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THE VIEW FROM HERE - In the midst of an acute crisis such as the failure of a few banks, people have trouble focusing on the chronic ills.
All societies operate on the basis of shared myths and when a nation ceases to join in the same myths, it disintegrates. Socrates and other classical political philosophers believed that society had to be based upon lies because the average person lacked the intellect and/or moral fiber to handle the truth. Thus, the role of government was to promulgate lies which, if believed, would cause the population to behave properly. Faith based religion became the main depository of Western myths.
Some faiths believe that it has exclusive lock on the Truth and thus, it divides the world into the holy and evil. In order to be saved, all one had to do is have faith in the myth. When reality showed that the myth was fallible, facts were to be rejected. In fact, persistent belief in the myths over facts is the best the way the faithful could prove their holiness. Because this thought pattern is transferable to other situations, the Fundamentalists believe whatever Trump says and rejects facts as lies.
The Declaration of Independence Rejected The Old Order
The Declaration rejected the old order and based the nation on two new myths: (1) the inalienable rights of each individual, and (2) the role of government was to protect those rights within the context of the common welfare. For this reason, the Constitution excised religion from government. Christianity was the prototype religion based the faith that it alone knew the Truth and all others were infidels. Christianity is a subset of a larger destructive myth of ascriptive Group Rights, i.e., that one group merits special privileges while all others deserve special liabilities. Wokeism is the movement which presently is the main proponent of this Group Rights belief, e.g., Blacks have special rights today based upon prior bad acts of others.
Power Tends to Corrupt and Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely
Although Lord Acton wrote these words in 1887 about 100 years after the Declaration and the US Constitution, they encapsulate a basic premise of both documents. In a nation composed of many different backgrounds, there are two ways to govern: (1) By consensus from the center or (2) By force from one extreme. When society is polarized, each side fervently believes that when it gains enough power, it can vanquish the other. Moreover, extremists, who are certain that their way is the only true, right and holy way, see extermination of the opposition as a necessary to their obtaining the power to impose their will upon everyone.
Recognizing this evil, the Constitution balanced power against power so that the government would be forced to come to a consensus among many different factions. While the center might make a wrong conclusion, that possibility was far less lethal than polarization which would tear the nation asunder.
In Our Time, We Have Wokeism
Although the crusades were phrased in terms of Christianity over Islam, their goals were purely secular to enhance the power and wealth of European kings and the Church in Rome. Likewise, today Wokeism is a mythology for Alt Left Dems to seize power on the basis of Group Rights, e.g., certain individuals have been so badly treated in the past, they now merit special privileges and others deserve correspondingly liabilities. Any disparity in outcomes between the two arbitrarily defined groups can have but one cause, i.e., White racism. Despite actual White racism, this myth is fundamentally false. Nonetheless, for Wokers facts play no role, and as with the Crusades, the myth is all powerful. Los Angeles disproves the myth that Los Angeles Blacks lack adequate political representation, and thus they, merit special privileges including reparations. San Francisco is ahead of Los Angeles in this regard with the proposal to give each Black descended from a slave $5 Millions. Despite the fact that Blacks are over represented on the city council, the myth of lack of Black representation has become the myth that three Mexican City Councilmembers were anti-Black, and thus, they should be banished. In 1096 similar thinking lead Crusade leader Count Emicho to massacre Jews in Rhineland. The murder of Jews during the Crusades is far worse that the present defamation of the three councilmembers, but the psychological mechanism is the same. Craven power-mongers use vicious slander to cancel their opponents. Cancel Culture and actual mass murder are rooted in the same psychology.
Virtually everyone jumped on the bandwagon that Nury Martinez, Gil Cedillo, and Kevin de Leon are anti-Black racists, just as villagers believed that Jews were poisoning the wells during the post Crusades Bubonic Plague (mid 1300's). Two big differences: (1) Except for Trump, our cancel culture has not reached the level of urging murder, (2) The audio tape proves the councilmembers said nothing anti-Black.
The Facts Which All Woker Los Angeles Ignores
(1) None of the councilmembers said anything anti-Black. Nury related a story how Bonin’s son was hyper active on the Martin Luther Day parade float. She laid the fault on the lax child rearing practices of Whites, and not on the fact Bonin’s kid is Black. In fact, the tape proved that the three councilmembers were trying to help the Black candidates.
(2) The tape was released and promoted to the general public for the purpose to obtain votes in the city mayoral election by turning Hispanic voters against Karen Bass who is Black.
(3) Blacks were proportionally over-represented in the city council and Hispanics were under-represented. Under Woke proportional representation, Blacks had 3 seats but merited one, but Hispanics had 4 seats but merited seven.
(4) There are more important factors in the Black economic condition that White racism.
Locus of Control and The Peer Group
Certain groups have succeeded in America: Jews, Armenians, Asians being the three most obvious in Los Angeles. They share two cultural features. (1) Locus of Control rests inside the group, (2) their teenage peer group supports education and mutual cooperation without internecine violence.
Wokeism, on the other hand, promotes two harmful features in the Black community. (1) The locus of control rests outside of Blacks, by ascribing all Black problems to White racism. (2) Black teenage peer groups divide into murderous gangs and victimize even those Blacks who wish to avoid the gang life. The few acceptable avenues such rape music and basketball stardom are also insidiously detrimental. There are far too few slots for rap or basketball stars to bring general economic prosperity to Blacks. While the Black political leaders lobby for night lights for basketball courts, Armenians children have Armenian school to attend.
Wokeism is the Current Evil Myth
There are other pernicious myths, but presently the one causing the greatest harm is Wokeism. Generally, Blacks have gone from being most noted for overcoming adversity to the myth of their being the most helpless group. Marva Collins was not Woke.
(Richard Lee Abrams has been an attorney, a Realtor and community relations consultant as well as a CityWatch contributor. You may email him at [email protected]. The opinions expressed by Mr. Abrams are not necessarily those of CityWatchLA.com.)
