Are people really that different from one another? Do people really have huge differences that cause ideological divisions that are difficult to heal? Is this strictly an American characteristic or is it common everywhere? Can those who are divided find common ground or is the chasm too wide and deep?
As we think about the events of yesterday, January 6, 2021, when a mob of terrorists, violent supporters of Trump, stormed our national capitol and took control of the building for a few hours, we wonder why such a thing happened or how it could happen. We also think that everyone should be revolted by this invasion of our capitol building but strangely today a poll of Republicans said that 45 percent of them approved of these illegal acts. Almost half of those who claim to be Republicans think that trespassing into a building where you don’t belong and smashing things and stealing things and vandalizing is acceptable behavior. Is it because it is governmental property and citizens pay for those properties through their taxes that acceptance of the actions was given? Is it because these respondents lack a certain moral compass that the rest of us have which causes us to be repulsed but for them to think it is okay? Or is it because that is the percentage of Republicans who joined the Trump Cult and pledged their loyalty to Trump and will support and defend him even over the love of their country?
I believe that the answer is the latter choice. I think that some people’s lives are so empty and meaningless that they found their meaning by listening to the rantings of a crazy old man who also had little meaning in his life (even though he had all the worldly goods one could desire) so he spread his message of hate and oppression of minorities to this audience of people who were seeking some kind of meaning in life and they responded with loyalty to the one they considered to be their new prophet. I think that their devotion to him that caused them to put aside their own needs in order to attend his rallies and buy his materials to display in their homes and yards and on their cars was done out of a yearning to find meaning in life and since they could not find it in any other source they had explored they found it in the void of meaning expressed by this madman.
This is not a new reality. It has been one that others have chosen to follow in the past. David Koresh took such a group to Waco and they chose to die in a fire rather than to come out and have life. Jim Jones took a group of followers to South America and they drank the infamous kool-aid rather than leave and have a new start. Adolph Hitler preached to the masses in Germany that the Jews were to blame for all the social evils of Germany and the masses followed him to do the evil deeds he wanted done.
There have always been people who have had a lack of meaning in their lives and they have listened to voices that described how they could bring them meaning if they would just follow them. Religious leaders are too numerous to name but each gives people with little meaning a vision of what life could be like if they just follow their commands. Prophets, Seers, Teachers have all led followers and students into paths based upon their ideology. The difference between whether or not the teachings have been instructive has to do with what is being taught. If the thesis is that people should work together, serve each other, love one another, do good deeds for others, then the lives of the followers most often reflect the teachings of the teacher. If, however, the instruction given is to hate those who are different and to oppress the weak and to deny rights to others, then the result is discord and the spread of evil deeds in society.
We have a new start in the United States soon, hopefully. We have a new leader to lead our country in ways that we have not experienced in the last four years. If the majority of Americans can reject the ideology of the past, then perhaps we can turn things around for our country and our world. If those who cannot agree with the new administration can just live their lives in peace and silence then the rest of us can let them be and ignore their continual harping on how they do not agree. We must begin again and let the light shine in the darkness, because only them will evil be overcome. Let the lives of good people be united in a family of hope and kindness and healing for our world and its inhabitants.
