When the Blind Lead the Blind
There may be no better example of the disconnect between ideology and reality than the Michael Brown shooting. The Holder Justice Department concluded that all of the credible evidence, both forensic and eye witness, supported Officer Darren Wilson's version of events. Notice the word “credible” as an qualifier in the last sentence. This issue of which witnesses were credible and which ones weren't, was adjudicated by the same Justice department that looked at the evidence after the trial. They also concluded that the grand jury acted correctly, finding no “credible” evidence to the contrary.
Here's the problem; if you have no idea who Eric Holder is, you have no meaningful insight into his background, you have no idea what the Justice department does, or how evidence is deemed to be credible, but, you have theories based on selective bits and pieces of information filtered through the popular media, the truth, then—whatever that might be—can be anything you want it to be.
Leaving me with the question; Why do people take sides when they don't have all the facts?
The answer may be as simple as this; people take sides because they have preconceived beliefs. And, their beliefs shape the way they interpret evidence. Which evidence is selected and why, is a filter, based on what they believe to be important. Religion is a filter. So is race, sex, sexual orientation, class, education and ethnicity, even popular culture, in all it's permutations, is a way filtering which information people see as valuable. It is a world, where thousands, maybe millions of world-views compete for space in the public consciousness.
The real problem begins when we suggest that all individual perspectives are equally meritorious. Then, these competing world-views take on new and powerful meaning. Suddenly, people who saw no distinctions and had no grievances, find them buried so deeply, they didn't even know they had them. And, in all probability, they didn't.
This is how you divide and conquer a people without ever firing a shot. You simply set neighbor against neighbor by telling them that they benefit by being different. Then, they have a powerful incentive to be different, elevating their differences, celebrating them, worshiping them. The more different, the better. No more E Pluribus Unum! Meaning: “One From Many.” That is replaced by ever-diminishing filters that parse distinctions like grains of sand. And, with each distinctive new category, benefits accrue. Americans are sliced and dissected along every line, class, race, gender, education, ethnicity, on and on.
Who are the real beneficiaries of this newly divide world? Our leaders, but that goes without saying. It will be politicians and bureaucrats, acting as referees, that will hold all the power, since the referee must have the necessary power to mediate all disputes. No one will say this directly. Instead, they'll talk about fairness and justice in the abstract. Not blind justice, but willful, race conscious justice, economic justice, gender justice, sexual preference justice, ad infinitum.
If, in the end, Eric Holder's Justice Department couldn't deny the evidence in the Michael Brown case, they will get around it by citing systemic racism in local government. The solution will require even more government, of course. Wherever government fails, more government is always needed. And where that government fails, yet again, more of the same will be the only solution considered.
I have no doubt that racism is an issue in Ferguson. I also have no doubt that government played a vital role in the process, since the police are the government. Giving greater power, to what is already the most powerful institution on earth, then, hardly seems a reasonable. But, it will be the only outcome possible in a country where the deaf, dumb and blind lead the way, based solely on the evidence they choose to see.
Mark Magula
Here's the problem; if you have no idea who Eric Holder is, you have no meaningful insight into his background, you have no idea what the Justice department does, or how evidence is deemed to be credible, but, you have theories based on selective bits and pieces of information filtered through the popular media, the truth, then—whatever that might be—can be anything you want it to be.
Leaving me with the question; Why do people take sides when they don't have all the facts?
The answer may be as simple as this; people take sides because they have preconceived beliefs. And, their beliefs shape the way they interpret evidence. Which evidence is selected and why, is a filter, based on what they believe to be important. Religion is a filter. So is race, sex, sexual orientation, class, education and ethnicity, even popular culture, in all it's permutations, is a way filtering which information people see as valuable. It is a world, where thousands, maybe millions of world-views compete for space in the public consciousness.
The real problem begins when we suggest that all individual perspectives are equally meritorious. Then, these competing world-views take on new and powerful meaning. Suddenly, people who saw no distinctions and had no grievances, find them buried so deeply, they didn't even know they had them. And, in all probability, they didn't.
This is how you divide and conquer a people without ever firing a shot. You simply set neighbor against neighbor by telling them that they benefit by being different. Then, they have a powerful incentive to be different, elevating their differences, celebrating them, worshiping them. The more different, the better. No more E Pluribus Unum! Meaning: “One From Many.” That is replaced by ever-diminishing filters that parse distinctions like grains of sand. And, with each distinctive new category, benefits accrue. Americans are sliced and dissected along every line, class, race, gender, education, ethnicity, on and on.
Who are the real beneficiaries of this newly divide world? Our leaders, but that goes without saying. It will be politicians and bureaucrats, acting as referees, that will hold all the power, since the referee must have the necessary power to mediate all disputes. No one will say this directly. Instead, they'll talk about fairness and justice in the abstract. Not blind justice, but willful, race conscious justice, economic justice, gender justice, sexual preference justice, ad infinitum.
If, in the end, Eric Holder's Justice Department couldn't deny the evidence in the Michael Brown case, they will get around it by citing systemic racism in local government. The solution will require even more government, of course. Wherever government fails, more government is always needed. And where that government fails, yet again, more of the same will be the only solution considered.
I have no doubt that racism is an issue in Ferguson. I also have no doubt that government played a vital role in the process, since the police are the government. Giving greater power, to what is already the most powerful institution on earth, then, hardly seems a reasonable. But, it will be the only outcome possible in a country where the deaf, dumb and blind lead the way, based solely on the evidence they choose to see.
Mark Magula