Funhouse Mirror

One of the highlights to any stop at the county fair is the fun-house mirror – the one with the warped surface that distorts the reflected image.  

When we look in this mirror, we may recognize ourselves, or at least parts of ourselves, but the proportions are all wrong – the face too fat, the neck to long for a stubby body, or the other way around.  It’s fun to move around and jump in front of it, and laugh at how the distortion moves from one part of our body to another.  

Even as we enjoy it, though, it can be disturbing.  Maybe it accentuates something we are already insecure about – or maybe it makes us aware of something we never noticed before.  The big double chin, or walnut-sized wart, is exaggerated all out of proportion; but mirror or not, it makes us face the reality that we have at least a bit of a double chin or a small wart.  Even a distorted reflection is still a reflection, and it can be haunting.  

In movies or on TV, this self-revelation has been used for dramatic effect.  At a point, a character looks in the distorted mirror and has a Twilight-Zone moment; running blindly from the funhouse – forever changed by the image.   

This year, Donald Trump is our nation’s carnival mirror – particularly for Republicans.  The topics he chooses are familiar; a stronger military, balanced budget, cuts to social programs, fear of immigrants, and the threat of global terrorism.  But when he talks about them … there is just something so exaggerated; so dumbed-down and simplistic.  He is so mean-spirited; we want to deny that his grotesque distorted plans are any kind of reflection of what we actually meant.    

The nice thing about a real funhouse mirror is that when you step away, it’s over, and we return to our normal reality.  For most of us, that’s easy; this man is just a sideshow distraction – a freakish oddity that keeps spouting easily-forgotten headlines.  For Republicans though, it’s different.  Though exaggerated and obnoxious, he is their creation.  He is just echoing back what Republican leaders have been saying—and Republican voters have been rewarding—for years; just slightly exaggerated.  The vitriol that mainstream Republicans direct at minorities and foreigners, he spews wildly in all directions, with no regard to consequences.  

These distortions didn't happen overnight.  The craven vacuousness of Trump and the success of his campaign is the inevitable result of a thirty-year downward spiral in civility and intelligent discussion within the national Republican Party – and the acclimation of their constituents.  For better or worse, what intelligent, decent people, who happen to be Republican, have to face with Donald Trump is this: as bizarre, distorted, and grotesque as is the caricature he reflects, a large constituency within their party's coalition—a coalition they must maintain if they hope to win—looks at this hideous image, they don’t want to turn away and run.  They don’t want to leave the fun-house, because, when they look at this freak-show, they like what they see.

Perpetuation of Conflict

All that is necessary for the perpetuation of conflict is this: during and after each incident, everybody involved focuses only the insult or injury done to them—or the justification for their actions against the other—without considering the context, and while denying the possibility that they might have done anything to initiate or exacerbate the conflict. 

This comes into play in international and sectarian conflicts, within nations and parties, and interactions between authorities and citizens – even among family members.  It helps reinforce our negative perception of the ‘other’.  And, safe within our protective walls of denial, we avoid any unsettling deeper examination of the other side that might trigger our own cognitive dissonance.  

This approach works well for purveyors of guns, drugs, alcohol … and fences.  
  

Foundations: Faith and Governance

Faith and Politics, like two foundations of a colossus, are much more stable when there is space between them!   

Bomb Agrabah!

According to a December poll by Public Policy Polling, 30% of Republican primary voters—and 41% of Donald Trump supporters—are in favor of bombing Agrabah, the fictional country in Disney’s Aladdin. 

These folks are looking for a forward-thinking leader, who will take the fight to the enemy, instead of waiting for a ‘smoking gun’ … a smoking gun that could come in the form of American skies blackened by a massive airborne invasion of parachute-pants-wearing boys, aboard magic carpets. 

In case any of my fellow Democrats are feeling all smug about this, there was an unrelated poll in which  44% of Democrats favor accepting refugees from Agrabah.  

http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/main/2015/12/trump-leads-grows-nationally-41-of-his-voters-want-to-bomb-country-from-aladdin-clinton-maintains-bi.html  

Trump and the Carnival Mirror

If we watch for them, many things occur in our lives and in popular culture that offer an chance for discovery and self-reflection.  The popularity of Donald Trump, I believe is one of these. 

He is, in a way, like one of those weird carnival mirrors.  You look into it, but the image that is reflected back is distorted in a comical, perhaps grotesque way. The proportions are all wrong – the face too fat, the neck to long for a stubby body, or the other way around.  

The carnival mirror has been used as a vehicle in movies and television for the dramatic effect that viewing the distorted image has on the character staring at it.  The character knows it's distorted, but it reveals something disturbing to them about themselves that ends up being pivotal to the plot.  

The comforting thing about a real-life carnival mirror, is that when you walk away from it, you have the assurance that it was indeed a distortion – that it’s not really you.  What decent people, who happen to be Republican, have to face with Donald Trump is that as grotesque, distorted, and mean-spirited as is the caricature represented by his views and his behavior, a decisive component of their party's coalition—a coalition they absolutely need to hold together in order to win—looks at this hideous image … and likes what they see.  

Herd Immunity

In the 1960s, nearly everybody was vaccinated.  Our parents grew up before many of the vaccines we got were even available, and saw the devastation wrought by polio, diphtheria, rubella, mumps, etc.  The people who developed the vaccines that made these diseases and others rare were heroes. 

For a number of reasons in the time since then, people have opted to not be vaccinated against many of these devastating diseases – and in some cases to not vaccinate their children.  They’ve been able to do this with relative impunity because they were protected by ‘herd immunity’; enough of us were vaccinated that, even when the rare person contracted one of these diseases, there wasn’t the reliable chain of contagion required to sustain an epidemic. 

Well, those chickens have come home to roost.  Complacency—combined with traditional beliefs and skepticism for scientific data—have led to increasing numbers of people opting out of immunizations.  Now there are enough gaps in herd immunity that a chain of disease vectors are passing on some of these diseases.  

Curiosity and Wisdom

Curiosity is to knowledge and wisdom what hunger is to good nutrition and physical fitness.  We are driven to satisfy these appetites, but how we do so makes a huge difference.  

When we make sound choices—taking in balanced insights from a variety of healthy sources; slowly savoring each concept, combining this with vigorous, thought-provoking exercise—we build a healthy, strong, mentally fit mind. 

But in our world of the internet, and 24/7 cable news, these healthy choices are hidden within a vast smorgasbord of junk ideas – easily digested, and superficially satisfying, but with little or no real value.  Like junk food, these offer instant gratification – which makes them highly addictive.  But like junk food, they are a poor substitute for a balanced diet of healthy options. 

Once acclimated to a junk diet and mentally sedentary lifestyle, the effort of integrating a healthy diet of more challenging ideas loses its appeal.  Over time, minds develop an intolerance, and lose the ability to digest anything that requires the slightest complex thought or rumination.  

Sunk languidly in their overstuffed easy chairs—wireless remote always within reach, ready to feed the addiction—inertia rules.  The addict becomes lazy, and mentally doughy, easy prey for even the most ludicrous of junk.