The Danger of Reactionaries
Why are we letting the reactionaries have so much power right now?
Politics and religion in particular are both currently being attacked by reactionaries – and they seem to be winning. And this makes no sense at all.
What does it mean to be reactionary? Dictionary.com says this:
re·ac·tion·ar·y (adjective)
1. of, pertaining to, marked by, or favoring reaction, especially extreme
conservatism or rightism in politics; opposing political or social change.
This covers a lot of politics and religion at the moment. Pick a topic – gay marriage, censorship, propaganda, global warming, health care reform, taxes…every one of these topics has someone screaming about the evil of change, the immoral, or the unacceptable. Unbelievable laws are getting onto the books, violating hard-won rights because a group of people with an agenda and obscene amounts of funding are gaining power and control.
Don’t believe me? Look at the law inArizonaallowing employers to deny health insurance, or even employment, if a woman takes birth control. Look at the states passing bans on gay marriage. Look at the attack on equality happening against women and their bodies all over the country. Look at the Taliban and their interpretation of Islamic law. Look at the fundamental Christians, trying to tell us that even though Christ preached tolerance, we should be intolerant of those who do not worship him.
It began with anti-intellectualism. Teaching “intelligent design” rather than evolution. Meritocracy replaced by mediocrity. Political correctness. Laws in the name of protecting our children, our schools, our ‘freedoms’. And now here we are, living in a country where issues many thought dealt with and left forty years in the past are resurfacing, and getting attention like never before.
Women fought for equality and got it (arguably, to a point). Non-white-skinned people fought for equality, and got it (also, arguably, to a point). Now its homosexuals fighting the same fight…but they are not alone. Suddenly, issues dealt with decades ago are coming back up, and laws are being passed that violate privacy, the body of the individual, and even constitutionally protected rights. And that’s just American politics.
How did it come to this? How did these unreasonable, totally backwards notions gain any traction? How can they be debating laws to forbid scientific pursuits and laws violating the rights of women to control their own bodies? What happened?
Two things. Fear and complacency. And the two combined have become a dangerous weapon, being used to threaten the very fabric of what makes us the “land of the free.”
Fear has been used to pass all sorts of laws in the name of “homeland security”. Fear continues to be used to keep taxes unbalanced, to fight wars outside our borders, and to gain and keep power for individuals.
Complacency has occurred because we’ve let the system self-perpetuate. We allow the two parties to maintain their strangle hold on our government, and together they strive to hold onto their own power, to get constantly reelected, and to kowtow to their corporate overlords in the interests of their funding. And rather than demand term limits, an end to the electoral college, or find more appropriate people to put in office, we just let the cycle go on and on.
But somewhere along the way, through their sabre-rattling and fear-mongering, special interests gained power where they stand in small but loud and well-funded minorities. Reactionaries, selling visions of a bygone era where the world was a simpler, safer, happier place (that never actually existed) have begun to get their agendas through.
Maybe it’s always been this way, and we only know it more now because of the immediacy of the internet…but I don’t think that’s the case. Constantly we are getting wind of restrictive, unfortunate laws getting passed, denying marriage, denying medical coverage, denying voting rights, segmenting and dividing our society further and further.
This has to stop. We have to do something about this.
Take a look at this situation, and ask yourself if you can just let it be, or if you need to do something about it. Because if we don’t take action soon, we will actually find ourselves in the police state these reactionaries claim they are trying to prevent – when, in fact, they are actually trying to create it.
A bill was signed into law allowing for indefinite detention for any suspected of terrorist or anti-American acts. By putting this out there on the internet, I have to wonder how much I risk being arrested someday. Maybe at the moment it’s nothing but a vague threat – but how long before those in power decide to use this to their advantage? How long until they silence a free-thinker like me for suggesting that the government is broken and must be fixed or replaced?
I am not paranoid – but I am not delusional, either. Look at some of what is going on out there, really take a look at it – and if you can convince me otherwise, I’ll appreciate it.
I am urging you to pay attention, and to stop ignoring what is going on – and fight back against the reactionary actions occurring out there. Your freedom may not be threatened by it yet…but let it gain more traction, and it will be.
Believe me – I hope I am wrong. I don’t want to make anyone out there afraid – this is not about fear. I want people to be aware. I want to see those who become aware spread the awareness. And maybe we can gain traction of our own, and end these reactionary acts…before our liberty, our freedom, our “American way” is truly lost.
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