certain ideologies are deeply ingrained into our thoughts so much so that we associate them with our hearts, we are likely to set aside logic and reason in favor of feelings and subjectivities to justify our behaviors.

America is a country where freedom and equality drive the rules and regulations of our country, but the very nature of a government requires some degree of relinquishing personal freedoms. Absolute freedom is anarchy or the independence that stems from complete isolation from society. Anytime humans interact with one another, a power or authority structure that develops, which innately means that someone is infringing on the absolute freedoms of another. Therefore, instead of arguments for absolute freedom, we attempt to take into consideration these different power levels to create rules and regulations that are just, even if that defies the majority opinion. Brown v. Board of Education may not have been what was popular, but it was right. Affirmative action does create a system where protected classes are given an advantage in situations of equal merit, but that is only to balance out the social limitations caused by discrimination that restrict their opportunity and freedom to pursue the American dream in the first place.

One would be hard-pressed to find an issue where every American unanimously agreed. Even with the influence of manipulative social pressures which influence some to give the politically correct answer whether they believe it or not, there will always be someone who see things differently, and assuming these beliefs don’t infringe upon others, then isn’t everyone entitled to have their own thoughts? This is why it is so hard to change the culture (the values and beliefs that influences behaviors) of an individual, an organization, and especially an entire nation. Principles take time, the influences of trusted individuals, and sometimes even a drastic, life–changing event to create lasting change, so it’s no surprise people are reluctant to embrace things like sustainable living even though they think going green is a good thing. But what might be surprising is that racist tendencies still exist in America almost 50 years after the civil rights movement, and even though the election of the first black president shows incredible progress, it would be foolish to say our country is free from discrimination

If culture could be easily influenced, I am sure that Obama would have revolutionized our nation because, by all accounts, he is exactly the type of leader – a charismatic, altruistic ideologue - who should be able to bring about change. If Thursday’s health summit was any indication, Obama’s efforts to change the Washington culture by emphasizing legislation for the people and not for the politician have failed. After seven hours of discussion and deliberation, the only positive outcome was that Obama finally put his stamp on health care reform after taking a passive stance on the issue for almost a full year. Unfortunately, the participating Republicans further showed their disinterest in working to get a bill done, insisting that comprehensive health care reform is simply unmanageable since they are unwilling to compromise. For a bill that would already be considered by an objective analysis to be pretty conservative, the reluctance of the republicans is entirely a political ploy to both make the dems look incompetent and to receive some extra funding from corporate America for the 2010 elections. Obama can do a lot of things but mandating a cooperative culture in Washington DC is wishful thinking, and even the seeds of hope he’s planted will be choked to death by the infertile sullied soil of politics.


Our President has also encouraged individuals to consider pursuing a more sustainable America. In his State of the Union address, Obama suggested that regardless of whether one believes in global climate, the future of business is green, and he’s not even talking about money. Our resources will run out, our health will suffer from pollution and pesticides and inorganic chemicals, and the corrosion will corrupt the natural beauty of our great nation. We are going to need to structure our cities more efficiently to better use our limited space through high density development, invent and implement practical, cleaner energy, and accept stewardship as practical and necessary for anyone who wants the next generations to enjoy the same pleasures that we do today. Unfortunately, even though green has become fashionable (tons of businesses are greenwashing their products to market out to this trend), it is often times skin deep. Most people either really don’t understand the conservationist philosophies, are too inconvenience to practice it in their own life, or assume that someone else will deal with it later. Sure, it’s trendy to buy environmental bags, but it defeats the purpose if you buy them once and never reuse them. Quite simply, live simply, buy locally, and embrace a sustainable, waste-minimizing lifestyle. I know its going to escape our consumer culture, and progress is being made, but I just hope we don’t get our reality check to late to change.

If we think change is taking forever in these areas, how long has racism been in our country? Even though the 1860s marked a time of freedom from slavery and the 1960s contributed a push towards true equality, we have hardly escaped from racial prejudices. The “Compton Cook Out,” a party thrown by college students less than a mile from the campus of the University of California in San Diego, received nationally attention for its racially-charged facebook invitation. UCSD continued to be bombarded with racial tension after the controversial student group The Koala defended the Cookout while using the n-word on UCSD’s student-run television. The rope that really broke the camel’s back was the noose found hanging in one of the University’s libraries on Thursday. Black students, who make up less than 2% of the UCSD’s student population, have been joined by many of their peers on campus and around the nation to protest these acts of racism and call to the school, who seems more concerned with how these events are going to effect recruiting more than race relations, to action. The acts, which have been condemned up in Sacramento by the Governator, are currently under investigation by the school.

Growing up in Los Angeles, I’ve been exposed to people of a wide spectrum of colors from diverse backgrounds, and naively I hoped Generation Y would overcome past prejudices and judge people as individuals with unique personalities and experiences. I guess I was wrong. Not that I approved of the racial slurs used by my grandfather, but I realized that correcting him did nothing since those thoughts had been engraved into his vocabulary since the ‘20s and that my reprimands were falling on deaf ears. As people age and experience life, they tend to become more firmly rooted in their virtues and beliefs, making them much less flexible. Those who aren’t steadfast in standing behind their principles are seen as weak, and its hard to get people to change these. Alas, though, hope remains even though Obama hasn’t inspired an immediate transforming. Since culture can change from the bottom up, but it is going to take every enlightened individual to hold his neighbor accountable to inspire a revolution of thought, and while it may be difficult, no efforts are futile. As the seeds fall from a single tree to sprout more seed-baring plants, every American has the ability to change our nation.

