Deep Thoughts
Or maybe not that deep, but some things I have been pondering.
I'm back in the office two days a week now. Kevin has a small rolling carryon bag that I have been using to tote my laptop back and forth. It's working well. I'm happy to be able to socialize with people again. Also, it gives me some new places to take my lunchtime walks.
The pain is still there. I am getting more range of motion. I had a tough week in PT last week, but over the weekend, I started to feel the positive effects from it. This is the week I start adding weight to my exercises. I have one more month of PT scheduled. I'm wondering if the doctor will prescribe any more. Part of me feels I won't be ready in a month to be fully mobile again. Part of me dreads the cost.
I am a little surprised with myself about how I am neglecting my LiveJournal/Dreamwidth journal. I love to talk about myself. I also love reading about other people. That made me think about something.
When I was a kid, I loved the concept of "spying" on people. I loved it when I thought I could get away with watching people unseen. I'm not sure what I thought I would see or find out. I merely loved knowing I could learn things about people without them knowing. That's why I have always loved reading people's blogs - friends or strangers. It's why I sometimes find myself drawn to celebrity gossip even if the celebrities are people whose body of work I don't follow. I look up people and cyberstalk them (is it legally considered stalking if you never contact your targets or use the information you find against them?) That's why I'm a little surprised I not only haven't been posting much here, but that I am neglecting the reading pages as well. I don't feel like I'm spying on my online friends, but I am gleaning the stories of humanity, seeing the world through other eyes, taking that virtual peek into someone else's life (even though it's not exactly clandestine given my journaling friends have invited me to do it).
I think some of it has to do with the fact that I'm becoming lazy about reading. I am more likely to watch YouTube these days and passively be fed stories than sit and read. I have trouble focusing on novels these days as well. The internet is spoiling me.
Anyway, on to another topic...
Has anyone here read the book, or seen the Afterschool Special The Wave? It's based on a true story about a high school experiment in totalitarianism gone wrong. A history teacher is giving a lesson on Hitler and a student asks how someone like Hitler could come to power. The teacher decides to try a little experiment. He starts enforcing certain disciplinary measures in class. He doesn't do anything cruel, but he creates codes of conduct the students must follow. To their surprise, they like the way it helps them focus. The next day he creates a movement he calls The Wave. It's a new movement based on the new disciplinary principles. It creates a sense of community among the classmates. He creates membership cards and a special salute for Wave members. He designates certain students as "enforcers" who report any deviant behavior.
It doesn't take long for the movement to take a hold of the school. Everyone wants to be part of it. The Wave gives them a sense of purpose and belonging. It creates a feeling of equality among students. However, it also creates and "in" group who wants to punish and exclude outsiders and dissidents. The students who begin to realize how dangerous The Wave has become have their friends turn against them when they speak out.
Isn't this a lot like what is happening in the US right now with MAGA? It has created an in-group. More importantly, it creates an out-group. So many Trump supporters are people who feel marginalized. Trump supporters love to "own the libs" as if people who think differently from them are the ones who marginalized them in the first place (rather than placing the blame where it belongs on corporate interests, corporate greed, and money in government). MAGA appeals to bullies, but it also appeals to the bullied. One would think people who were bullied - the nerds and rejects of the world - would be turned off by Trump, but apparently they want to side with the strongman. They believe Trump will help them take revenge on anyone who ever hurt them.
The aspect of The Wave that resonated with me was the subplot demonstrating how these movements make the weak feel strong. Robert, the class loser, the marginalized and bullied guy who was always walking in his brother's shadow, was one of the Wave monitors. The bullied boy became the bully as it was his duty to report students who weren't falling in line. For the first time in his life, people had to listen to him. When The Wave collapsed after the teacher told the student body how the experiment proved how easy it was for Hitler to come to power, Robert was devastated. He lost the community that supported him. He knew the next day he would go back to being the nerd.
I see so much of that among my MAGA friends and acquaintances. They love being mean. They love the feeling of superiority they think Donald Trump gives them. They feel strong for the first time in their lives because they can now shout at "the enemy" online. Sometimes they don't keep it online.
I really hope we stop the MAGA movement before it gets out of control and fascism comes to this country "wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross."