THE VIRAL NATURE OF EVIL MANIFEST AS POLITICAL BULLYING

Politics, religion, news, science, education – the venue does not matter; evil wins every time. The more salacious the content, the more likely it spreads, or maybe “infects” is a better choice in wording. Newspapers have known this for years by luring readers with incendiary or licentious headlines. It is the mainstay of politics. An opposing viewpoint is dismissed in the most derogatory terms, cajoled and mocked until any who hold the opposite viewpoint blush with shame. How incredibly effective this bullying tactic is.

Remember the “spotted owl”? That was a propaganda campaign launched by the timber industry to discredit those who wanted to save the forests. They took one minute detail from among the forest of reasons to curtail clear-cutting and turned it into a national campaign that brought mockery to the entire “save the trees” effort. And those who sought to enlighten others with regard to the delicate balance that constitutes a thriving forest were derided as “treehuggers”.  The nation was once again unevenly divided between those infected with the virus of hatred and those who were not.

The Peace Movement of the ‘60s was boxed up and derailed with a few words, “dirty hippies”. Although peace was ultimately achieved with the conclusion of the Vietnam War, those who were derisively known as “peace-lovers” continued to be dismissed as unbalanced fringe elements. Ponder that for a moment, those who embraced both “peace” and “love” were mocked.

Viruses learn. Viruses adapt. Fast-forward four decades to 2001. After the preventable destruction of the Twin Towers (and building 5), our country was at an impasse.  The issue was not why did this happen, but how to achieve retribution. Vengeance overrode intellect, analysis, investigation. Wanton murder of innocents is universally condemned and perpetrators punished - but this mass murder was accomplished by a clandestine group. How does a nation declare war on a group whose members might be anywhere in the world? One solution might have been to engage with other nations of the world to ferret out the masterminds of 9/11 at the propitious moment when international expressions of condolences were ubiquitous. The solution seized upon, however, was viral, “Shock and Awe”. The loss of American life in 9/11 was requited with the deaths of innocent Iraqis. It was known that those who hijacked the planes that caused the destruction of the Towers were almost all Saudi; yet, somehow, the Iraqis became the targets of our vengeance. Infected minds were convinced that this was an equitable solution. More than a decade later, the true nature of that decision, proclaimed to the world by one who wrapped himself in the flag and religion, would most aptly be termed “evil”, motivated by greed and fueled by a blood lust twisted with religious overtones.  

Viruses don’t intend to destroy the host unless they are in the lysogenic cycle. Viruses in the lytic cycle reside in the host without destroying the host until they enter a lysogenic cycle.  Along with most of the world’s nations, America remained in the Lytic Cycle, harboring the virus of hatred and evil for over two centuries. In 2001, that virus entered the Lysogenic Cycle, during which the virus activates, multiplies, and destroys the host. That is the current state of America. The election of Barack Obama to the presidency in 2008 represented a mass acknowledgement that we were somehow on the brink. That we, as a nation, required strong medicine to destroy the virus before it destroyed us. Barack’s medicine came in the form of hope and promises of change. Three years into his presidency and it is obvious that he, too, is infected. Add to that the virulence of the Republican Party that stands ready to sacrifice America to impede any progress for which a black man in the White House might receive credit. America, on its 236^th birthday, is on its deathbed, about to succumb to the virus that has festered within it since its inception.

Viral hotbeds such as the political party created by the Koch Brothers and Fox News, voter suppression laws, rescinding laws that guaranteed a woman the governance of her own body, political pundits and politicians who lie knowing that there is no media to challenge their lies and also knowing that if you tell a lie often enough, it is perceived as truth – these infections have brought the nation into the Lysogenic Cycle – virused, impacted, filled with such hatred that it will soon burst and unleash the virus to cascade from nation to nation.  The DNA of our democracy has been corrupted, altered, unraveled, and absconded by the viruses that infect it and now rule it.

There are those of us who continue to hope, believing that at some point our numbers will multiply enough to overcome the virus, but time is the deadly determinator. How long can a democracy exist when the leaders forget the simple and most important responsibility of leadership: take care of your people.