elections, safety, love, hysteria, and thoughts about the end of the world

So, here we are. 2017. Donald Trump is somehow the president of the United States and everyone is losing their minds. While I could spend an entire post contemplating how we elected this narcissistic buffoon, I will try to quickly summarize my theory and move on.

Americans are comprised of hundreds of sub groups and demographics with an extremely vast variety of convictions and priorities both political and social. If you think of all of these groups and their interests as little droplets into a humongous funnel with two spouts, that is basically the presidential election. Perhaps, this past year more than ever before. (Third party voters like myself don't even have an outlet/spout/voice). The majority of Americans compromised many of their convictions and priorities in order to avoid going through "the other spout." As a result we have Trump.

As for the reason Trump was even a candidate at all, I blame two things. First, the modern-day career politician. We all know the type (i.e. check this out), people who make a living off of pretending to care about the greater good, then spend the majority of their time and resources eliminating their competition or campaigning for re-election. They come in both flavors, Republican and Democrat, conservative and liberal. Like a cancer slowly eating away at the bones and muscles of the government's ability to do good.

The second thing I would blame is the idol we've made of entertainment and media. We live in a world where we've reduced our reactions to a thumbs up or an angry face emoji and everyone knows and follows the every action of people like Kim Kardashian (female version of Donald Trump without the narcissism and racism). We are the most sophisticated consumers the world has ever seen, yet we have the most primitive taste. We dichotomize everything we interact with. We are in love with judging things/people and labeling them either "I like" or "I don't like." We want to feel better about our own lives and decisions so we watch other people's trainwrecks for entertainment. Trump is the embodiment of this terrible habit that we are all guilty of.

Anyhow, moving on. I wanted to briefly touch on this Syrian refugee crisis and the Trump "Immigration Ban." My primary comment on this is about our obsession with safety. As Americans we have come to consider safety a "right." We enjoy comforts, luxuries, and conveniences that would be considered science fiction in many parts of the world. We drive on fancy paved roads, in fancy cruise controlled (even self driving) cars with air bags and insurance. We lock our doors and turn on our security systems and set up video camera monitoring systems and we attempt to make our world "safe" to live in. We build walls around what we hold dear. We clench our fists around our phones and wallets. We cross the street when we are approached by panhandlers. Maybe we pay them a dollar to go away, or maybe we pretend not to notice them. When we are feeling particularly charitable we may go to a shelter and help feed some homeless people, but we would never invite them into our home for dinner. We want to solve people's problems without feeling their pain, without knowing their stories. Compassion without connection is just self-righteousness in a costume.
So it is no surprise to me that our safety worshiping America has, under the guise of "national security," justified closing its doors to refugees and immigrants from troubled places. By making the issue about "safety" and "security" we have justified our selfishness. "My life is more important than theirs."

All that being said, I want to be clear, I am just as guilty as the next person when it comes to prioritizing and even worshiping "safety." And I am ashamed. I believe that the love and worship of "safety" is deeply rooted in fear, and I believe, like Yoda, that fear is a catalyst to hate. Anger, malice, envy, greed, insecurity, and hatred are all rooted in fear. To counter fear, we must begin with listening to understand rather than respond. We have to learn to empathize rather than assume. We must stand up for those who can't stand up for themselves and those will never stand up for us. The love I'm talking about is not afraid of being taken advantage of. This is the selfless and contagious love that does not expect anything in exchange for its sacrifice, but merely produces more love.