Hallelujah, freedom of speech!

Freedom from Reality: The Digital Individual

“Free at last, free at last. Thank God all mighty I am free at last.” While taking some time to reflect on life earlier today, I popped in MLK’s famous I Have a Dream. To this day, goose bumps run down my spine every time I hear Dr. King and his powerful rhetoric of peace preached on the doorstep of democracy. Yes, I know I’m two weeks late in addressing the influence of the Martin Luther King, and I’m sure what I’m saying is nothing that hasn’t already been conceived before, but sometimes, repetition is necessary to emphasize significance (See Keith Olbermann). What Dr. King did in the sixties through his non-violent protests epitomized the American democratic process at its best, and while there have been many imitators, there have been no emulators. While it’s shameful that as of 50 years ago our nation failed to grant equality through civil rights, the elections of our first African-American President shows an extreme amount or progress. This does not imply that prejudice does not exist in our nation, but that we are on the right track towards a more perfect union.

So what does it really mean to be free? Does it mean that everyone can do what they please? Does it mean that people are judged by content of their character and not based on the tone of their skin(“I don’t want a black president!” v.s. “Is Barack Black Enough”)? Does it mean that they will be free of persecution for being different? Everyone has their own definitions and interpretations of the concept of freedom and how it affects the fundamental purpose of a government. For myself, I feel like everyone has the rights to the implicit freedoms derived from the ideals of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness as declared by our founding fathers. The government’s responsibility is to facilitate these freedoms and protect others from infringing upon them. I used the term implicit to try and make a blanket statement in order to avoid this turning into a discussion of 2nd amendment freedoms. These sorts of things have been argued for years – literally 230+ - and while it is a necessary discussion, everything has a proper time and place. That is not the objective of this post.

When the concept was formulated in my head more than 400 words ago, this post was to be on the subject of Internet being a means to pursue pseudo-freedom through the power of anonymity. On the Internet, people are truly able to create their own personal identity however they please. With the aid of limitless sources, individuals can fabricate their own unique instance of themselves and paint (or photoshop) their preferred image onto the minds of an audience. This is facilitated on the Internet as dating sites, social networks like facebook and twitter, blogs, games like Second Life, etc. give people get the chance to play god. By simply perusing the web and reading an assortment of blogs, I have found myself concocting images of individuals in my own head based on the contents of the information and its presentation. Already being someone who over analyzes everything and attempts to assess the psyche of others to understand what they’re thinking and how these processes work, this tendency of mine is amplified online because of mysterious nature anonymity of the web as well as the lack of physical social cues like rate, tone, and volume that help bring understanding and meaning to words. While these various figments of my imagination are beneficial for me in that they help me give value and voice to a post since I have created a human on the other side writing these things, I know that a single, predetermined post is a terrible judge of character.




This sort of thing can even be said by trying to analyze my character based on my first few posts. I would have to say that my constant discussion of the importance of the media and its portrayal of figures and information probably points to a general interests in this field sparked either by a love of the idealist view of journalism or simply because of a love of my country (forcing me to follow ‘politics’). If brevity is the soul of wit, then I might assume from my posts that I am not a very clever guy, but upon further inspection I would change that critique from witless to thorough but unorganized. Because of the multiple references to The Daily Show and the Colbert Report, I can assume that I’m probably a liberal or moderate with an appreciation of clever critiques of culture through comedy. I can assume that I’m either impatient, sleep deprived, a bad typer, apathetic or a combination of these based on the numerous spelling typos (spelling mistake). The simple format of the site says that I’m either practical / efficient or that I’m just not familiar enough with html and coding. The point is that a lot of inferences can be extracted from blogs without any sort of explicit biographical information given. As I contribute more and more to this site, a more comprehensive character analysis can be completed, but this still doesn’t create a true correlation between my virtual persona and my actually qualities.

Can the Internet Identity be exploited for both good and bad? Can a connection to the World Wide Web potentially deteriorate someone own personal network? Are there sick individuals and predators lurking on the Internet waiting to take advantage of this opportunity at anonymity? The answers to these and many similar questions are yes, but is this not freedom? To be free from judgments based on uncontrollable genetic components might be very enticing to those who suffering from ‘real-world’ ridicule for being themselves. This may be the first time in someone’s life where they feel comfortable in their own skin. While there are certainly problems with this type of coping, it sure does sound a lot like the freedom from oppression preached by MLK…

So now I’ll go ahead and leave you with my song of the blog: Best Imitation of Myself by Ben Folds Five.
I hope this helps you understand TA Sattler a bit better. It is important to know the author so that you consider the biases and the perspectives I have and how those things might dictate my judgment.

By the way, I hate the game of politics. Even though it’s fascinating from a sociological and psychological perspective, it’s simply disheartening as an American at times seeing the ethics and morals of it all, especially in today’s government where bipartisanship may not be extinct, but is definitely an endangered species. However, you can’t say President Obama’s given up on working across the aisle…
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