I remember going to a Wednesday evening get-together at a church I used to attend, and they were showing an old clip of the Andy Griffith show–which shows how much people can change if chosen. Part of the clip included a police officer trying to arrest someone for doing something wrong, and then afterwards, repeating the behavior. The citizen started making a citizens’ arrest to the cheers of the crowd who had just been cheering for the officer, and then the “hero” Andy Griffith rides to the rescue and admonishes his deputy while all the white faces around me smiled. While the associate pastor had been teaching something else, the only thing that scene taught me was that people can do horrible things as long as they have enough support, a fact that has been amplified throughout this season.
People have incorrectly assumed that “democracy” just means being able to win an argument because enough people agree with a particular side, conveniently forgetting about the education. Unfortunately, they have convinced the majority of the population that being charismatic and popular are the same thing as leadership. Consequently, we now have a bunch of mobs running around the empire using whatever they want to harm whomever they want, and the only result has been a consistent stream of violence, including the violence of starvation, unemployment, and homelessness. This is not popular opinion but a form of gangstalking that punishes those who refuse to agree.
Meanwhile, because those same people have decided that certain people deserve harm and have convinced enough other people, there has been unmitigated harm against people whose only crime was existing as the target others aimed at us. I have learned the hard way this year that all the hosts of the World Cup have horrendous racial records, and more people are starting to point this out without apology. There is no point in lying for cruel people anymoreAll the beneficiaries and sycophants who have excused this behavior are just as guilty because they never bothered to examine what was being said before acknowledging that a lot of people were saying the same thing.
Without proper information and reasonable expectations of disagreement, “majority rule” is simply mob rule with a smile. None of the other people in the church smiled when I said that because they recognized that popularity is not a moral high ground. Saying, “A bunch of people agree with me” is actually a narcissistic argument, and has nothing to do with reality. In reshaping the world, it would serve people well to consider that “a lot of people” is not “a lot of integrity.”
Chasing A Dying Empire 